Plants, People, Science
Horticultural science is the only discipline that incorporates both the science and aesthetics of plants. It is the science and art of producing edible fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, and ornamental plants, improving and commercializing them. Plants, People, Science, a podcast by the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS), will bring you the recent advancements in science, technology, innovation, development, and education for economically important horticultural crops and plants. Each episode features an interview with an American Society for Horticultural Science member, a discussion of their current work in the field, and the story behind their research. ASHS members focus on practices and problems in horticulture: breeding, propagation, production and management, harvesting, handling and storage, processing, marketing and use of horticultural plants and products. In this podcast, you will hear from diverse members across the horticultural community - scientists, educators, students, landscape and turf managers, government, extension agents, and industry professionals.
Plants, People, Science
The Art of Teaching: Dr. Chad Miller's Innovative Classroom Trade Shows
Dr. Chad Miller from Colorado State University shares his innovative approach to teaching horticulture through a classroom trade show format that transforms traditional plant identification courses into engaging, multidimensional learning experiences. As the 2024 ASHS Outstanding Undergraduate Educator award winner, he discusses how he combines plant knowledge with professional skill development to prepare students for success beyond the classroom.
• Creating a trade show environment where students showcase plant knowledge creatively
• Moving beyond memorization to develop professional communication skills
• Using peer evaluation to help students learn to give and receive constructive feedback
• Approaching teaching as scholarship worthy of research and publication
• Balancing high expectations with understanding of students' complex lives
• Finding joy in seeing students succeed professionally
• Establishing a classroom culture where it's safe to not know and to learn from mistakes
To read more about Dr. Miller's teaching approach, check out his award-winning paper "Classroom Trade Show: An Alternative to Traditional Classroom Presentations in an Undergraduate Plant Identification Course" in HortTechnology. If you're interested in teaching innovations in horticulture, consider joining the ASHS Teaching Methods Interest Group.
Learn more about the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) at https://ashs.org/.
HortTechnology, HortScience and the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science are all open-access and peer-reviewed journals, published by the American Society of Horticultural Science (ASHS). Find them at journals.ashs.org.
Consider becoming an ASHS member at https://ashs.org/page/Becomeamember!
You can also find the official webpage for Plants, People, Science at ashs.org/plantspeoplesciencepodcast, and we encourage you to send us feedback or suggestions at https://ashs.org/webinarpodcastsuggestion.
Podcast transcripts are available at https://plantspeoplescience.buzzsprout.com.
On LinkedIn find Sam Humphrey at linkedin.com/in/samson-humphrey. Curt Rom is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/curt-rom-611085134/. Lena Wilson is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lena-wilson-2531a5141/.
Thank you for listening!
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Our guest today is ASHS member Dr Chad Miller from Colorado State University. He's an associate professor who has a multidisciplinary research program related to landscape and greenhouse plant production. We chose to interview him because he's one of the ASHS's 2024 career award winners, meaning he was recognized for his outstanding contributions in his field. We also wanted to talk with Chad because he writes many papers and hosts conference workshops and frequently speaks on how we can be better teachers for horticulture students. Let's give this interview a listen. Good morning, Dr Miller. Thank you for joining us.
Chad Miller:Thanks, glad to be here. This is exciting.
Samson Humphrey:For our listeners. Could you please introduce yourself?
Chad Miller:Yes, I'm Dr Chad Miller. I'm an associate professor at Colorado State University.
Samson Humphrey:What do you do there?
Chad Miller:Lots of things depending on the day, right? So I have a three-way appointment. If we think academically, I have a research, teaching and extension appointment, basically about even across the board, and so not only do I teach research and extension, but embedded in that is the director of the trial garden. So CSU has a pretty large, prominent trial garden and I'm the director of that as well.
Samson Humphrey:So the reason we reached out to you is because the ASHS has a very robust awards program that recognizes the best publications in our journals in multiple disciplines and recently you received an award for the outstanding education Journal publication from the ASHS. So we're really excited to read this paper and do you think you could describe what it was about?
