Animal, vegetable, mineral and more on view at Agriculture Open House today, Saturday

By Jim Barlow

Students use flowers to interpret music. Illinois soils are
up for grabs. Human-sized insects take the stage. It's the
sixth annual UI College of Agriculture Open House on Friday
and Saturday.

This year's theme is "The Place to Be." More than 130
displays, exhibits and demonstrations will be set up in five
buildings, rather than in 10 buildings like last year. Hours
are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days.

"We wanted this year's open house to be more visitor-
friendly than in the past, so we've put a lot more of our
activity into fewer buildings," said co-chairman Sandra
Casserly. "The open house is the place to be to see the
diversity of our college - its teaching, research and
service. It should be both educational and entertaining."

Open House headquarters will be the Stock Pavilion, where
guests can milk a cow, watch sheep-shearing, see other
animals and view a wide variety of exhibits.

Among the animals will be sheep that have the callipyge
gene, which results in larger muscle fibers. An exhibit will
detail the research, and UI experts will be on hand to
answer questions.

The gene increases muscling in the rib, loin and leg areas
of sheep, but meat quality - despite a desirable lean-to-fat
ratio - ranges from tender to tough, said Gary Rickets,
professor of animal sciences. Researchers are looking for
stability in meat quality, while breeders want to know how
active callipyge genes are passed on to offspring, he said.

Visitors to the pavilion also can put their hands in
Illinois soils at a display designed to teach about soil
texture. The exhibit also will allow people to match three
soil types to locations on an Illinois map.

Kindergarten and elementary-age students will find
fascination in the new Insect Theater, a joint educational
outreach program being unveiled by the Illinois Natural
History Survey's Center for Economic Entomology and the UI's
Office of Agricultural Entomology.

The theater - the focus of a proposed outreach program for
middle- and high-school students - will open at the National
Soybean Research Laboratory in the Environmental and
Agricultural Sciences Building.

In performances at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. both days,
entomology will come alive in plays, sketches and skits that
feature realistic, human-size insect costumes, hand puppets,
simple scientific-based fables and giant insect sculptures.

Horticulture experts will have flowers, vegetables and
paints available for children's projects in the Plant
Sciences Laboratory. Horticulture students have turned a
nearby conference room into a relaxing Secret Garden Tea
Room, where refreshments will await weary adults.

A popular event also returns to the same building as
students in advanced floral design will use flowers,
containers and accessories to convey the messages of their
favorite songs while music plays. Seating is limited to
about 50 visitors in each session; sessions begin at 11 a.m.
and 2 p.m. each day, in Room 1125.

"The performances generally last for 30 minutes to an hour,"
said Dianne Noland, who teaches the course. "These
arrangements have had audiences on the edges of their seats
in anticipation of what will be created by the time the
music stops."

Food will be available at the Food Court in 217 Agricultural
Engineering Sciences Building. Elsewhere in the building,
food scientists will have exhibits on such things as
soybeans, corn, food microbiology, phytochemicals and food
technology.

One stop will offer homemade vanilla ice cream in UI colors.
The orange will come from natural coloring, the blue from
blueberries, said food scientist Rafael Jimenez-Flores.
"This is the real McCoy," Jimenez said. "We make our ice
cream the old-fashioned way - with milk, cream and sugar."

Agricultural engineers will show off solar-powered lawn
mowers, water-quality displays, a micro-mini tractor pull
and sprayer pump demonstrations. Exhibits by agricultural
economists also will be set up in the same building.

In the Meat Science Laboratory, there will be free samples
of meat products, information on "The Move Toward Leanness"
and public sales of meat products.

More than 17,000 people visited the College of Agriculture
Open House in 1994, despite a winter storm.

Parking for this year's open house will differ from last
year's arrangement. Guests can park both days in the south
end of Lot F-23 - just southwest of the intersection of
Lincoln and Florida avenues in Urbana. On Saturday, on-
street and campus parking lots also may be used.

Free shuttle buses will operate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both
days every 30 minutes between Lot F-23 and the Stock
Pavilion.

Other free shuttle buses will operate at 30-minute intervals
from the Stock Pavilion to the engineering campus, for
guests who also wish to attend the College of Engineering
Open House. This shuttle will stop at the Meat Science Lab,
National Soybean Research Lab, Plant Sciences Lab and
Greenhouses, and the Loomis Lab.