419 Academic performance and views toward community service from students engaged in service learning through a beef production course

Experiential learning is a feature common to post-secondary agricultural education. Similar to experiential learning opportunities, incorporation of service learning into post-secondary coursework is being encouraged more often. Our objective was to determine how community engagement and introduction of real-world problems in a species-specific production course would affect student performance and outlooks on community service. This experiment was conducted as a completely randomized design within the beef cattle production class during the spring 2019 semester at Tarleton State University. Thirty-eight students were enrolled in the course across two laboratory sections. Students in the first laboratory section were used as a control group. In the control, students were asked to draw from a selection of possibilities a description of herd size, sire and dam breed type, and county. Groups were asked to develop a management plan for a commercial cow-calf operation. Students in the second laboratory section were asked to brainstorm the most prevalent barriers to implementation of best management practices in cow-calf production. Groups were randomly assigned to each topic and were tasked with developing a tri-fold brochure addressing the barrier. They were instructed that this was being done as a service to the greater beef community and would be evaluated by industry representatives. Students in CON had more (P < 0.05) students that reported performing community service weekly or monthly prior to the study than TRT. Groups were similar (P ≥ 0.41) in their assessment of community needs and the role of college students in community service. Likewise, CON and TRT had similar (P ≥ 0.41) responses in having less time available for coursework and their service contributing to the betterment of the overall community. Results are interpreted to mean that incorporation of service learning opportunities does not influence student views on community service.