A course in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech was developed to meet the goals of the Creativity and Aesthetic Experience area of the required undergraduate liberal education curriculum. "Agriculture, the Arts and Society" began as a small course designed to improve the perception of the arts among agricultural majors. A one-credit, pass-fail freshman-level course, it was accepted into the liberal education curriculum in 2001. Enrollment in the course currently averages about 120 students per semester, with approximately one half of the students being non-agricultural majors. In addition, about 50% of students in the course are classified as juniors and seniors. Over time, appreciation of agriculture has been stressed more, along with an emphasis on the university's goals of graduating life-long learners who can think critically and creatively, and promoting diversity in the university community Student perceptions of instruction for the course have generally been very good. They also rated appreciation of the subject matter and discipline field as slightly greater than average (2.23 on a scale of 1-less than average to 3-greater than average), which gives an indication that the course is meeting its primary goal of raising awareness of these topics.
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