Chad Miller:Yes, yes, sure, sam. So, yes, I was pleasantly surprised, honestly, to have received that. So it's a great honor to be recognized with I know others who have won it and to be able to be recognized on their level. So the paper was related to some work that I had done at K-State and it's transferring over here to Colorado State. So, as I had mentioned, I teach ID courses and I work on, you know, additional skills in the classroom besides just plant identification skills, but some of the soft skills, if you will like making presentations and conversational skills and critical thinking, of course, and so the paper focuses on developing student trade shows, right, and so I have this.
Chad Miller:Several ideas that kind of came together. So where's the trade show part fit in? Well, I remember going to like Cultivate or other trade shows and as a student you'd be walking around, you're trying to absorb information, and I always felt sort of awkward because they'll see your name badge and it says students, so I'm not necessarily their customer, I'm not going to be giving them money, so it's. I found it awkward and I'm pretty personable, I think um found it awkward to like enter in a conversation with somebody at a trade show and then like try to leave the conversation. So I was like that always kind of made a challenge for me. So that's the trade show side. And I was like we're doing these presentations in class. Like I always like students, so I obviously pick the plants in the class, but I want students to also engage and so there might be a plant that they are really interested in and would like to share with the class.
Chad Miller:And so one of the first couple of semesters that I was teaching it was for 375 landscape plants too we did a very typical like all right, I want you to pick your genus. I opened it pretty wide pick a genus. It didn't have to be a specific, you know genus specific. Up that very narrow, I said pick a genus, um, and it didn't have to necessarily be you know one that would grow in Kansas. I really just wanted people to be appreciative plants. So they picked this genus and they would do a very typical like paper on it and then they would give a standup presentation in front of the class.
Chad Miller:You know like a 10, 12 minute with three minutes of question, very similar to, you know, a professional sort of talk. Well, in a class of about 48 or 50, that gets to be a lot of presentations and in one class period, you know, you know, if you're lucky, you get through six or seven, if, if, if, you have a lot of questions, and so that carried on for almost three weeks, you know, and that gets to be burdensome. So I got brainstormed. I was like, well, what if we like combine the trade show sort of a thing? And I had a couple uh, I had a good TA at the time and we, we brainstormed it and the idea was, well, they could still pick their genus, but let's work on some of these other skills of like entering into conversation and making time management, making sure you get around the room. So we could actually do in one class period like eight or 10 students and they and they get creative.
Chad Miller:I usually have creativity as a major component to all my courses. I want people to really use their creativity, whatever that means to them. And so we still got, you know, they still picked the genus and they still did the report on it. But then they had to create like a trade show display and try to quote, unquote, sell their product which selling it was just talking about their product to their colleagues that would, you know, meander around the classroom and look at their posters or their booth, if you will, um, and I always tried to encourage them to. I would help them get plants if they needed. You know, um, uh, displays or um, you know, I had students that would create like cake pops for Allium. Right, they'd dress them up and look like Allium.
Chad Miller:So that was kind of the thinking behind. It was like all right, so we could work on some of these soft skills. We could work on still presenting information, but in a whole different, not the typical in front of the classroom. You know, after the first group of them are over, people are now bored with it. So and so we implemented it and it was very well received, and so that's where we decided to take data and student perceptions on it.
Chad Miller:Did they like this kind of format? Did they feel like they still learned as much as they would with a traditional sort of presentation? So we implemented that several years and, depending on the year, if we could get another, I had other faculty walk by the classroom from other departments and go what's going on in here? And they would just stop and look around and I would invite another faculty or classes and they could experience the student presentations as well. So that's, that's kind of the the gist of the paper.
Chad Miller:And man, there were some students that just got all creative like built small fences, just like you would think in a trade show, right, like they built a really cool display and, and, and then, uh, and then of course there were others that it was a simple poster board and that's fine, um, but they, they were great and actually a small, a smaller portion of their grade was was on creativity. Some of them would just do a, you know, a straight up poster board display and if, if it wasn't colorful, um, and and as creative, they just didn't get the highest score, but it wouldn't ever break their grade per se. I didn't want that to be the major factor. I wanted them to learn about plants.
