The H.O.R.T Project: A Hands-on Educational Experience

The Farm Management and Technology Program (FMT) is a 3-year post-secondary vocational agriculture program. FMT students may choose to specialize in horticulture. Since January 1995, all horticulture students have been involved in a hands-on, practical educational experience called “H.O.R.T.” (Horticultural Opportunities for Real Training). The students operate a small horticultural “business.” They must plant, maintain, harvest, and sell several horticultural crops, including greenhouse and field-grown vegetables, apples, berries, and potted flowers. H.O.R.T. lasts two semesters: January through April and September through December. Students may choose to do H.O.R.T. for 2 years to broaden and deepen their horticultural learning. Through active participation in H.O.R.T., students will achieve the technical competencies required by the FMT program and specified by Quebec's ministries of education and agriculture. Each year of H.O.R.T. counts for 5-2/3 credits out of a program total of 90-1/3 credits. The goals of H.O.R.T. are not so much the acquisition of “book knowledge” (lower part of the cognitive domain) as the development of technical skills, planning and decisionmaking abilities, business sense, and proper communication (higher-order cognitive skills as well as psycho-motor and affective skills).