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Education E-update
- February 2009
BGCI Education Team
 | More Gardens Strengthen Their Web Presence
 Since our report last month on botanic garden blogs, we've received updates from E-update readers about additional innovative uses of the web at botanic gardens around the world. Brooklyn Botanic Garden (USA), for example, is featuring a blog by one of its researchers as she collects plant specimens during a six-week expedition in New Guinea. Additionally, a variety of botanic gardens were featured in a syndicated news story about virtual garden tours, which appeared in a variety of newspapers in North America. All of these are examples of opportunities to educate your visitors in new and innovative ways. Please keep us informed about events and education resources at your botanic garden or education site. Send us your news, and we'll include it in an upcoming Education E-update. Best wishes,
The BGCI Education Team
education@bgci.org (for general education enquiries to BGCI)
e-update@bgci.org (for Education E-update enquiries)
| | Education News From Around the World
BGCI supports education in Italian botanic gardens: Interpretation was the theme of BGCI's latest training course at Cascina Rosa Botanic Garden in Milan, Italy. Twenty-five participants from six botanic gardens of the Lombardy region in northern Italy came together to learn techniques for designing effective guided tours, trails, and signs, and to experience a range of environmental games and activities. Feedback from the course was extremely positive: 'I found the course stimulating, new and innovative. It made me understand the importance of interpretation and networking,' said participant Paola Caccia, Brera Botanic Garden. Plans are now underway to develop an educational network for the region and to collaborate on educational projects. For more information, contact Mara Sugni. Get involved with Plant Conservation Day: Is your botanic garden planning to celebrate Plant Conservation Day on May 18? Do you have educational activities planned for your celebration that work well with the public? If so, we would like to hear from you! BGCI is currently revamping the Plant Conservation Day website and is keen to include ideas for activities that can be run in botanic gardens and zoos worldwide. Email us about your Plant Conservation Day activities. Education Congress abstract deadline extended and registration fees reduced! Abstracts are still welcome for BGCI's Seventh International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens. The Congress will be held Nov. 1-5 in Durban, South Africa, and is co-sponsored by Durban Botanic Gardens. Submit your abstract before the Feb. 28 deadline in one of four themes: achieving the MDGs and GSPC through education; ways of learning towards environmental justice; climate change and botanic gardens; and the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Registration fees have been significantly reduced to make the congress more affordable. Check out the Congress website for details and sign up to receive regular Congress updates via email. Share your thoughts about Roots: Last month, a link to a survey to find out what you think of Roots, our education review, was broken! However, it's now mended and we would like to hear from you. Please take just a few minutes to complete our online survey. Your views will help us develop a more effective publication. Botanic Gardens Trust kicks off year of Darwin celebrations: 'Dining With Darwin' is the first in a year-long series of events sponsored by the Botanic Gardens Trust (Australia) to celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin. Other upcoming events include a public birthday party (complete with cupcakes!) and the installation of a special Darwin-themed interpretive exhibit. Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, hosts Snowdrop Festival: Snowdrops are being celebrated throughout February at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (UK), Snowdrop Festival. Special events include morning snowdrop walks, a scientific conference, a photo exhibition, and art activities for families. New education centre planned for Bellevue Botanical Garden: A new 1,450-square-foot visitor centre and a new 4,200-square-foot education centre have been approved at the Bellevue Botanical Garden (USA). Other features to be added include a 'tree house' and a suspension footbridge. What's the latest at your botanic garden? Send us news from your botanic garden or education site, and we'll include it in an upcoming issue of Education E-update. | | PlantEd Poll
It's quick and fun! Read this month's poll question and click on your response. We'll publish the results in the next Education E-update! This month's poll: Is your garden or education site planning a Plant Conservation Day celebration this May? Click on a response below to cast your vote! Yes Maybe No Last month, we asked whether your botanic garden or education site publishes a blog. Here's what you said! 
