JCMGA Practicum – “What Is It? What Is Involved?”

 

After many years of meaningful leadership for the Jackson County Master Gardeners Association Practicum, Jane Moyer and Virginia Brown passed the baton to Nicole Smith and myself. Nicole and I have been truly thankful for all of their support and advice during this transition.

I have been asked to write about our JCMGA Practicum, which is an interactive learning space for JCMGA students. This article is to update everyone about what the groundwork of Practicum involves, and why we provide this program.

The JCMGA Practicum is an educational, hands-on lab environment, focused on research-based knowledge and practices for home gardening.  Currently we have seven practicum sessions which each meet weekly for three hours.  The practicums are led by 2-3 mentors who are Master Gardeners.  The mentors meet every Wednesday for 2 ½ hours for training and feedback.

Each practicum can have as many as eight students. This year we experienced a lower number of students so we’ve had about 4-5 students per practicum.

In addition to teaching one of our practicum sessions, the mentors also serve on one our practicum teams – Seed Team, Curriculum Team, Greenhouse Maintenance Team, and the Native Plants Team. Each team meets monthly for approximately one hour.

• The Seed Team decides on what seeds we will be planting and when to plant them.
• The Curriculum Team takes feedback from the Practicum students and mentors to update and revise the weekly lessons for the next year. They make sure that the homework, videos, and articles are current. They also lay out the lessons schedule for the year and try to coordinate with Grace Florjancic’s curriculum for the Master Gardener Class. Lessons cover such topics as Tool Care, Analysis of Fertilizers, Analysis of Potting Soils, and Raised Bed Gardening.
• The Greenhouse Maintenance Team makes sure that both of our greenhouses are well maintained and functioning correctly.
• The Native Plants Team propagates, maintains, and sells the native plants growing in our Native Plant Nursery.

While the JCMGA Practicum is designed to be an optional learning experience for the current Master Gardener Class students, there is usually room for Master Gardeners who would like to attend also.  If you are interested in joining, please contact Nicole Smith at ncarbone88@gmail.com or myself at barbaralow@msn.com by mid-January.

Practicum starts in February and ends mid-May each year.

If you are interested in being one of our practicum mentors for next year, please let us know by mid-August. New mentors are always paired with an experienced mentor.

We have a great time learning from each other and growing many, many plants for the Spring Garden Fair. Come join the fun!