This project is coordinated by the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences (FTA), Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU) together with partners from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences - BOKU (Austria) and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences - SLU (Sweden). This project is funded by the ELLS (Euroleague for Life Sciences) Fund for Incentives.
This project aims to give an incentive to implement the project-based learning (PBL)
Within the selected Plant Health courses at each university, the students will cooperate in groups under the supervision of their mentors to address the given research problem and conclude it in a written summary supplied by a short oral presentation and 2 pages project proposal. In addition, the students of the course “Project monitoring and Evaluation” taught at CZU will design the evaluation criteria
Project outcomes:
The overall objective of the project is to enhance innovative teaching methods in the area of Plant Health at the selected ELLS universities in order to improve the soft skills, science communication, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving skills of the students. The specific objectives are following:
1) to give an incentive for innovative teaching method implementation
2) to stimulate the multilateral joint activity within ELLS university partners
3) to further develop and support the activities and student involvement within the Plant Health subject area
The above-mentioned project objectives are in line with the ELLS strategy, in particular with the aim of supporting the high quality of education by the sharing of expertise and facilities.
The project will be implemented from January to December 2022.
iPBL – Launch of the project activity at SLU
On the 17th of January 2022, the iPBL-EU project was for the first time officially introduced to a broader academic audience. A presentation explaining the concept of iPBL was handed by Anna Maňourová within the course “Plant Biology for Breeding and Protection” at SLU. Thanks to Erik Alexandersson, the course leader, project-based learning as a teaching method was not such a novelty. A similar technique called scenario-based learning has been successfully implemented there for four years now. However, the competition concept of iPBL is innovation and was very positively accepted by all the 22 students participating in the course. The students seemed to be really interested and motivated by the chance to participate the ELLS student conference in Prague, where they could meet the other successful teams from BOKU and CZU.
Four different case studies were forwarded to the students within the introductory presentation. Each topic has been created by a specific person/s responsible for its clear understanding and management, meaning communication with the students and providing a helping hand when needed.
1 – Winter wheat breeding (Aakash Chawade)
2 – The future breeding and management for disease-free, high-yielding (Erik Alexandersson)
3 – Plant protection in crops that are dependent on insect pollination (Asa Lankinen, Kristina Karlsson Green)
4 – Noorda blitealis in moringa trees – How to mitigate the moth while sustaining harvest? (Anna Maňourová)
The students’ groups will present their final outcomes will take place on the 15th of March. Meanwhiles, the iPBL concept is introduced at CZU within the courses “Plant protection and Agrobiology” and “Project monitoring and evaluation” and at BOKU will start in March.
iPBL-EU project evaluation of the project has started
At the end of summer semester, evaluation of the projects, within the subject area of Plant Health and Plant Breeding started. The evaluation took place in different courses at our partners universities. Project final presentations were held face to face on 15th March at Swedish Agriculture University (SLU) and on 11th April at Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU) with evaluators attending remotely.
Four groups of students within the “Plant Biology for Breeding and Protection” at SLU presented their results, followed by discussion. Same approach was taken at the course of Plant Protection and Agroecology at CZU, where group of four students competed with their project results as well. Students also had a task to submit their result in the form of report. Three evaluators representing each of the partner institution (BOKU, CZU and SLU) then asses the performance during the presentation and the written report. Evaluation is done by the unified evaluation sheet developed within the course of “Project monitoring and evaluation” at CZU.
Within next weeks last presentations will take place within the course “In situ treatment of Polluted Soils and Sediments: Phytoremediation, in situ fixation and attenuation techniques” (BOKU). Followed by the presentation from the Summer school with topic Plant Protection Biology: improving plant health under climate change and other stresses (8th – 19th August) at SLU. After finalising the presentations the winners from each institution will be announced and invited to the ELLS conference for final presentation with the teams from other Universities.
You can read more information about ELLS conference at CZU in Prague here.
iPBL – SLU summer course
The last qualification round of the “Implementation of Project-Based Learning among master’s degree students in selected ELLS Universities (iPBL-EU)” projects is successfully behind us. We cannot wait to see all the winning groups in the final round in Prague during the ELLS conference!
From the 8th until the 19th of August, a summer course entitled “Plant Protection Biology: improving plant health under climate change and other stresses” was hosted by SLU Alnarp (Sweden) under the leadership of Erik Alexandersson. As a part of the course, iPBL was introduced to the students, who were divided into 6 groups and worked on 6 different case studies. At the beginning of the summer course, an introduction to iPBL and ELLS was given by Anna Maňourová, who also represented CZU in a jury on the final evaluation day, together with Svante Resjö (SLU) and Sebastian Michel (BOKU). After a very tight score between the last two groups, a team working on “Integrated pest management strategy for thrips to reduce tomato spotted wilt virus in tomatoes in Mexico” has been selected as the winner.
Big congratulations to all four winning teams from BOKU, CZU, SLU and the summer course! We hope to meet you in Prague on the 23rd of September for the final presentation round and the following award ceremony. Please, do not forget to register for the conference even if you only want to attend as a visitor and support your favourite team. The ELLS conference is tuition-free and offers a rich programme from all fields of Life Sciences. See you there!
We know the winners from the individual partner universities within the framework of iPBL-EU project
During the second week of August, last qualification round of presentations of iPBL-EU project within the SLU Summer School took place. You can read about the presentations here. Now we are looking forward to meeting all the winning groups of each partner institution and from the summer school at the final round in Prague during the ELLS conference!
