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Impact of the Male on Meat Production: A Case Scenario in Swine
To target global competencies in Animal Sciences, a case scenario exploring climate impacts on swine production was developed. Case scenarios differ from case studies in that the former are guided explorations around a topic while the later are more open ended. The project had 3 major objectives: 1) development of technical skills related to understanding male physiology, semen collection, analyzing data, and processing semen for artificial insemination; 2) learning outcomes related to impact of climate on male reproduction, solutions to climate impact on boars, understanding how decisions related to boar management impact society differently in the US and Philippines, relationship of theory to real world in male reproduction, and role of infrastructure in livestock production; 3) general goals of global awareness or competency, issues in global agriculture, critical thinking to solve real world problems, understand issues that would place the US in a more favorable position to compete in global agriculture. The case scenario can be found at: http://www.ansci.wisc.edu/jjp1/pig_case/html/firstjob.html and involves a student graduating and being hired by a swine production facility in the Philippines as the boar stud manager. Student teams worked through interactive and web-based scenarios to achieve the objectives. The case scenario replaced 2 lab periods in a general reproductive physiology course that is a core component of the Animal Science major. Several written documents (3), analysis of data (3), and class discussions were required of students. A survey was used to evaluate the project with the scoring system being on a 1 – 5 scale with 1 being not successful, 3 being somewhat important and 5 being very successful (N=82) and data is presented as the mean±sem. The attainments of 6 technical skills were individually evaluated but overall the average was 4.08±0.04. The 6 learning outcomes were also individually evaluated and were very high overall with an average score of 4.43±0.03. There were 4 general goals individually evaluated but overall results were high with an average score of 4.03±0.06. A Wordle approach was used to examine the usage of words within an assignment to describe the role of the swine industry in the Philippines for a company newsletter. Students were able to demonstrate relationships between, meat, the male, meeting demand, a commercial setting and quality. Overall, the project succeeded in achieving the objectives and demonstrates how international content can be incorporated into core classes within Animal Sciences.
Keywords:
boar, international, climate