Curt Rom:Quite frankly, it's a very intriguing teaching technique and learning technique. So you know, commonly I think in horticulture and a lot of our technical and science disciplines, we're very driven by the content. You have to know the content, you have to know the plants. But it seems that you have introduced some other really important learning objectives and learning outcomes. So, again, if you had to kind of describe that, what would you and how would you prioritize the learning outcomes or learning objectives that you have for this particular exercise? Obviously, content knowing the plants, you said, is part of it. But you've given some of the other criteria. Now I have a follow up question as well.
Chad Miller:Yes, yes. So I would say a couple of the other learning outcomes from this. So, as the presenter, they would, they would, um, do professionalism right. They would have to look professional, they'd have to be able to talk to their audience. In this whole time I was going around assessing them on their presentation skills. So it paralleled very similar to the, to the typical, you know, in front of the classroom. A second outcome was peer review Right, so we do it sometimes when students are sitting there just observing up front, but every student actually had to go around to every booth and evaluate their colleagues, and then I would collect those and the colleagues would see them anonymously what their colleagues were saying. So, in that terms, evaluation, self-evaluation, but also responding to others' evaluation was part of the learning outcome here, and then the creativity side of it. So there were several factors that came out of this that were not necessarily a typical just straight run classroom sort of approach to it.
Curt Rom:Yeah, it sounds very multidimensional, which I think is probably what distinguishes you as a faculty member and a quality professor, teaching, instructor, that you're not just driving in. You need to know 210 Latin names, right, but these other skills that actually are going to make your students employable and functional professionals.
Chad Miller:Yes, yes, the thing I would add to that, and so several of the things that I've published or, you know, done like scholarship of teaching and learning, on again having the heavy concentration on identification courses have always, you know, many of you have probably had them right and you just mentioned, you know, knowing Latin and spelling for a couple hundred plants.
Chad Miller:It can get very monotonous very quickly in the course and it becomes sort of that almost well, not almost for many becomes a rote memorization.
Chad Miller:It moves from learning to memorization and we lose some of that ability in there, and so it's taken me a while.
Chad Miller:Actually I've moved away from quantity to more of the quality and I might hear from some of our listeners about this, but I will certainly enter in the conversation about it actually learn and be able to use other learning techniques, the creativity, then amassing a number of plants and moving to that more memorization side, and so that, coupled with getting making the class more interesting, right, because you can easily get towards the middle of semester and as you keep learning this, it becomes very cyclical, and so I was always looking for those other ways to implement projects or other learning styles that we're still learning about plants or learning about morphology or families or whatever it might be, but also not doing the same thing over. And I might inject here, like I like having fun in the classroom actually, and I think all too often we lose sight of having a more relaxed, fun atmosphere, which I think helps with that, with an ID course, especially as we really get into the trenches of the semester.
Curt Rom:Yeah, you know, I agree with that. You know, my own philosophy is is that if learning is not enjoyable and it's force feeding, uh it, you know it really does need to be enjoyable. Let me have one more follow up question, samson, and I'll let you. I can see you have got some questions too. Uh, so you mentioned that you have peer review. The students are actually evaluating themselves. I assume you give them some kind of a rubric. How do they deal with that? I mean, I think in my experience peer evaluation is something students almost they're a little intimidated about. How do you approach it so that it becomes meaningful for both the evaluator as well as the student that's being evaluated?
Chad Miller:Yep. No, that's a great question, kurt. It can be awkward and it can be challenging and it can be frustrating. It can be enjoyable all the feelings and I think for me, as I found my way through the activity, doing it a few times.
Chad Miller:Yes, we gave a rubric. It was a basic, you know, one through five sort of rating system of like what is poor versus what is really good. And so, before we even entered into the you know the actual trade shows, you know commencing we did go through the rubric. I shared the you know the slips that they would all be evaluating on and tried to give them ideas of what a zero means or zero, or one or a five means and the why. And I approach this the same way as I do teaching evaluations with students in some level of constructive criticism.
Chad Miller:Constructive feedback is going to be extremely helpful for not only the party you're giving it to, but for yourself throughout the rest of your life, right, whether it's in your job, at home or whatever you're doing. Like it's fine to have a thoughtful opinion. And if you didn't like it, why didn't you like it? Or what was it about it that was so good, right? Like, give us some of the nuts and bolts, the whys and the hows or what it was. Just don't say it was really bad or it was really good. That doesn't help the presenter, it doesn't help you.
