institutions but is not so limited in 12. In only 10 of the 32 is the amount of preparation for these contests limited to that demanded for regular credit in the course. In the others more time is spent in training for these contests than the credits in the course would require. The expenses of the trips in connection with these contests are paid in full by the students themselves in 21 institutions and by the students and institutions combined in 17. The expenses of the coaches of the teams are paid universally by the institutions. At Colorado Agricultural College, $400 is appropriated by the State board of agriculture for the senior stock judging team. At Purdue University the board of trustees at times sets aside a small item to handle the expenses of judging teams. At the University of Kentucky a definite sum is budgeted each year for this purpose, any additional amount necessary being furnished by the students. At Cornell University the transportation is cared for occasionally by the institution. At the University of California, Iowa State College, the University of Missouri, and some other institutions, departmental or voluntary student organizations help to defray the expenses of judging teams. Student activity fees are used to handle part of the expenses of judging teams at the University of Florida, Kansas State Agricultural College, and Massachusetts Agricultural College. At the Ohio State University the winnings of college livestock exhibited at the State fair are used toward these expenses. At the University of Minnesota an institutional prize fund is called upon in part and business men in other organizations contribute toward the expenses. Regional shows such as the Pacific International contribute a part of the expenses of students taking part in judging contests. From the assistance given by institutions and numerous other methods used to help defray the expenses of judging teams, it is clear that members of these teams are recognized as representatives in activities that are worth while from the institutional standpoint whether this be one of prestige or educational concern. Trips for Practice Teaching Trips other than those by students in judging classes and contests also create a problem in a number of institutions. Included in these are absences from classes due to practice teaching by students enrolled in classes for agricultural teaching. Specialists in education have long realized that such practice is an aid to good teaching. Supervised practice for those who are planning to teach agriculture in Smith-Hughes schools, therefore, has become a requirement. Such practice often may be obtained through arrangement with the local high school and with secondary schools in the neighborhood. Often, however, the necessary practice can be obtained only by taking trips to communities at some distance. These trips, in 22 institutions, create a problem of absence from other classes just as in the case of students who are studying, judging, and taking part in judging contests, while in 22 institutions there does not seem to be a problem of this character. In only 10 institutions has a special organization of the curriculum been arranged to take care of the difficulties incident to class absences. In most of the institutions the arrangements made are informal between the different members of the teaching staff. Chapter VIII.-Conclusions and Recommendations (1) Preparing students for general farming is no longer a primary function of the resident undergraduate work of colleges of agriculture in the land-grant institutions. Social, economic, and educational advances require that this fact be recognized frankly by the institutions and by their constituencies. (2) The objectives of higher education in agriculture are increasingly and properly those of preparing: First, research workers in the scientific and social fields related to agricultural production and distribution and to rural life; second, extension workers for service in the dissemination of knowledge concerning the applications of scientific and economic truth to the problems of rural living; third, workers in all types of business and commercial activities related to agricultural production, distribution, and service; fourth, teachers of vocational agriculture and science in the public high schools; fifth, public servants in the investigating and regulatory departments of the State and National Governments; and sixth, overseers and managers of specialized and large-scale farm enterprises. (3) The basic problem of organization of agricultural work in the land-grant institutions is one of devising methods for intergrating and coordinating resident teaching, experiment-station research, and extension activities. Tendencies in a number of institutions to develop research and extension in relative isolation from resident teaching require administrative attention. (4) Minute specialization of departmental organization, with excessive departmental autonomy, tends, in certain institutions, to duplication of work, expensive instruction, and offerings inappropriate to undergraduate work, especially during the first two years of the college course. (5) In view of the necessity for specialization in serving the diversified needs of modern agricultural research, extension, teaching, and business, and in view of the widespread development of public junior colleges, it is advisable that the land-grant institutions give consideration to reorganization of the agricultural division into junior and senior divisions, with specialization delayed until the end of the second year. Such reorganization is in harmony with current tendencies in higher