At the Open House Weekend for the 90th anniversary of College Royal, the Department of Plant Agriculture saw a new partner along their display within the Crop Science building. With the OAC Soil and Crop Club breaking ground this past fall, they decided to put together an exhibit for the College Royal weekend to complement the exhibits many have enjoyed in previous years from the Department of Plant Agriculture and the Seeds and Forages Competition.

Each year, College Royal judges the displays and exhibits at the Open House weekend to see which clubs and groups have done excellent jobs in providing fun and interactive learning opportunities for the University's guests. This was the first year for the OAC Soil and Crop Club exhibit, and they placed third in OAC Open House Exhibits!

The club had two focuses when it came to developing this exhibit; it needed to be interactive and fun learning, and there had to be something for everyone to appreciate and learn. With those focuses in mind, the club's exhibit consisted of a display of what early crop seedlings actually look like, a match the seed to the fruit game, grain production information including what a bushel of corn actually looks like and the soybean planting area where kids planted their own soybeans to take home and grow! Members of the club enjoyed answering any questions the public had while they were there and especially enjoyed getting them interested in soil and crops.  To tie all of it together was the trivia wheel game where questions included facts the crowd would have learned from the exhibit, and College Royal questions too.

The club would like to thank the support from all theirs guests at the Open House Weekend. Also, this exhibit would not have happened without help and support from the Department of Plant Agriculture, Grain Farmers of Ontario, Woodrill Ltd., and the members of the OAC Soil and Crop Club.

 
Chris Budd  - Vice President OAC Soil and Crop Club

University of Guelph CAMA Chapter Member