Chad Miller:And and help them to think through that when they're grading it or when they're looking at that, that trade show booth like what is it, what is it that? That helps you learn at that booth, kind of a thing, right? So, um, and I think it's one of those things that just students don't get that much experience with. So when they do have to do this critiquing and criticism of others, it's hard for them to do sometimes, and I think sometimes you just have to put the give them the guard rail rails and tell them it's okay to, you know, pick something apart but be constructive about it. Give, give the person that will see your, your, your information, a reason and an ability to get better, or an ability or reason to pat themselves on the back why they did a good job, kind of a thing. And I think, more often than not, students really rose to the occasion and actually did provide thoughtful comments on their own.
Samson Humphrey:And they've learned to hear and accept criticism too, and they know that it's constructive criticism because you've made such a space for it on in my career.
Chad Miller:This was probably you know, chipping my teeth at and, and and sort of a challenge. But now, every time I start class in the semester, I try to set the space, uh, what, what the space looks like in my classroom, in my lab, and, uh, and, and students will. Whoever have a class you know previous semester and then take, they see some of the same beginning slides in the semester. But I always put up a slide that says I don't know, you know, like IDK, and I always have a big, a big symbol of wrong written on on a slide because I let the students know. I will actually be pretty straightforward and say no, that's a wrong answer, straight out, straight out of my mouth, and um, or if they ask me a question and I really don't know, I will say I don't know.
Chad Miller:But based on you know, thinking about this, I really try to create the culture, create the space that we are in a learning environment. And if they already knew it, they probably wouldn't be sitting in my class to begin with. Um, and if I already knew it I might have a bigger, better paying job. I don't know. But I try to create that space that we're here to learn and it's okay to have that ability to criticize, constructively criticize and also receive it scholarship of teaching and learning and your philosophy of it.
Samson Humphrey:I've had several really amazing professors over the years and they're incredible, but I don't think it's super common, as far as I've seen, for amazing professors to be publishing on what they're doing right, and so I'm curious on what they're doing right, and so I'm curious what motivated you to write a paper about this technique and the other amazing ways that you teach?
Chad Miller:That's a great question If you want. The straight answer was I was on an 80% teaching appointment, a promotion and tenure track at a land-grant institution, right, and so publishing is an important part, and I had a really good mentor there at Kansas State as well and viewers might know Dr Kim Williams at Kansas State and so she was a great colleague and mentor still a mentor for me and she had done a lot of work in the scholarship of teaching and learning space, and I had several other colleagues at K-State as well that were great in the scholarship of teaching and learning. And so I landed in a culture that respected, appreciated, expected scholarship of teaching and learning, not only in our department but also at the college level. Our associate dean of teaching, don Boggs, was very supportive of it but also was demanding in the sense of when you went through your promotion and tenure process, if you had a very significant teaching appointment, there was a need for a demonstrable scholarship of teaching and learning or at at least, at the very least, some level of scholarly teaching. And so so I landed in a culture that that was. That was the culture, and so I again kind of going back to the previous, you know childhood story.
Chad Miller:Knowing I was a teacher, I, I embraced it, uh, and I would actually say, as I was progressing through my graduate degree program, um, I also knew that I might land in a, in a faculty position that has some teaching responsibility. And so I, I, I put a uh education faculty on my committee. Um, it's going through my PhD, which is not typical. Oftentimes it's very disciplinary oriented. But I personally thought, if I'm going to have some expectation of teaching in the future whatever that was 20, 30, or 80% that it might be helpful to have some nuts and bolts of teaching. And I did. I took three basic courses in grad school One was curriculum development, one was teaching science, and then I'm drawing a blank on the third one. But I felt that I should at least try to prepare myself for being successful in the position. And then I landed at K-State with very supportive programs, people, expectations, the culture.
Curt Rom:So you know you have approached not only your horticulture discipline as a science, you've approached the scholarship of teaching as a science. So in this particular paper, in other papers that you've had, when I read it it wasn't a one-off. So how many years did you do this to see how it worked? You refined it and can you give us from the paper what you know, what the data told us, what data did you collect and what are the take-home messages? You know I'm an educator, chad. I need to know this because I want to improve my teaching. So tell me what I need to know, what worked, and if something didn't work I know you didn't publish that, but you can tell me that too- yes, no, that's a great question, kurt.
