August 1, 2021
Visitors to the Pasto Agricultural Museum during Penn State’s Ag Progress Days, Aug. 10-12, can explore the intersection of science and history. “During the show, we will connect our agricultural past with present-day practice and research around food, environment and renewable resources,” said the museum's curator, Rita Graef. “Programs at the museum will immerse visitors in thinking about our food and fiber systems and natural resources. The museum provides an opportunity to explore important issues facing agriculture and the environment in a historical context.”
October 1, 2020
The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization marks October 16, with activities and resources to promote worldwide awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger and for the need to ensure healthy diets for all. Each and every one of us plays a role in our interconnected global food, fiber, and natural resource systems! Closer to home, our colleagues in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State have shared an opportunity to get creative as we think about food and food security, with poetry. Your poetry! Anyone can write poetry and anyone may enter. Looking for a little help on how to write a poem? Deadline for entries is December 1, 2020. Winners will be announced at the #GLAG21 Global Teach Ag! Conference in February 2021.
August 2, 2020
I Remember Ag Progress Days: an Oral History Project, produced by the Friends of the Pasto Agricultural Museum, aims to ensure that the stories of the earliest Ag Progress Days event are captured, and that the memories of those involved not be lost. Interviews with volunteers, staff, and visitors will attempt to place the many facets of planning, organizing, and participating in such a large event in context so that their recollections can inform the past, enrich the present, and provide a glimpse of the future.
August 13, 2019
The demonstration of the Pasto Agricultural Museum's 1905 Panama O.K. Hay Press will highlight the historical facility's offerings at Ag Progress Days, set for Aug. 13-15.
August 12, 2019
Funds raised in the 2019 silent auction will underwrite new curriculum development and programming called “THIS! is What AgSci Looks Like.”
July 16, 2019
Tuesday, July 16, marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission’s Saturn V rocket launch. Three Penn State colleges, the NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium and the Pasto Agricultural Museum will mark the occasion with a free family event that will include a simultaneous rocket launch, hands-on activities, exhibits and demonstrations.
June 8, 2019
The Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation is a charitable organization supported by the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. The Foundation has been educating the public and promoting agriculture, the largest of the Commonwealth’s industries since its inception in 1986. Here at Pasto we partner with Ag in the Classroom and provide programming annually.
June 8, 2019
AgMap is an online searchable directory of America's agricultural businesses, which includes producers, processors, and service providers.
June 1, 2019
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s Pasto Agricultural Museum will be the site of June 8 programming aimed at helping Boy Scouts earn a Forestry Merit Badge. The event is being held during the 2019 Pennsylvania Timber Show.
April 14, 2019
People interested in learning the science behind ice cream should plan to attend the annual open house and ice cream social at Penn State’s Pasto Agricultural Museum, set for 1 to 4 p.m. on April 14.
April 2, 2019
Join us to see what damselflies and dragonflies have to do with agriculture! Join us to examine damselflies and dragonflies, hands-on science and history fun for the entire family. Children with parents and/or grandparents! Young and young at heart! We meet scientist Emily who shares the tools she uses in the field and in the lab Wednesday evening 4/10 at 6:30pm. We’ll be exploring the life cycles of the suborder Odonata, observing wings under a microscope, and mounting “insects” to take home. Saturday morning 4/6 at 10am we will share similar activities mixed with children’s literature to find the science and agriculture “take wing” in the stories we read.
April 1, 2019
Join us to examine corn, strawberries, watermelon, and foods early man might have eaten (and how we know), hands-on science and history fun for the entire family. We meet scientists Maggie and Lily who share the tools they use in the field and in the lab Wednesday evening 4/3 at 6:30pm
March 1, 2019
This week’s topic is Ichthyology! Meet researcher, Sara Mueller, on Wednesday evening at 6:30pm and try on the gear that she uses in the field. In the lab, she is using CT scanning technology to compare brook trout from various water bodies. On Saturday morning at 10am we’ll be reading fish tales and painting fish tails using a technique called gyotaku. Designed to engage youth and their grownups in hands-on science and discovery. Look at specimen and make observations in field notebooks that we have waiting for you! Each registered youth receives a bright yellow official “Rite-In-The-Rain” journal to use throughout the program.
March 1, 2019
Wednesdays and Saturdays in March and April 2019
September 1, 2018
Saturday, September 22, 2018 at 1-4 pm The PA Wagn (Pennsylvania Women in Agriculture Network) joins us at the museum to feature speakers working in agriculture today. Taste fresh shrub, while you meet Kim Tait from Tait Farm Foods, dig into tools and tool making with folks from Green Heron Tools, and learn about canning and food preservation with Elaine Smith, and more! Hands on activities for the whole family. FREE with suggested donation of $5 per person, $10 per family.