education and not incompatible with any of the objectives of college education in agriculture except the vocational one of preparation for general farming. (6) The standard for training for agricultural staff members is being raised in harmony with the development of instruction that emphasizes scientific and economic objectives. Continued emphasis upon attainment of advanced degrees by the staff and upon study of subjects in education applicable to the problems of college teaching is desirable. (7) The salaries of agricultural staff members serving for 11 months each year are not commensurate with those who serve 9 months. An adjustment of the salary scales upon the 9 and the 11 months' basis is urgently recommended. (8) The number of students who enroll in agriculture varies with the condition of agricultural industry. This is true, although emphasis upon the training of research and extension workers, highschool teachers of agriculture and science, for State and Federal employment, and for business more or less closely related to agriculture tend to make this variation less acute than when the objective is primarily a back-to-the-farm one. (9) Agricultural courses and curricula, and, to a considerable extent, departmental development reflect a decided tendency to increased economic and social emphasis upon the part of the agricultural colleges. This trend has not resulted in weakening of interest in the physical sciences. (10) Experimental scientific investigations of certain educational problems extending over a period of years and conducted cooperatively and simultaneously by a number of agricultural divisions is recommended. Studies of this kind should be carried on in close cooperation with institutional schools of education or under the direction of educational technicians employed for the purpose. The following fields are suggested: (a) The different effects upon subsequent student work of teaching certain sciences in the college of agriculture and in the other basic science divisions; (b) method of coordinating the content of specialized courses in agriculture offered during the first two years of college; (c) the effects of farm practice requirements upon educational progress and practical success; (d) methods of providing practice work for prospective extension workers; (e) the validity of prerequisites now prescribed with reference to success in subsequent work; for example, general science. prerequisites for applied work in agriculture; (f) the effects of different combinations and sequences of subjects upon students of equal ability; (g) methods of determining the degree and effects of the previous training of entering students (Smith-Hughes students. especially) with reference to ability to carry on specific college sub jects in agriculture and means of adapting beginning instruction in college to such individual differences of preparation (not mental ability) as are found; (h) the effects of different laboratory methods and means of determining the most effective length of the laboratory period for each phase of a single course; (i) effects of class size upon student learning in various subjects and during the different years of college work; (j) methods of instruction designed to increase individual student responsibility; and (k) requirements that may serve as substitutes for class attendance and their effect upon progress and learning of students in different subjects and at different levels. PART X.-ENGINEERING Chapter I. Introduction Engineering and Engineering Education Engineering strives to provide better and easier ways of satisfying human needs. Since the passage of the Morrill Land-Grant Act in 1862 the achievements in engineering and in other branches of applied science have resulted in a greater advance in civilization than had taken place in many centuries before that period. The electric light, electric furnace, electric storage battery, electric welding, X ray, radio, steam turbine, internal-combustion engine, aluminum, acetylene, liquid air, submarine, automobile, airplane, cash register, adding machine, farm tractor, farm machinery, moving picture, phonograph, concrete construction, steel construction, household heating plant, electric street railway, electric locomotive, power elevator, and many other inventions have been perfected during this period which have contributed to human happiness and comfort. Rapid growth during the same period in the number and in the enrollment of the engineering colleges of the United States parallels this expansion of man's control over the materials and forces of nature. The rapid growth of our industries, public utilities, and public works is dependent upon men who are trained as engineers. In 1862 the people of this country were concerned mainly with the production of raw materials, grains, cotton, lumber, and minerals; the few factories of that time were mainly concerned with the manufacture of the coarser articles of commerce, and their product was valued in 1869 at only $4,000,000,000. To-day the United States is the greatest manufacturing nation in the world, with about 200,000 manufacturing establishments which turn out annually a product valued at more than $60,000,000,000. The telephone industry, which dates only from 1876, has 20,000,000 telephones in this country, or about two-thirds of the total number in the world. The use of electricity since 1882 has grown until on December 31, 1929, twentythree and one-half million customers contributed to the industry and two-thirds of the entire population lived in homes supplied with electricity. The automobile has 25,000,000 owners. Nearly one 111490°-30-VOL 1-52 789 |