Chad Miller:So, yes, many of the things I've published I've tried to do more than you know publish data on more than one semester or one offering of the course, with the idea that in the background, at some level, repetitions would be helpful to really try to draw some conclusions on certain activities and I'd say, more broadly speaking, for the scholarship of teaching and learning. I'm still learning about this, I'm still learning about, you know, learning itself and and and understanding my methods and my approaches into class, in the classroom, with activities, um and so in, in particular with the, with the trade show publication, um, a couple of things that are are kind of consistent through all the publications. I look at perception from students, because that's a big part of implementing a project is do students really react to this in the positive sense? If they're really not reacting to it positively, it's probably not going to be at least leading us down the road of potentially learning, and so that's usually perception in the activities or the implementation of any project. And so with the trade publication, there was a lot of satisfaction from the students. It was. Comments were like it's a change of pace, more relaxed rather than the pressures of being up front of you know your colleagues in a very formal presentation style which they get more often than not. That experience through other courses and so the perception of the activity was very positive through all this.
Chad Miller:And then if you toss in students getting really creative and bringing in cake pops or you know cupcakes that look like a Venus flytrap or whatever it might be, that just really adds to it. Anytime you add food to the mix, right Like that just makes class appropriate and so the actual learning. So then we start looking at like pre and post. I usually typically will do a pre-activity assessment on a specific part of the knowledge of a certain group of plants or whatever it might be, and then try to do the post-activity to see if their perception has increased or they're learning what they perceive as they're learning. So there's been a few projects where it hasn't really looked at specific grade improvement per se but perception of learning through that as well and so that as I grow in the space, those are things that I'm looking to do better with of looking at the actual grade assessment and see if we see improvements with that.
Samson Humphrey:That is so cool. I really it's really interesting to hear you talk about all the ways that you're trying to understand student learning from a deeper perspective. You must have faced a lot of challenges on the way. Do any come to mind?
Chad Miller:Do any come to mind? Yes, just learning the whole space myself, because we do a lot of things that we just like, obviously, observe other faculty how they teach, or you know mentors growing, you know going through college and such, just observing and now, as I, you know, developed into a teacher and into that space, looking back and seeing how faculty and you know, for example, dr Ferris taught a course, it makes a little more sense, right. But moving into it, on my own side of like, how do you implement? And on the implementation side, basic challenge was getting IRB down right, the whole institutional review board process, and that alone can be a challenge. And I'll speak especially on my firsthand example of I will be thinking of something on the way in today, right, and be like, oh my gosh, that'd be amazing to do this activity on Thursday. Right, I have two days to like implement it because I can't wait until next semester to do it. Right. But then it's like, oh, I need IRB approval if I'm going to really start collecting certain pieces of data or how I'm going to present it. So there's been times I'm like Chad, write that idea down and maybe implement it, get a chip your teeth on it, so I I have a better understanding for submitting my IRB, like I can refine it.
Chad Miller:So I'd say that's one of the challenges I learned early on is the whole planning process.
Chad Miller:Um, in academics and you're not only planning for the like, is my class on the line at them, or you know line schedule for next fall, or, yeah, next fall already? Um, and what times and what labs, right, we're operating six to eight to nine months out. But even doing that with my, with my uh courses and adding scholarship of teaching and learning, is like, oh, irb, and it's not the quickest, simplest process, especially if there's one thing that they have a question about and it goes back and forth. And so, long story short, the IRB has been one of those like early on. If it wasn't in my radar immediately, it was like, oh man, I got to wait on that. Other challenges is just figuring out how to do the science side of it, like the actual evaluation of it, and methods and materials, or more of the methods, excuse me of how to do it and how to really like extract. Are they learning or are they not learning? And that's still an ongoing thing for me.
Curt Rom:You know you're talking about student learning. In your career have you seen changes in students and how they're learning and how we have to adapt teaching techniques to that? Has it changed much during your career with students' behavior and learning styles in the classroom?
Chad Miller:Yes, how long does this podcast go for? No, just kidding.
