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Education E-update
- July 2009
BGCI Education Team
 | Spread the Word!
 Education E-update is now more than four years old and reaches more than 1,000 plant-based educators worldwide each month. However, we know there are countless more educators at botanic gardens and education sites who could benefit from the news, ideas, and resources contained in each issue. Please help us spread the word about Education E-update by forwarding this issue to your colleagues and encouraging them to subscribe. And keep your news and resources coming! Send us information about events or new resources at your botanic garden or education site, 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 launches new climate change education resources: BGCI are pleased to announce a range of new climate change education resources, now available on the BGCI website. 'Voice Your Choice' engages students in real-world debate and a vote on climate change issues. An additional eight teaching activities draw on case studies from BGCI's report, 'Plants and climate change: which future?', and are suited for Key Stage 2 , Key Stage 3 and GCSE level. You can also download a presentation on the relationship between plants and climate change, information about BGCI's involvement in the Fairchild Challenge, and a guide to setting up a climate change education trail in your botanic garden. Early bird deadline approaching for BGCI's Education Congress: The deadline for early bird registration for BGCI's Seventh International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens is 31 July. Register before the deadline and you will receive a significant discount on Congress fees. The Congress will take place 1-5 November in Durban, South Africa. Additionally, the Congress programme is now available online. Packed with fascinating papers, workshops and posters from colleagues all around the world, this is a botanic garden education congress not to miss! 'Botanic Gardens in the Age of Climate Change': This was the title of the European botanic gardens conference (Eurogard V), held in Helsinki, Finland, from 8-12 June. More than 200 delegates attended the meeting, which focused on a range of topics concerned with the conservation of plant diversity in a changing climate. A series of workshops examined the implementation of the targets of the GSPC. One of these looked at the success of botanic gardens in incorporating Target 14 (communication, education and public awareness) into all other targets of the GSPC. A gap analysis demonstrated that botanic gardens are very active in delivering Target 14. However, there has been less emphasis on incorporating CEPA into the implementation of other targets, in particular Target 6 (management of production lands), Target 10 (alien species) and Target 11 (international trade). Recommendations from this workshop and the rest of the conference will be available soon on the conference website. Input sought on distance learning course: A consortium of organisations, including BGCI, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London South Bank University, and the Zoological Society of London amongst others, is exploring the idea of setting up an International Distance Learning Course on Site-Based Environmental Education. The course would be designed for people working in sites such as bird sanctuaries, botanic gardens, field study centres, natural history museums, wetland centres, and zoos. Course design would enable students to study in their own time, at home, at work or wherever they choose. Course materials would be made available online initially in English, and students would have access to support from tutors and other students. The organisers are seeking input on interest in and the design of the course. Please help out by completing a short online survey. Makana Botanical Gardens to feature flower festival: Makana Botanical Gardens (South Africa) will host a weekend flower festival in early November. In addition to floral competitions for local gardeners, the festival will feature demonstrations by local horticultural service providers and workshops on the latest trends in garden design. National Botanic Gardens of Ireland hosting art exhibitions: Two art exhibitions will be on display this summer and fall at the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland. Until 4 August, visitors can enjoy ' Augustine Henry Plants', an exhibition of botanical art depicting plants from the life of botanical explorer and plant hunter Augustine Henry. Then from 3 September-16 October, 'Sculpture in Context', the largest outdoor sculpture exhibition held in Ireland, will be on display. The works of more than 100 artists, all of whom were challenged to respond creatively to locations in the Gardens, will be featured. Brooklyn Botanic Garden to break ground on new visitor centre: Brooklyn Botanic Garden (USA) has unveiled plans for a new visitor centre to open in 2011. The visitor centre will house a new garden shop, an orientation room for tours and classes, an information desk, an event space, a refreshment bar, and ample restrooms. Visitors will learn what is in bloom, how to read a plant label, how to register for a course, and when upcoming events are taking place. Cibodas Botanic Garden planning new rose garden: Cibodas Botanic Garden (Indonesia) will begin work on a new rose garden next year. The 4250-square-meter garden is being built to reach out to more visitors and to help expand the Garden's collection of roses. Memphis Botanic Garden set to open new children's garden: Next month, Memphis Botanic Garden (USA) will open a 2.5-acre children's garden. The US $5.8 million project, called 'My Big Backyard', will feature 16 areas for children to learn, explore, play and dream. From a treetop adventure to a tunnelling excursion that lets kids see the world as a worm sees it, the new garden will offer engaging adventures for children of all ages. Urban gardening symposium scheduled for Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden: 'Green Tonic: Urban Gardening for Health and Wholeness', will be held 4-5 August at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (USA). The symposium will examine community greening models, the infrastructure and public policies that help them succeed, and examples of neighbourhoods that have benefited from community gardens. We want to hear from you! Send us the latest 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 ongoing professional development required for education staff at your botanic garden or plant-based education site? Click on a response below to cast your vote! Yes, professional development is required. No, professional development is not required. Last month, we asked whether your botanic garden or education site is planning a special art exhibition in the coming year. Here's what you said! 
