Wednesday, November 15, 2006 - 9:00 AM
225-1

Managing a Living Crop Museum.

Thomas Stilwell, Wilmington College, 1376 Greene Rd., Martinsville, OH 45146, United States of America

The Living Crop Museum is maintained at Wilmington College to serves college teachers and their classes, middle and high school teachers and their classes, and individuals in the community. The Museum consists of 73 plots of 100 sq. ft. each where crops are planted and maintained for public viewing.  Three main types of crops are included: grain crops, forage crops and other crops.  The grain crop section is subdivided into cereal grains, leguminous grains, and other grains.  Forage crops are subdivided into cool season grasses, warm season grasses, legumes, and annual forages. Other crops include temperate and tropical crops. College instructors use the Museum to show students living crops for livestock production courses, grain production courses, forage production courses, human ecology courses, and general education courses dealing with food or nutrition.  Local schools use the resource for short student tours to show crops growing in a production setting. Various community service groups have toured the Museum as an educational event.. Commercial production practices have been modified to better suit teaching schedules. Some classes have been rescheduled to make use of Museum plots. Materials produced in the Museum are used in classroom exercises. Examples are seed identification modules and dry seed & leaf mounts to demonstrate characteristics of a crop plant when it is not available in the field. An internet web site presents monthly pictures of every plot during the year plus detailed photos of seeds and plants. Brief information is included about cultivation of each crop in Ohio. The web address is:
http://plato.wilmington.edu/faculty/tstilwel/Crop_Museum/living_crop_museum.htm


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