Teaching societal issues facing animal agriculture: A writing intensive course for sophomores.

Students in Animal Science at the University of MO have less direct experience with production animal agriculture. These future graduates need to have a comprehensive view of the contemporary issues facing animal agriculture. Therefore, a course was developed to address this growing disconnect while meeting a campus-wide general education requirement. According to the General Education Architecture of the University of Missouri, the graduates: must be able to grasp the meaning of problems that go well beyond their academic major; will develop computing and information literacy; and will learn â€oeto reason well, to recognize when the reason and evidence are not enough, to discover the legitimacy of intuition, to subject inert data to the probing analysis of the mind. These general education goals are central to the structure and the purpose of this course. This course is designed to help each student understand the far-reaching nature of issues facing the future of animal agriculture. These issues will impact animal agriculture and all of society during their careers. These issues are often associated with strong emotions of all those engaged in the debate. The goal of this course is to help the students develop a fundamental understanding of key issues presented by both sides that are the foundation of the debate. During this process, the students develop computing and information literacy skills associated with electronic literature searches. The search for diverse sources of information help students gain a more comprehensive understanding of the issues. Furthermore, students communicate this understanding through a number of writing assignments. These assignments are formatted to help students continue to develop strong writing skills. A key component is a comprehensive research paper developed individually by each student. The research paper addresses the key components of a societal issue facing animal agriculture. Through review of published scholarly works, in-class discussions and writing, students develop and improve critical thinking skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]