Agronomy students at Iowa State are now able to travel to the traditional Iowa family farm without ever leaving the classroom.

With a new program developed by Mary Wiedenhoeft, associate professor of agronomy, along with the help of a number other agronomy faculty and staff, students taking the Agronomic Systems Analysis class can use a CD-ROM to experience a virtual farm tour.

“In brief, the program was created to meet a need for advanced and continuing education in the profession of agronomy,” said Ken Moore, professor of agronomy. “This need was identified in a survey that was conducted in 1995.”

The final project is the development of a whole farm management plan. The plan includes recommendations and partial budgets for short-term (next growing season), medium-term (three to five years), and long-term (five or more years). Students are able to accomplish this by using the program.

The field trip provides panoramas of the fields, aerial photographs, profiles of the landscape, still images of the crops during growing season, information on farm family’s community, a series of grids and maps regarding yields and crops and still images of the equipment. It also has a calendar of field operations, financial information and an interview with farmers answering the students’ questions, Wiedenhoeft said.

The curriculum was developed in the 1995-96 academic year, and was officially approved by the Board of Regents in June 1997.

The course began with a pilot group of students in the fall of 1998. Open enrollment was available one year later.

“Agronomic Systems Analysis is a capstone class in Iowa State University M.S. in Agronomy Distance Education Program,” Wiedenhoeft said. “The overall course objective is for students to critically evaluate farming systems and then use critical thinking and problem-solving skills to make reasoned decisions concerning the management of a real farm.”

Today the program has received encouraging feedback from a number of students.

As with anything, there are advantages and disadvantages to the Virtual Farm Tour. Wiedenhoeft said the advantage of the field trip is that students see more than if they had gone during class. A field trip during late January does not allow the students to see much. The disadvantage is not having a synchronous, in-person discussion with the farm family.

Wiedenhoeft said it is a unique way of learning aside from all the books and lecture notes.