Tuesday December 2nd, 6-8 p.m.

(non-traditional format)

Style is open-book

But your text book won't be nearly enough.  Please bring to class more than one turf book, along with any pest guides, other reference materials, e.g., key to grasses, a calculator, and a hand lens if you have one, etc., etc.  Plan to share the materials with other students.  The instructor will partially empty out his library for your use.  Part of the test will involve finding information over the internet, so the University of Florida will provide the computers

All the books in the world might not help

The test is only two hours, and if you don't know where to find the information, the books are useless.  Besides, the World Wide Web is dead, as far as help, if you're not already versatile with the computer and know where to find things.  So put in a few more hours surfing before the test, saving bookmarks/favorites (which you can bring on a floppy diskette) of the highest quality information sources.

This exam is practical

Very practical.  In fact, questions are being submitted (several have been received already) by golf course superintendents, master gardeners, professors at other state Universities, and the general public.  There will be some live call-in questions, FAXes, e-mail, and maybe even some walk-in visitors with turf problems.  Because of the global accessibility of the web announcement, you might get a questions on growing grass in Singapore or Sitka.  Your mission is to:

• document the nature of the question/problem
• document  and explain the basis of your response
• point people to sources of information, including county agents, and specialists in other states
• avoid spreading misinformation (just because it's in a book doesn't mean it's true)
• be helpful and courteous, appreciating the point-of-view of the inquirer, i.e., be a good listener
• say "I don't know" when appropriate
• show that you can apply your knowledge of turfgrass

This exam is cooperative

You will be working with other students as part of teams, and will have to organize yourselves accordingly, giving everyone a chance to participate in different tasks, e.g., e-mail, telephone, research, and write-up.