Learn by doing

Jack Scheffler is graduating in December 2024 with a degree in crop management and agribusiness. He’s currently working with the Soft White Winter Wheat Breeding program and plans to pursue a career as an agronomist.

Gain hands-on experience to enhance your education

In CALS you will learn by doing. You could work at one of our on-campus agricultural facilities, access our one-of-a-kind collections, help coordinate FFA events or perform undergraduate research. No matter what you choose, you’ll gain hands-on experience to help you prepare for your future career.

Student research

CALS students have many opportunities to gain first-hand experience through in-depth research, both at the undergraduate and graduate level. Learn about getting your research funded through a Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates grant.

Undergraduate research

Many research opportunities are available for undergraduate students looking to extend their experiences beyond the classroom. Talk with your professor to see how you can get involved.

Student Claire Smith, an apparel, textiles and design student, who is conducting an undergraduate research project to develop a sports bra that can capture biometric data.

Pioneering sports bra with biometric sensors

Addressing data challenges for female athletes
A hand holds a cow’s ear displaying a yellow plastic ear tag.

Developing the best virtual fence ear tag for cows

Research yields optimal virtual fence
A woman testing a substance
A woman leaning against a corral
A woman applying a biosensor to a bra top
Consumer participating in research at a grocery store
Family Consumer Sciences student Maggie Zee using hops research to create fibers for paper making with in collaboration with the College Natural Resources renewable materials lab
A woman in a lab coat doing an experiment

Graduate research

All graduate students are expected to conduct independent research, develop a research methodology, carry out scientific data collection and analyze the results.

Bronte Sone is pursuing a PhD in Soil and Land Resources, focusing on soil microbial communities. She'll start a post-doc at UI in January.

Understanding soil microbes is key to resilient agriculture

Learn about cover crops and microbes
University of Idaho agricultural education graduates are helping to address an increasing shortage of agricultural educators. University of Idaho is uniquely qualified to address this shortage, as most of the state's agricultural educators are graduates from U of I's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Hands-on teaching sparks passion for ag careers

Learn about growing agriculture programs
An ultrasound used for animals

Improving dairy cattle reproduction

Our students are conducting ground breaking research to help advance the agricultural industry. Jennifer Spencer, a doctoral candidate in animal and veterinary science, is finding ways to improve reproduction rates in dairy cattle, research that will benefit the dairy industry in Idaho and across the nation.

Facilities

Many of your courses will be taught at on-campus facilities that will allow you to gain industry experience. These facilities may also offer job opportunities to gain even more experience.

Students wishing to work with animals have access to the beef, sheep and dairy centers; a meats laboratory; a working ranch; and an aquaculture center.

If you want to work in soils, crop production or horticulture, you’ll benefit from access to the Sixth Street Greenhouse, Kambitsch Farm, Soil Stewards Student Farm and Parker Farm in Moscow, plus research and Extension centers across the state.

Those interested in food science or nutrition will benefit from the Carmelita Spencer Foods Laboratory; a Food Technology Center; and the WSU Creamery.

Our apparel, textiles and design students have access to an apparel product development studio and a CAD/computer research lab to work on projects and complete research projects.

Students who wish to work with children have the opportunity to work at the Child Development Laboratory and University of Idaho Children’s Center where they gain direct experience working with young children.

Collections

CALS offers several unique teaching tools found only on the Moscow campus.

The Leila Old Historic Costume Collection includes over 18,000 items dating from 1850 to the present. Students studying apparel, textiles and design often use this collection for research.

The William F. Barr Entomological Museum houses over one million mounted insect specimens, used for teaching, research and Extension activities.

The Maynard A. Fosberg Soil Monolith Collection contains more than 200 soils from the state of Idaho, Pacific Northwest and United States, one of the largest collections in the U.S.

The Stillinger Herbarium is the largest herbarium in Idaho and includes over 200,000 plant and fungal specimens. The collection contributes to a wide range of research projects at U of I.