| | Tools You Can Use
Darwin-themed American Biology Teacher: The latest issue of the American Biology Teacher includes resources and ideas for marking Darwin's 200th birthday. Featured articles include 'Teaching Evolution Through Inquiry-based Lessons of Uncontroversial Science' and 'Explaining Biogeographic Data: Evidence for Evolution.' Botanic garden film project underway: Efforts are underway to produce a series of short films, 'Bringing Plants to Life.' The films will focus on plants and botanic gardens, and will be distributed for use in botanic garden interpretation and visitor centres. If you or your education site would like to be involved in this project or are interested in copies of the finished videos, please contact Dina Gallick. International Course in Environmental Social Marketing and Applied EE: Environmental Education and Conservation Global and the Nature Conservation Society, Amravati (India), are sponsoring a three-week course focusing on social marketing techniques and their integration with education and communication strategies. The course takes place Nov. 2-20 in Amravati, India. For more information, email emccrea@eecg.org or ncsa.india@gmail.com. | | Housekeeping
To subscribe to Education E-update, use our online form. To unsubscribe from Education E-update, simply reply to this email with "unlist" in the subject line. For information about how we protect your privacy, see our Privacy Policy. To reuse content from Education E-update in your own publication, send us an email. Feel free to forward this newsletter, however. | | | | February 2009 | | In the Spotlight This month, we shine the spotlight on Martin Clement, Education Officer at Durban Botanic Gardens (South Africa). The Gardens will be the host and co-sponsor of BGCI's Seventh International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens this November. If you would like to be "In the Spotlight", send us an email. How long have you worked in plant-based education? Since 2002. How did you become involved in plant-based education? As a horticulturalist, I have long been interested in people-plant relationships and how plants connect to people's lives. Part of this discovery was encountering interpretation as a wonderfully creative and provocative medium of communication. What would you say your philosophy is on education and learning? For me it's the value of narrative in connecting people to plants. Botanic gardens are rich sensory and storied landscapes that the visitor is able to unlock through various interpretive means. The EE approach of about, in and for the environment provides one with a multilayered issues- and action-based approach. I tend to work thematically when designing programmes. What is your most memorable moment as a plant-based educator? Our first Grade 000 programme for three-year-olds! Generally working with young people, the energy and spontaneity and sharing of ideas is a real WOW! More recently it was the development of our new permaculture training garden. What is your favourite teaching technique? Using found objects or a special plant in flower in the Gardens to create interpretive everyday encounters. What teaching resource could you not do without? Some of our flagship plants in the Gardens, but ultimately it's the way people respond and their involvement in a particular programme that is the most meaningful resource. What is the one thing you want your audiences to go away knowing? That we can all play an active part in caring for our planet's biodiversity. That living plants and ecosystems are vital for life on our planet. That nature is not simply something that is out there with a fence around it. What one piece of advice can you offer to an educator starting up an education programme in a botanic garden? Environmental education within botanic gardens does not happen in isolation. A strong, active network of colleagues both within and outside the organisation is vital for keeping work and ideas fresh. Our programmes need to continually evolve and improve. We need to continually strive to make gardens 'come alive' for people. What is your favourite plant? This would depend on what time of the year it is, what is in flower. There is always an element of surprise--a plant that might not have appeared interesting before, but with a particular group acquires a whole new set of meanings. Indigenous medicinal plants and their uses are fascinating. For more information about education programmes at Durban Botanic Gardens, email Martin Clement or visit the Gardens' website. For more information about the Seventh International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens to be held at Durban Botanic Gardens this November, visit the Congress website. | | | | | | What We're Reading  Demons in Eden: The Paradox of Plant Diversity, by Jonathan Silvertown. Demons in Eden takes us to regions around the world rich in plant diversity and highlights the threats to plants posed by invasive species and human activities. Click on the image to buy this book from BGCI's Amazon bookstore. | | | | | | Fancy a trip to South Africa? Submit your abstract for BGCI's Seventh International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens, 'Action Learning: Places, Spaces and Partnerships for Biodiversity and Human Well-being'. Hundreds of botanic garden and plant-based educators will congregate in Durban, South Africa, from 1-5 November, 2009. Abstracts are now welcome to be submitted via the official congress website. | | | | | | How will you be celebrating Plant Conservation Day? May 18 is Plant Conservation Day. Check out the official website for ideas on how to celebrate at your botanic garden, zoo, or other education site. | | | | | | | | | | | Education E-update is a free e-newsletter published monthly by Botanic Gardens Conservation International. Botanic Gardens Conservation International
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