Iowa State University Extension will have a tent of 21 displays at the 1996 Farm Progress Show today through Thursday.

The extension exhibits cover a variety of topics helping farmers and families improve their quality of life, said Judy Isaacson, media relations field specialist for east central ISU Extension.

Exhibits cover the areas of agriculture, communications, environment, health and safety and home and community.

“We hope that [visitors] will learn things to help them make better decisions in their operations,” Isaacson said.

“Our goal is to provide a display highlighting new technology and help people to be better prepared for the future.”

ISU Extension participates in the show when it comes to Iowa every three years. This is the biggest show in which they will participate, Isaacson said.

The exhibits are changed each year with ideas from state specialists and ISU faculty.

The displays will be used throughout the state for a number of years.

Isaacson said extension hopes to reach a lot of people in a short period of time and encourage them to make more local contacts with extension as they need them.

A new aspect to the Extension exhibit will include a display about ISU Admissions.

Individual colleges will be highlighted each day with a format to emphasize the entire university, said Eric Hoiberg, associate dean of the College of Agriculture.

Student representatives will attend each day with admissions representatives there throughout the show.

The display will be used as a recruiting device because a tremendous number of young people and parents will be there, Hoiberg said. Admissions wants to make initial contact with potential students and answer their questions.

“We feel this is a terrific opportunity to showcase Iowa State and familiarize potential ISU students and families with some of the programs,” Hoiberg said.

The featured colleges will have interactive demonstrations to get the audience involved.

The College of Family and Consumer Sciences will have an interactive board game. The College of Design will have art work on display.

An interactive computer with programs on biological sciences will represent the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

A water flow model will be on display for the College of Agriculture.

More information about ISU Extension displays is available on the home page of the World Wide Web at http://www.exnet.iastate.edu/.