AGRONOMY COURSE LIST

The Department of Agronomy provides progressive and relevant undergraduate, graduate and extension education programs; conducts high impact fundamental and applied research at multiple scales to ensure that our science addresses immediate problems and anticipates future challenges; actively engages partners in the public and private sectors; and contributes to the development of the national and international agenda for research and education.

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Undergraduate Courses

 Fundamental principles of crop production and distribution. Emphasis is placed on applying technological advances in agronomy to active crop-production situations, including basic soils, agricultural meteorology, and crop physiology and breeding. Credits: 3.00

Introduction to environmental science and conservation includes topics in ecological principles, conservation and natural resource management, human impacts on the environment, toxic waste disposal, climate change, energy, air and water pollution, environmental geology and geologic hazards. Credits: 3.00

An introductory course in turfgrass management emphasizing turfgrass growth and development, species characteristics, their adaptation and basic cultural requirements for ornamental and functional turfgrass areas. The requirements and cultural inputs needed for proper establishment and maintenance of a high quality, low maintenance lawn will be discussed. Credits: 3.00

Companion lab to AGRY 21000. Laboratory exercises will focus on turfgrass and seed anatomy, morphology, identification as well as the hands-on basic principles of turfgrass culture. Designed for the student who intends to pursue a career in turfgrass management and plans to enroll in AGRY 510. Enrollment preference will be given to Turfgrass Science Majors. Credits: 1.00

Differences in soils; soils genesis; physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils; relation of soils to problems of land use and pollution; soil management relative to tillage, erosion, drainage, moisture supply, temperature, aeration, fertility, and plant nutrition. Introduction to fertilizer chemistry and use. Not available to students who have taken AGRY 27000. Credits: 3.00

Development, distribution, and classification of soil profile; soil characteristics related to forest practices; nature and cause of soil differences; fertility and plant nutrition. Not available to students who have taken AGRY 25500 or NRES 25500. Credits: 3.00

Examination of how environmental factors, including climate and soils, impact the global distribution of major food crops. Identification of the types of naturally occurring plant communities and comparison of these communities with those of environmentally and economically sound field cropping systems. Exploration of how man’s intervention has maintained or modified the productivity of food crops in agricultural communities and how his intervention has affected the environment. Credits: 3.00

The transmission of heritable traits; probability; genotypic-environmental interactions; chromosomal aberrations; polyploidy; gene mutations; genes in populations; the structure and function of nucleic acids; biochemical genetics; molecular genetics; coding. Credits: 3.00

Experiments with plants and microorganisms to elucidate the basic concepts of molecular and classical genetics as applied to genome analysis. Credits: 1.00

An introductory course in meteorology and climatology with applications to daily life. The study of the fundamental physical principles behind weather and climate and how they apply to the homeowner and the world citizen. Emphasis is on how to interpret weather conditions and forecasts, what controls the wide range of climates in the world, and what the future may hold. Credits: 3.00

This course is designed to provide undergraduate students with both the basics of how water moves through the environment and current theories as to how hydrologic response is modified by environmental change at a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Credits: 3.00

This laboratory course is designed to provide hands-on examples of the hydrologic concepts covered in the AGRY 33700 class and with practical experience in hydrologic field techniques. Credits: 1.00

An introductory course that will cover the basic concepts of soil ecology. Biological diversity and the interactions between and within biotic and abiotic components of the soil ecosystem, nutrient cycling, and genetic engineering are introduced. Credits: 3.00

A seminar-type course about world geography, cultures, and agriculture. Speakers are selected from the many Purdue graduate students and visiting scholars from around the world. Extra credit may be earned through independent study of a global issue. Credits: 1.00 to 3.00

This course features field experience in advanced techniques in soil morphology including the study of the relationship of soils to landscaped, common parent materials of Midwest and classification of soils in the Soil Taxonomy. Course material emphasizes the development of detailed descriptions of soil properties and how these properties directly impact the interpretations and recommendations for land use options. Use and management of soils based on landscape position and morphology will be covered including on-site waste disposal, homes with basements as well as road and street construction. Collegiate soil judging is a portion of the subject matter discussed. Requires class trips. Students will pay individual lodging or meal expenses when necessary. Credits: 2.00

Principles of soil chemistry and physics influencing plant nutrition; emphasis on diagnosis and solution of problems on soil reaction and nutrient status; fertilizer chemistry and use; reaction of pesticides and growth regulators with soils. Credits: 3.00

