Nate Phillips

nate.phillips@mtsu.edu

Jessica Carter

ABAS

Discipline specific equipment

SAG, HSC, HC

N/A

N/A

The School of Agribusiness and Agriscience serves over 500 major and minor students working towards careers in Animal Science, Agribusiness, Plant and Soil Science, and Agricultural Education. Our enrollment has significantly increased since 2008 and many of our key instructional technology tools have become outdated and/or non-functioning. Virtually all students in our program will benefit from our proposed updates. The weather station and a temperature sensor for the greenhouses, are broken and need replacing. These teaching laboratories are used for all Plant and Soil Science majors, most ABAS majors, and many non-majors. The milk processing lab needs a semi-automatic filling machine for classroom instruction and the production of milk for over 26,000 students. The milk processing center is used for classroom instruction, student training, and industry training. The Horse Science Center (HSC) needs a tractor to support all Horse Science classes and student teams, and care of horses used for classes and teams. The HSC facilities serve ABAS majors and minors, and MS Horse Science graduate students. In the past academic year, student enrollment in horse-related classes totaled 1,261 contact hours. In addition, the Student Teams use the Horse Science arenas for lessons (equivalent to 420 contact hours in an academic year). In order to improve our recruitment and retention abilities we need to update these essential laboratory devices to modern standards. Courses utilizing these technologies and equipment include several dozen introductory and upper division ABAS courses.