By DAVE BLOWER JR.
Farm World Editor

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — In an effort to encourage young minds to study science, Purdue University unveiled its latest museum-quality displays in the Pioneer Our Land Pavilion on opening day of the Indiana State Fair last week.

Featuring a three-dimensional, interactive exhibit that allows visitors to walk through the interior of a plant or animal cell, Purdue’s researchers and designers spend nearly a year planning its annual State Fair display.

“This year’s exhibit is for kids to get a good idea of what DNA and genetics is all about,” said Chuck Hibberd, director of the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service and associate dean of Purdue Agriculture. “This cell could either be a plant or animal cell. It ties in very close with what we’re doing at Purdue. We are working on how to make improvements to the soybean genome.

“Once we’re done with this State Fair, we’ll start thinking about what we want to do next year,” he added.

The exhibit materials don’t hit the trash heap – or even the recycle bin. Hibberd said Purdue rents its exhibits to science or children’s museums across the country. Last year’s display – called The Bone Zone – was rented to a children’s museum in Terre Haute, Ind.
“This helps us offset costs and helps us become less dependent on tax dollars for some of the work we do,” Hibberd said. “It’s truly a team effort to pull all of this together.”

He said Purdue’s display area is also in concert with the goals of the national 4-H program, which has set the goal of inspiring one million students to choose a science-based career by 2015.

“In 4-H, we’re really emphasizing science,” Hibberd explained. “We want to help kids to understand the science that is behind everything. We need more scientists in America; we’re not producing the number we need for the future of our country.”
One way 4-H is attempting to accomplish this goal is through a science program that it hopes will inspire projects from every county in America. This year’s science program theme is biodiesel and biofuels.

Hibberd added that this program may even expand into traditional 4-H endeavors such as the livestock showring.

“We are rewriting the beef project,” he said. “ Most people think its just about getting an animal ready for the showring, but we want more than that. We want the kids to understand the genetics of what makes a good beef animal. We want them to understand what makes a beef animal tick.”

Science, engineering and technology are the building blocks of Purdue’s display at the Indiana State Fair. “Certainly that includes agriculture and ag-based science project,” Hibberd stated, “but it’s not exclusive to agriculture.”

One display titled What Does It Take to be Today’s Farmer explains to visitors the finer points of modern agriculture. The principles of stewardship, agribusiness, science and technology are covered with this exhibit. “This clearly show’s that it’s not your granddad’s farm anymore,” Hibberd added.

The Purdue display also explores other disciplines such as food science, entomology and economics.