August 14, 2018
"We earmarked funds raised in the 2018 silent auction for enhancing interactive exhibits and displays with video touchscreen technology to connect our agricultural past to the present day," she said. "Auction donations are accepted through the Monday before Ag Progress Days. Please be generous with your auction donations and bids. Take home a little bit of history."
August 14, 2018
A new permanent exhibit, "Wood, Iron and Steel — Tools and Tool Making for Agriculture," will be unveiled for the show. This exhibit examines the materials and methods used to make many of the tools and technology featured throughout the museum.
April 1, 2018
Sunday, April 22, 2018 at 1-4 pm Pack up the family and come out for a visit! Hands on activities! Fun for the whole family, where we connect the science and history of our agricultural past with the present day.
November 5, 2017
The Penn State Pasto Agricultural Museum closed out its 2017 season with its annual, “Hey! There’s Science in My Ice Cream!” event on Sunday. The open house welcomed families, children and couples of all ages for an afternoon combining everyone’s love of ice cream with a little science and exploration.
August 17, 2017
The Historic Eastern Longhunter char cloth and fire-starting demonstration will be held at 2:30 p.m. Thursday. "Visit with an Eastern longhunter to learn what life was like in the 1750s," Graef said. "Learn how people who carved out this land cooked their meals, stayed warm in the winters, and made wisps of light through the night. Join Dave Benner as he discusses the art of fire-making before the Bic lighter."
August 16, 2017
Jim Walizer, a museum volunteer otherwise known as the Axe Whisperer will be sending you back in time with his collection of historic axes.
August 15, 2017
A silent auction will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, inside the museum. Bidding closes at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The annual event is the venue's single biggest fundraiser, helping to support programming and exhibits that serve museum visitors, Graef noted.
June 1, 2017
Tuesday, June 10, 2017 Bring your ideas! We will discuss what we have accomplished in the past 5 years and take a look at our future. We will outline and brainstorm future exhibits, tours, and programming.
May 1, 2017
Saturday, May 20, 2017 9am-3pm
April 20, 2017
Ag & History Tour – You can register through this Thursday 4/20 for our motor coach tour to Doylestown PA. Join us to see three sites, filled with early agricultural and pre-industrial tools and technology and beautiful decorative arts. The Mercer Museum, Font Hill Castle, and Moravian Tiles works will be the focus of a great day of friendship, food, exploration of history and its connection to the present day!
March 2, 2017
Our guest researchers are Corey and Austin, Farm Managers here at the 2,200 acre Russell E. Larson Agricultural Center for Research and Education. Wednesday evening 3/27 at 6:30pm (and Saturday 3/30 at 10am) they will share the equipment that they use in the field, including some things too large to bring inside. Be sure to arrive a little early to see what’s parked just outside our museum! We’ll look at drone video of the farm and talk about how research conducted here is helping farmers grow our food and manage our natural resources. We look forward to engaging youth and adults in hands-on science and discovery. There is a bright yellow official "Rite-In-The-Rain" field notebook reserved for your family to use throughout our program series. If you have already received one, please be sure to bring it back this week as we’ll have more observations to record!
November 6, 2016
“Hey! There’s Science in My Ice Cream,” the museum’s annual ice cream social, will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 6. Personnel from the Department of Food Science in the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences will churn fresh ice cream and reveal some of the scientific secrets of making Penn State Berkey Creamery ice cream.
November 1, 2016
Sunday, November 6, 2016 at 1-4 pm Live music with the Stone Valley Pickers, Food Science Faculty churning fresh ice cream and talking about the science in your ice cream, hands on activities and crafts, and of course we'll announce the name of our cow! Be there! FREE (donations welcome) and open to the public.
October 30, 2016
In conjunction with Penn State University Press, the Pasto Museum will host “Wood Hicks and Bark Peelers,” a presentation and book signing with authors and historians Ronald E. Ostman and Harry Littell, at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30.
October 25, 2016
At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25, local historian and Penn State electrical engineering graduate Bob Hazelton will deliver a Halloween-appropriate lecture, “The Ghost Town Next Door — the Story of Erbtown.” A member of the Pasto Museum, Centre County Genealogical Society, and Bald Eagle Archaeological Society, Hazelton serves as a history consultant to the ClearWater Conservancy and as vice president of the Centre County Historical Society. Hazelton is a member of the Pasto Museum, Centre County Genealogical Society and Bald Eagle Archaeological Society and serves as a history consultant to ClearWater Conservancy and as Vice President of the Centre County Historical Society. He will share his experiences exploring and researching the abandoned early settlement, and make connections between past and present of the area between Pine Grove Mills and Baileyville, Pennsylvania.
Pasto Agricultural Museum
Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, March through December
- Email PastoAgMuseum@psu.edu
- Office 814-863-1383
Pasto Agricultural Museum
Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, March through December
- Email PastoAgMuseum@psu.edu
- Office 814-863-1383
