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Brooklyn Botanic Garden 2003 Annual Report
Children's Garden
Instilling a love of nature, learning by doing, acquiring self-reliance, age-appropriate gardening, attaining an understanding of the living world, getting dirty, and gardening with parents are some of the themes of the Children's Garden programs, as identified by University of Tennessee graduate student Melanie Blandford, who explored them for her master's thesis, "The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Children's Garden Program: A Case Study" (2003). During the course of the year, nearly 800 students participated in programs in BBG's Children's Garden. Another 129 students enrolled in other programs were able to use the Children's Garden as a resource for science explorations and activities. Generous public and private scholarships and grants made it possible for all interested children to attend the Garden's programs.
The Children's Garden Trees and Saplings program, in which children aged three to four learn how to care for plants and develop their curiosity for the natural world through hands-on exploration, was expanded this summer to four classes. The program, meant for children accompanied by a caregiver, took place throughout the Garden, including the Alfred T. White Memorial. The age range for the Seeds program was raised to channel BBG's youngest gardeners into the Trees and Saplings program, which is better suited to meet their developmental needs. During the school year, programming for 7- to 12-year-olds continued to grow, with classes running uninterrupted through spring break. Registration for weekday after-school programs matched or surpassed that of the regular Saturday classes in the Children's Garden.
More than 2,300 students from 43 schools in 15 school districts visited BBG for the annual Children's Garden Plant Sale. For 50 cents, children were able to purchase their own begonia, tomato, marigold, or coleus plant.
Fifty-five children took part in the eight-week Summer Science Adventure program for eight- to ten-year-olds. An average of 25 children participated each week. As a special feature, the children helped construct a model of the Hudson Watershed, complete with a running river, woodland and wetland habitats, and the major geographic features of the Hudson River Valley.
BBG continued its efforts to introduce young people to careers in environmental science. During the summer, 10 interns in horticultural education and 24 junior instructors, many of them alumni of the Children's Garden, gained valuable experience by helping BBG's education staff plan and conduct programs in the Children's Garden. Work continued on the redesign of the Junior Instructor program via a collaboration with the Audubon Zoo, a facility of the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, funded by the Arthur M. Blank Foundation. BBG staff visited the Audubon Zoo to observe its Junior Keeper training program with the goal of using it as a model for the expansion of the Garden's Junior Instructor program.
With its rainbow garden, wildlife meadow, sensory beds, herb chairs, sandwich beds, worm bins, woodland trail, and water-table displays, the Discovery Garden encouraged children and their families to interact with the natural environment and explore plant life. The Discovery Programs' drop-in workshops, which featured hands-on sensory activities, plant-oriented stories, and botanical craft projects, drew an average of 125 to 150 attendees for two-hour workshops. To support the "Plants of the World" summer trail, weekend drop-in workshops included ethnobotany-themed activities such as planting popcorn and ginger to take home and an updated Discovery Cart featuring ethnobotanical exhibits such as medicinal herbs, spices, and plants and paper products.