In total five courses of three partner institutions involving approximately 20 groups of students participated iPBL-EU project. Within each course, groups of students competed with their project results. Students also had a task to submit their results in the form of report. Three evaluators representing the partner institutions (BOKU, CZU and SLU) then assessed the performance during the presentation and the written report. Evaluation is done by the unified evaluation sheet developed during “Project monitoring and evaluation” at CZU.
We would like to sincerely thank all the partners and participants and congratulate all the winners. This way we would like to congratulate the winning groups:
Within the course Plant Biology for Breeding and Protection at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences - SLU (Sweden) winning group presenting results of the “Introducing IPM principles to Ethiopian farmers to control pest damage of Noorda blitealis in Moringa trees” project was selected. Namely, Judy Quach, Noomi Lodenius, Eivor Dubusc, Celien Ovaere, Muhammad Faizal Rezha Zulkarnain.
At the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague – CZU (Czech Republic) within the course Plant Protection and Agroecology group defended the results of the project topic: “Insect pests in moringa trees, Noorda blitealis – are there alternatives to pesticides?” namely, Zuzana Rázková, Reva Viaud, Nitkamon Lamparsetkun, Robert Masáre won the competition.
Flora Brumen, Alicia Jezek, Luca Bernardini, Viktoria Gaul, winning group presented their results on “Effects of CaCO3and Fe-Oxide amendments on heavy metal uptake of Zea mays” at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences - BOKU (Austria) within the course In situ treatment of Polluted Soils and Sediments: Phytoremediation, in situ fixation and attenuation techniques.
And finally, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, ELLS Summer School - SLU (Sweden) on the topic Plant Protection Biology: improving plant health under climate change and other stresses. As the winning group team working on “Integrated pest management strategy for thrips to reduce tomato spotted wilt virus in tomatoes in Mexico” was selected. Namely, Helene Garre, Raf Verdaasdonk and Zivile Buivydaite.
Once more we would like to cordially congratulate all the winners and officially invite them to participate in the final round of presentations and evaluations during the ELLS conference on 23rd September in Prague, Czech Republic. The Grand finale will be concluded with the award ceremony.
Final round and award ceremony of the project: implementation of Project-Based Learning among master’s degree students in selected ELLS Universities (iPBL-EU) during the ELLS conference, 23rd September 2022
The project dealing with innovative teaching across European universities was coordinated by the Faculty of Tropical Agriculture (FTA) of the Czech University of LifeSciences, Prague (CZU), together with the Agrinatura Association and partners from the University of Natural Resources and Natural Sciences - BOKU (Austria) and the Swedish University of Life Sciences - SLU. Namely, Petra Chaloupková (project coordinator), Olga Leuner, Tereza Slámová (Agrinatura) and Anna Maňourová participated in the project. The ELLS (Euroleague for Life Sciences) Fund for Incentives supported the project.
The aim was to introduce project-based learning (PBL) within the subjects “Plant Health” and “Plant Breeding” into teaching at selected ELLS universities. The PBL method is based on students working in a group on real-life case studies, where the clear solution is not given. There is room for creativity, collaboration, and application of new scientific knowledge. Simply said, it is more about the process than the actual outcome. When designing their solution to a problem, students improve teamwork, networking, communication skills and problem-solving abilities. The students are experiencing creative and critical thinking on current research topics in a way understandable to the broader public.
The output of the case studies was a two-page written summary and a short oral presentation, both delivered by the group, not individuals. The outcomes were evaluated by a committee of representatives of all participating universities, using evaluation forms designed by students of the “Project monitoring and management” course taught at the FTA CZU. A winning group was selected based on the evaluation forms from each university and the ELLS summer school at SLU in Alnarp. Five courses of three partner institutions participated in the project, in which approximately 20 groups of students participated. The winning teams from each university then met in the grand finale as part of the ELLS student conference in Prague.
Initiation and progress of the project
On 17th January 2022, the iPBL-EU project was officially presented to a broader academic audience for the first time within the course “Plant Biology for Breeding and Protection” at SLU. Subsequently, the project and case studies were presented at CZU, the course “Plant Protection and Agroecology”, and at BOKU, the subject “In situ treatment of Polluted Soils and Sediments: Phytoremediation, in situ fixation and attenuation techniques”. The last round of case studies took place on 19th August, again at SLU, as part of the ELLS summer school on the topic “Plant Protection Biology: improving plant health under climate change and other stresses”. You can view the list of winning topics and teams in the table.
The final round of iPBL in Prague!
On 23rd September, the selected teams of BOKU, CZU, SLU and ELLS summer school met at the final round of iPBL-EU as part of the ELLS Scientific Student Conference 2022 in Prague. The presentations, which in the spirit of fair play were not allowed to be modified from the original version, were heard by a full hall of audience, including a commission composed of representatives of individual institutions: Markus Puschenreiter (BOKU), Olga Leuner (CZU), Erik Alexandersson (SLU), Tereza Slámová (Agrinatura).
All the teams performed brilliantly, although, for some of them, it was their first performance in front of such a large audience. Very close results also confirmed the success. In the end, the was taken group from SLU took the victory with the topic: Introducing IPM principles to Ethiopian farmers to control pest damage of Noorda blitealis in Moringa trees. Congratulations again!
What will be next?
After awarding all the groups, an informal evaluation of the entire project took place. Both students and participating university staff provided an interesting feedback and insights. Most of the students agreed that the project was interesting and beneficial for them, they enjoyed working in groups and the final conference was a good motivation. Several group members agreed that the concept of competition turned out to be too stressful.
The project’s progress confirmed that it makes sense to continue and further develop inter-university cooperation and the possibility of incorporating new educational methods into teaching. Considering the valuable feedback, the project consortium decided to modify the project from competitive nature to cooperative nature. Please keep your fingers crossed, and we look forward to the possible continuation!
