I too prefer class and less assignments. I guess because the non GEP class tends to have students coming fresh out of high school, they do the "useless" assignment stuff that we prob did in 1st year undergrad?
I definitely would not call them 'useless'. Sometimes a pain? yes. I doubt you did them in undergrad....especially first year...unless you were maybe at an agricultural college and also taking gross anatomy? Even though the UK kids are just out of 'high school', they have taken upper level science courses, just as we have. It is still a professional program and nothing like undergrad (except most of the cell bio).
The projects we have had thus far include: an anatomy workbook that you put together either with digital pictures or self-drawings. You label every item you dissected, or are supposed to find in dissection. I used Publisher, downloaded pictures and labelled them. You are also given 2 thought-provoking, clinically based questions that you must research and answer. You will turn in two workbooks, one for each semester. They come out quite nice and are a great tool for revising.
Cow project - we are given an 'adopted cow' at the farm and access to all of it's data with regard to milk production and reproduction. We are also given access to the herd's data. You compare the milk quality (somatic cell count, protein%, butterfat%) and milk production (yield, days in milk) to the herd's via graphs. You also look at their reproduction - when did they calve, what is their calving interval, inseminations, conception, drying off period, etc. You are are expected to know the norms for all of these and compare and contrast how your cow is to the norm. You also look at any health visits and explain any abnormalities. We had two cows die of e. coli mastitis and mine got mastitis, but recovered. It is a fun project and certainly helps with learning the material.
The last project is you are told you have a client who has just acquired like 300 ewes and 200 dairy cows for the first time. you have to put together an annual husbandry calendar for both indicating all that should be done and at what times of year. For instance, trimming hooves, vaccinations, shearing, AI or tupping, weaning, calving (umbilical, colostrum, tagging), housing, feed requirements, castrating, de-horning, etc. etc.... Again, it makes you concentrate in a different way than just getting lectured on the material (which we also had) and using it in a practical way.
We also had to do a cell bio workbook. We have labs and basically it's interpreting data, drawing diagrams, answering some questions and producing some graphs.
As much as we may grumble about the projects, they have been a really good learning tool. I think we have just as busy of a schedule as the GEPs, it's just different. The GEP's tend to be in lectures for the most part, where we are pretty evenly split between lectures, dissections and practicals. We have more time to do farm practicals and animal handling exercises because we are a 5yr program, so they keep us busy as well. It's not the same curriculum until the GEP's 2nd year and our 3rd year.
Hopefully, that makes sense. If you are accepted into the GEP, then they feel you are ready and I would definitely do it, especially if you have animal husbandry and clinical skills already.
!
