Teaching Weed Science in the Future

Abstract

Weed science has been and will continue to be an evolving discipline. The evolution and future of weed science will depend greatly on our visions of the future and our willingness to effect and implement change. Thus, the principal question we must ask ourselves is, what do we want weed science to be in the future? This paper, which is only one part of the symposium on the Future of Weed Science, will address the issues involved with teaching. This requires identification of future students and employers, their educational needs based on professional goals, and packaging and presenting the information. Most future agriculture undergraduates and weed science graduate students will need to be recruited, will have minimal background in agriculture, and will include more minorities and women than in the past. We will offer a more interdisciplinary and internationalized curriculum to future students. The curriculum will include traditional courses with greater emphasis on communication skills, business and economics, computer science, agricultural ethics, and interpersonal skills. Courses will be taught to future students by a regional teaching concept that uses electronic media. Teaching and learning about weed science in the future will be exciting, challenging, and unquestionably different from today.