Teaching Program

Program Objectives

Provide classroom and laboratory instruction for undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of animal physiology and equine reproduction.  A major component of the teaching program involves serving as the major professor for graduate students working towards advanced degrees (Master’s and Ph.D.) in animal physiology.

Courses in the Equine Reproduction Program:

AVS 204 Special Topics in Equine Reproduction (1 cr.)  This course provides practical and detailed information about the reproductive management of mares and stallions.

AVS 299 Directed Study - Equine Reproduction (1 - 6 cr.)  Students assist with the daily research activities at the horse reproduction laboratory and the care and feeding of the horse research herd.

AVS 371 Anatomy and Physiology (4 cr.)  This course covers the structure and function of cells, tissues and organ systems of domestic and wild animals. Photo at right: Under the supervision of Dirk Vanderwall (right), students examine a specimen during an AVS 371 laboratory session.

AS 466 (WSU) Horse Production (3 cr.)  Principles of breeding, feeding and management of horses.    Faculty in the equine program teach five lectures and two laboratory sections in this course. Photo at right: Under the supervision of Dirk Vanderwall (left), a student collects semen during an AS 466 laboratory session.

AVS 499 Directed Study - Equine Reproduction (1 - 6 cr.)  Students are assigned to an independent equine reproductive research project that requires their direct involvement with the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data. Photo at right: For their directed study program, undergraduate students Elisa Kimble (left) and Laura Parker participated in a clinical field study that examined the effectiveness of a new hormone for the reproductive management of mares. The results of that study were published in 2001 in the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science (see publications list).

AVS 500 Master’s Research and Thesis (variable credit).

AVS 501 Graduate Seminar (variable credit).

AVS 600 Doctoral Thesis and Research (variable credit).

Advising

Faculty in the equine reproduction program serve as the academic advisors for undergraduate students in the Department of Animal and Veterinary Science, and Dirk Vanderwall currently serves as the faculty advisor for the Pre-Veterinary Club.

Student Employees

An informal, but no less important aspect of our teaching involves work with the student employees in our program.  Our philosophy for our employees is that their work should be more than just a job, it should be a learning experience that contributes to their scholastic and/or personal development.  We have two principles we follow for meeting that objective: 1) we provide detailed information about what we are doing in the program, whether it is related to research, clinical service, or teaching, and we emphasize how their job assignments are critical to completing each activity and 2) we empower our employees to take charge of their job assignments.  We provide detailed information about our laboratory activities during weekly laboratory meetings.  At each meeting we outline all of our current and on-going activities and make specific assignments to each employee.  For example, before we begin a new research project we hand out a research protocol (before the meeting) that we review with the whole group.  We want every employee to understand the research objective and the details of the experimental protocol.  We want the employees to not only know what they need to do, but also why they are doing it.  At each meeting, we also give the employees an opportunity to raise issues they feel need to be addressed.  We try to empower our employees by giving them necessary guidance, but then letting them take it from there.