| | Tools You Can Use
'The Nature of Experience': The Chelsea Group of Children Special School (UK) has unveiled a new website, 'The Nature of Experience', focusing on embedding nature-based learning at the heart of curriculum for children with special needs. The School's project has also been featured on the UK Department for Children, Schools, and Families' 'What Works Well' website. A workshop based on the project will be held 29 September at the London Science Learning Centre. Library of Congress offers environmental education collection: The United States Library of Congress features an online collection of resources in support of nature- and environment-based education. The collection includes presentations, exhibitions, webcasts, news, and classroom materials. 'Meeting Environmental Challenges: The Role of Human Identity': This new paper from WWF argues that the environmental movement's focus on changing organisations and behaviours needs to be supplemented by engaging with our identities. 'Climate Chaos' activities: Oxfam have released a series of education activities about climate change for ages 9-11. The materials provide an overview of the causes and consequences of climate change, and focus especially on impacts on people in the developing world. Have you got an education resource that you can't do without? Send us your most valuable tools or resources, and we'll include them in an upcoming issue of Education E-update. | | 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. | | | | July 2009 | | In the Spotlight This month, we shine the spotlight on Barbara Kurland, School Programmes Manager at Brooklyn Botanic Garden (USA). If you would like to be "In the Spotlight" or would like to nominate someone to be profiled, send us an email. How long have you worked in plant-based education? I have been teaching and learning at Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) since 1989, a little over 20 years. I have taught and learned with children and youth in grades pre-K through high school as well as adults in our Teacher Training, Continuing Education and Garden Guide training programmes. How did you become involved in plant-based education? I came to BBG to co-ordinate an outreach programme, 'Growing Green Partners', that provided access for elementary school classes to the Garden and sent me into 50 schools a year with activities including planting bulbs and seeds and creating a rooftop school garden. I was planning to return to teaching science in the New York City public schools, but the opportunity to teach for BBG combined my scientific interest in botany, admiration for plants, and placed me in the City's classrooms where I wanted to be after all! What would you say your philosophy is on education and learning? The role of a teacher is that of a guide--someone who provides access to the opportunity to learn and the knowledge itself. As a secondary school science teacher, I always believed that my job was to find a way for all of my students to absorb and understand the science content. It was my responsibility to get every student to the same level of comprehension and confidence as a science learner. I believe that teachers should have the highest expectations for all of their students and then provide the means for all to achieve at that highest level. What is your most memorable moment as a plant-based educator? Our Garden is located in the midst of Brooklyn's residential and commercial neighbourhoods. In my first spring at BBG, I was greeting a group of third graders. They were entering the lobby of our building having just come in from the busy street and could see into the Garden through the glass doors ahead. One child exclaimed, 'This is paradise!' The response of children and youth to the plants and the Garden has been a continual source of inspiration for me and reminds me of how vital our green paradise is to the well being of our communities here in Brooklyn. What is your favourite teaching technique? I understand teaching and learning as a collaboration between the teacher and the learner, so I like my interactions to be as much of a conversation as possible. The formal teaching technique I prefer is guided inquiry--providing opportunities for students to make authentic observations, recording and communicating their observations and questions, and scaffolding learning by using their questions to guide their understanding of concepts and content. What one teaching resource could you not do without? Our children's education greenhouses. Our department maintains its own collection of plants including desert succulents, tropical foliage plants, herbs and edible plants, and useful plants including medicinal and fiber plants in our own series of greenhouses. We use these plants in all of our programmes--they can be closely examined and touched and enable our participants to experience the plants using multiple senses. In addition, we propagate plants in our greenhouses for the 'potting up' activities in our programmes; all of our children's education programmes on site and off site incorporate an experience for each child to plant their own seeds or plants to take home and care for. Having our own plant collection and propagation space is an invaluable resource the Garden has provided for us. What is the one thing you want your audiences to go away knowing? I want them to know that plants are important and have unique and amazing abilities that support the majority of life forms on our planet--and that they can grow and care for plants in their homes, schools and communities in our city. What one piece of advice can you offer to an educator starting up an education programme in a botanic garden? Connect to your garden's community. Why does your community come to your garden? What questions do they have when they come? What knowledge of plants and gardens do they have to share with you? What content in the local schools' curriculum would be enhanced by students visiting the garden? What is your favourite plant? I have to pick only one! That is hard! If I have to name only one it will be Nelumbo nucifera, Sacred Lotus. These plants are blooming now in summer at BBG. The beauty and bearing of the leaves and flowers of this ephemeral plant--ephemeral in our cool temperate climate here in NYC--overwhelms my senses every summer when it emerges in our lily pools. For more information about education programmes at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, email Barbara Kurland or visit the Gardens' website. | | | | | | What We're Reading  Sense and Sustainability, by Ken Webster and Craig Johnson. The authors of this book argue that Education for Sustainable Development "needs to be about 'better and better' not 'less and less'. In this it leaves to one side ESD as 'education-for-doing-slightly-less-harm' and reaches out to possibilities and the imagination." Click on the image above to buy this book from BGCI's Amazon bookstore. | | | | | | Make your plans for South Africa! Join hundreds of botanic garden and plant-based educators in Durban, South Africa, from 1-5 November, 2009, for BGCI's Seventh International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens. Visit the Education Congress website for full details and registration information. | | | | | | Spread the news about your education programmes, projects and successes! Send us your news to be included in the next issue of Education E-update. | | | | | | | | | Education E-update is a free e-newsletter published monthly by Botanic Gardens Conservation International. Botanic Gardens Conservation International
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