KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- Experts in ecology, landscape architecture and horticulture will join staff members of Cornell University Plantations April 13 at Pennsylvania's Longwood Gardens for a day-long exploration of the "living museum" and "classroom without walls" that embraces one of the nation's most beautiful college campuses.

"Exploring the Living Museum of Cornell University," a multimedia presentation for university alumni and guests, will introduce the new Cornell Plantations Path. Cornell faculty members will explain how they use unique resources of the campus as an outdoor laboratory and classroom for teaching and research.

Cornell President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes will deliver the keynote address. The symposium is presented in cooperation with the Cornell Clubs of Delaware, Maryland, Philadelphia, Lancaster, Pa., Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

Plantations Path -- a seven-mile series of walking trails that link downtown Ithaca, N.Y., with the central campus by way of glacial gorges, historic venues and waterfall vistas - - is the subject of a recently published guidebook as well as a three-screen video treatment, which will premiere at the Longwood Gardens presentation.

Calling the Cornell campus "a classroom without walls that is rich with a complex set of resources," Peter Trowbridge, Cornell professor of landscape architecture, will discuss the "first-hand accessibility of historic and contemporary design, a diverse use of construction materials and plant collections that cannot be replicated."

Experiential learning in design is essential, according to Trowbridge. "To see, touch and directly experience the living classroom of the university provides such an experience," he said. "Cornell Plantations provides a concentration of landscape resources, a 'middle landscape' that is richly focused and structured for study by both students and faculty."

Another speaker, Peter Marks, professor and chairman of ecology and systematics, looks to the wild side when he teaches about natural areas that still are preserved by Cornell Plantations. "Cornell is more than an attractively landscaped area," Marks notes. "It also contains more natural areas where little management is done. These areas are used extensively in the teaching of natural sciences," said Marks, whose research documents changes in the central New York landscape between 1790 and the present.

"Under the grassy 'skin' of Cornell Plantations lie some pretty awful soil conditions, not unlike those you might find in a highly urbanized area," says a nationally noted expert in city trees, Nina L. Bassuk, professor of floriculture and ornamental horticulture. The director of the Urban Horticulture Institute, Bassuk will explain that "difficult soil conditions and a variety of micro climates" make Plantations an ideal place for students to learn the four steps to successful landscape establishment: site assessment, plant selection, site modification and transplant technology.

"Cornell Plantations is where students learn the techniques of site analysis," Bassuk said, "and they follow through in a real setting."

The April 13 event also will include a guided tour of Longwood Gardens and will feature exclusive, behind-the- scenes looks at the inner working of one of the nation's most renowned display gardens.

More information on "Cornell Plantations Path: Exploring the Living Museum of Cornell University," is available by calling Cornell Plantations, (607) 255-3020, or the Cornell Middle Atlantic Regional Office, (610) 971-9157.