Curt Rom:I'm going to give you two minutes.
Chad Miller:I would say even in my short tenure I have seen some level of change and I, you know, I chat with my colleagues back at K-State and here as well to see if that's somewhat level of normal. But I think, especially since COVID time and we're still figuring out at some level what this new learning is here and I try to parse it out because I switched from K-State to Colorado State just after the pandemic. So part of it for me is learning the new culture of students that I have here at Colorado State versus the culture of students at K-State. But I would say, over my time, this shift to a more interest or dependence of online opportunity and that's really a space that wasn't me coming through college and wasn't me early in my teaching. I really appreciate the face-to-face, the interaction and get to see them on a almost daily basis. And so after COVID and the last few years for sure, just the challenge of what group wants it to be online and what group doesn't want it to be online. And then the part in between, or sometimes it almost feels like when it's convenient they'll be there in person, but then it's not.
Chad Miller:But I also try to take a step back and realize the students that we currently have in our programs.
Chad Miller:It's not the same as it was even when I was an undergraduate.
Chad Miller:For example, I've had many cases that, like at K-State, I was an academic advisor at the same time.
Chad Miller:So I would advise upwards of 40, 30 to 40 students in a semester, 40 on the high end. But to learn, you know, have a conversation like so yeah, I'm working a part-time job and I'll be like so, how many hours is your part-time? And some of them were approaching 30 hours and I'm going. That's a bit beyond a part-time job when they're trying to balance 30 hours of work plus 15 credit hours in a semester and if they're struggling in a class. So I try to step back and understand where our students are at right now in paying for college, raising families, all the above. Not that it didn't happen before, but my perception is we have a large contingent of students that are that are working simultaneously, have a lot of irons in the fire, and so how do you, how do I make the classroom or the, the, the, the class experience the best, right, and they can still learn. But also I can appreciate that life is happening right, like life happens at the same time.
Samson Humphrey:It's really cool to hear you talk about this and, like I, I can feel I can sense how important and how meaningful this is to you and that you I can. It feels like you really um know the weight that is on your shoulders with these students, like shaping their lives around, the advice you give them and the teaching they receive from you.
Chad Miller:Thanks. I mean, when I go into a classroom, I do tell students. I realize I would love for my class to be the most important thing in your life and I recognize that it's not the most important thing for most things every day, but I do have passion in my course. And then when you're here and in this time space, like I would like you to devote it to that kind of a thing but also really respect that life is going to happen. When, when, when you have to make that choice to go skiing, that's fine. Those are, those are going to be choices you make and I think it's just part of just being straight forward, open, honest conversation.
Chad Miller:I think not just students, I think most people just respect that. Right, like, you're going to tell me you're going to miss class for skiing, I'm like, ok, have fun, but you, there will be a consequence Either you miss the quiz or you miss the points or the content, and that's up to you, right, and it doesn't. I don't pass the judgment on that. That's life. You make those decisions and that will happen for the rest of your life, right, and I truly want them to learn and I'm truly here to help. It does make things complicated at times, when you know when life does happen and you make an exception for a student, but I I feel that's more that that is what we can do for them.
Samson Humphrey:My last question is in just a few words what is what is most rewarding to you as being a teacher?
Chad Miller:Seeing students and people be successful, like like it's as people have said, you see light bulbs turn on, or like you see people make the connections of of what we just talked about for the last three or four weeks, or just the last day for that matter, to see them to put that together and then to be successful, to see you know former students, you know I've had a couple. We do a. Here's an example we have a kind of an in-house career fair here and and so we have, and our department is horticulture and landscape architecture, so it's a wide swath of of horticulture industry here. Um, we had a firm come in and there was this girl that was at the at their table and this was like my first year here at Colorado state and I'm like man, she looks really familiar and I went and like I was just wasn't placing it long story short I had that student at K state in.
Chad Miller:Uh, I taught a section or two for landscape architecture program when the faculty was on sabbatic, but that student was like, hey, chad, I remember you and it was like that whole, like I saw them being successful in a firm here in Colorado and you know several other students over time and you know whether it's a ASHS and or that sort of thing. One of my colleagues is my was, was, is was my first graduate student, dr Carver, uh, and so I get to work right next to him. Um, and so to answer your question is to see people be successful to, to, to use horticulture and if they don't use horticulture, at the very least, you know, be a successful person. That's what's really rewarding.
