The undergraduate core curriculum is an opportunity introduce students from diverse majors to topics in agriculture. Agricultural Biotechnology is an interdisciplinary undergraduate course at Delaware Valley University which combines the disciplines of Plant and Animal Science. It has run every spring semester since 2020, with enrollment made up of students from different majors. The course was recently approved as a core capstone course, an upper-level course intended to assess the university’s core curriculum, and it and was run as a core capstone course for the first time in 2024. The objectives of this project were to: 1) create two final course projects including a poster and case study designed to assess the core curriculum outcomes and 2) to provide students with the opportunity to develop their skills in public education and outreach. A final poster project was incorporated into the course in which students were instructed to develop a new Biotech trait in any plant or animal species. The poster project needed to address core curriculum outcomes such as global contexts, using relevant information, quantitative methods, appropriate technology, and required professional communication. The second case study project was used to assess multicultural competency. The posters were on display at events for both the campus community and the outside public. Student feedback was collected via pre-and post-tests and surveys.