Factors affecting management decisions in crop production systems. Development of small grain and row cropping systems. Interaction of factors affecting efficient production systems, including seed selection, tillage, planting management, pest management, and harvesting and storage considerations. Credits: 3.00

Designed as an upper level introductory course covering environmental soil chemistry concepts in framework most applicable to inorganic and organic chemical contamination of soil and water resources and intended for students in environmental science fields that may not have a strong chemistry and/or math background. (el.5). Credits: 4.00

Weekly discussions of agronomic topics and other subjects relative to agronomic interest. Students are expected to participate in the discussions. Credits: 1.00

Supervised individual study or research over topics not covered in other courses. Arrange with agronomy faculty before registering. Permission of instructor required. Credits: 1.00 to 3.00

Utilized to record credits earned through participation in Purdue study abroad programs with cooperating foreign universities. Credits: 0.00 to 8.00

Structure and composition of the atmosphere. Thermodynamics of dry and moist air, including adiabatic and pseudoadiabatic processes, hydrostatic stability, and air mass determination. Credits: 3.00

An extension of AGRY 43200 with the emphasis on perturbation theory and hydrodynamic stability, air mass and frontal theory, barotrophic and baroclinic models, wave cyclone theory, and numerical weather prediction. Credits: 3.00

Analysis of vertical distributions of temperature and moisture with applications to adiabatic and pseudoadiabatic processes, hydrostatic stability, and air mass determination. Credits: 1.00

Analysis of horizontal distributions of pressure, temperature, wind, vorticity, and vertical motions. Applications to synopticscale wave propagation. Credits: 1.00

Diagnosis of midtropospheric wave propagation and growth. Analysis of surface pressure fields and fronts and their relationships to upper air features. Extensive use is made of teletype and facsimile weather information. Credits: 1.00

In-depth study of contemporary weather analysis and forecasting techniques and problems. Extensive use is made of teletype and facsimile data and numerical weather prediction guidance provided by the National Meteorological Center. Credits: 3.00

Principles of soil conservation with emphasis on control of soil erosion by wind and water; impact of soil management decisions on environment; soil-water-plant relations, includes agronomic aspects of water management for both irrigation and drainage. Credits: 3.00

Physical properties and processes in soils; water flow, soil structure, chemical movement; principles and methods of physical analysis of soils; the influence of soil physical processes on environmental quality and plant growth. Credits: 3.00

Utilized to offer a new honors course for a maximum of three years. Variable title, credit, and instructional type. Course may be repeated for credit if content and titles are different. Offered primarily to third- and fourth-year students. Courses offered must be approved by departmental or program faculty and College of Agriculture Honors Committee. Permission of instructor required. Credits: 1.00 to 4.00

Principles and recent advances in plant genetics including: genetic segregation, linkage, DNA markers and applications, chromosomes and genomes, variation in chromosome number and structure, mutation, recombination and DNA repair, quantitatively inherited traits, introduction to principles of population genetics, gene expression, gene organization, regulation of gene activity, gene function, identifying important genes, cloning genes, reverse genetics, plant transformation, applications of genetic engineering, genome sequencing, using sequence data. Credits: 3.00

An experiential lecture, discussion and field laboratory course for graduating seniors majoring in Agronomy.  Analysis of multi-layer digital georeferenced crop data is used to inform the development and evaluation of zone-specific agronomic input prescriptions. Variables include factors affecting soil productivity, soil fertility and N management (including emerging sensor and crop modeling technologies). Prescriptions for variable crop genetics and seeding rates are also discussed. Sound agronomic use of emerging technologies such as real time soil moisture, organic matter, temperature and moisture sensing to affect variable seeding depth, rate and precision are included.  May be used in combination with AGRY 49800 to meet the Agronomy undergraduate capstone requirement; will also meet the GIS/GPS requirement in Agronomy plans of study. Credits: 3.00

Weekly discussions and presentations on assigned topics in Agronomy, interpersonal interactions, professional ethics, and leadership skills. Student teams will evaluate case studies and present their analysis orally and in writing. Credits: 1.00

For students doing individualized research on agronomic problems; report required. Arrange with academic advisor and honors research advisor before registering. Admission to honors program. Permission of instructor required. Credits: 1.00 to 6.00