Curt Rom:You know Chad. This has been a delightful conversation. I feel like your students are really fortunate that you're approaching your teaching as a scholarship, as a discipline, and you're being thoughtful about that. I'm sure your students are benefiting from it, just like those of us that get to read your publications. Thanks for sharing those things. So you're teaching your students and they benefit from it. But from those of us, the other teachers out there that are reading about things that are working, thanks for being my teacher too.
Chad Miller:Well, I thank you and that's what I learned from other teachers, right, like that's the thing about when we go to like the conference or when we have like in-house, you know, teaching and learning opportunities. It's learning from the others and you're like, oh my gosh, I could do part of that in my class, or that's the nugget I could try over here. You know, even if it's over an animal science and a nutrition course or something like that or whatever it might be, I always find where there's an applicability and so, yeah, I learned from you all and it's an honor to be able to hear that I am helping others learn as well.
Samson Humphrey:Chad, thank you for doing what you do and thank you so much for joining us on the podcast.
Chad Miller:Thank you, it's been great. I really, really appreciate it and I look forward to more interaction and ASHS and teaching and learning with everybody.
Samson Humphrey:That was such a wonderful conversation. That was so much fun to hear a professor talk about his philosophy. I've had many wonderful professors but usually they don't talk so much about the thought that goes into their class design or their philosophy for what they want to prioritize. I just I loved that conversation. What did you think, kurt?
Curt Rom:Yeah, I really enjoyed it too. You know, as a a faculty member that's been teaching for 40 years and even when I was a student, you know, and even when I was a student you know, inspired teaching inspires and motivates students. I really really enjoyed what Chad was saying and the way he's thought this through and he tries things and some of these ideas. But it's wonderful because the experiences that he's giving in the classroom probably motivates students. It encourages and empowers students and all the time these faculty members and professors like Chad, they're coming up with novel ideas for teaching that are being developed inside of our discipline and they help prepare students for the real world and to help prepare students for the real world.
Samson Humphrey:Absolutely, that's a really great point. The creativity, like the fact that Dr Miller is being creative with his classroom design, encourages his students to be creative and I don't know there's something about that. I really I don't think science is seen as like a particularly creative profession. Science is seen as like a particularly creative profession, but I really love the little part, the little parts of science that have creativity at the core of them and that's what he's encouraging in these students. So for our listeners to read more about this topic, you can check out Dr Miller's paper Classroom Trade Show an Alternative to Traditional Classroom Presentations in an Undergraduate Plant Identification Course, which is published in Hort Technology, one of the open source peer-reviewed journals by the American Society for Horticultural Science.
Samson Humphrey:Chad Miller has also held many conference workshops over the years. I've been lucky enough to join a couple of them. He talks about all sorts of exciting topics in teaching, like integrating game design into study materials for students. So if you're signing up for the conference this year, keep an eye out for other awesome workshops on teaching. Links to Dr Miller's article and to his other work will be in the show notes.
Curt Rom:If this interview resonates with you, I recommend renewing your membership or joining the American Society for Horticulture Science and you can be part of interest groups like the Teaching Methods Interest Group and take a look at the section of our ASHS journal, Hort Technology. We have a special section just on teaching technology section just on teaching technology. If you'd like more information about the American Society for Horticulture Science in general, go to our website, ashsorg. This is Kurt Rome and Samson Humphrey with Plants, People, Science. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you, Samson. See you, Kurt, for joining us. We'll see you, Samson. See you, Kurt. The ASHS podcast Plants, People and Science is made possible by member dues and volunteerism. Please go to ashsorg to learn more. If you're not already a member of the ASHS, we invite you to join. Ashs is a not-for-profit and your donations are tax deductible.
Samson Humphrey:This episode was hosted by Samson Humphrey and Kurt Rome. Special thanks to our audio engineer, andrew Sheldorf, our research specialists Lena Wilson and Andrew Sheldorf, our ASHS support team, sarah Powell and Sally Murphy, and our musician John Clark. Thanks for listening. Thank you.