Teacher Training

Professional Development Workshops for Individual Schools or Educators' Groups

We will gladly work with your staff to develop a program tailored to support your professional development goals for science and other areas of study. Programs may include inquiry-based classroom explorations, guided tours of the Garden's indoor and outdoor plant collections, and hands-on "potting-up" horticultural activities.

Some suggested workshop topics include the following:

• Sensory Learning Through Plant Explorations
• Journaling Through the Changing Seasons at Brooklyn Botanic Garden
• Expeditions into Habitats of the World
• Edible Plants in Everyday Life

Professional development courses are offered at BBG for individual teachers in collaboration with the NYC Department of Education. For more information and to arrange for a program designed to meet your needs, contact BBG's Teacher Education Coordinator at 718-623-7381.

Urban Composting Workshops for Teachers in New York City

Pre-K–12 Teachers

Worm Composting in the Classroom
Working with worms in the classroom offers a great hands-on way to teach ecology, recycling, and gardening. Learn how to set up a worm bin, feed worms with food scraps, and maintain the system successfully. Activities, curriculum ideas, and ways to incorporate worm composting into science, math, and language arts for students of all ages will be introduced. This class can also be held at your Brooklyn school for a group of ten or more teachers. Teachers will receive a voucher to buy a pound of red wiggler worms and a plastic worm bin for only $44.

For more information on this and other workshops offered by the NYC Compost Project in Brooklyn, call 718-623-7290.

Project Green Reach (PGR) is an outreach program for K–8 teachers and their classes from Brooklyn's Title I schools. PGR provides a curriculum package for the topic of your choice, inquiry-based instruction in your classroom with a plant for each student, transportation to and from and a guided tour of BBG, as well as teacher training and supplies for a community horticulture project.

Project Green Reach offers the following curriculum options:

Life Cycle of a Bulb (Fall Only)

The fast-growing paperwhite narcissus is the perfect subject for scientific observation and data collection. Students can see these bulbs bloom within six weeks of being planted. Find out with your class why bulbs grow so fast!

Life Cycle of a Seed (Spring Only)

We all love plants for their beautiful flowers, but what do flowers do for the plant? What role do fruits play in the lifecycle of a flowering plant? Students will explore, dissect and plant fast-growing bean seeds in order to observe a complete lifecycle in the classroom.

Kitchen Botany

Do people eat plants? When you eat a carrot, what part of the plant are you eating? Students will observe, plant, and cultivate their own carrots as they answer these questions and learn about the different plant parts and their functions.

Desert Environments

The desert environment is both harsh and fascinating. Students will discover how plants have adapted to survive the arid conditions and extreme temperatures of this environment. In class, students will dissect a cactus and pot up a desert plant of their own.

Tropical Rainforests

The tropical rainforest is home to an incredible diversity of plants. We will examine tropical plants up close to discover their particular niches within the rainforest environment. In class, students will each plant their own terrarium with tropical plants they propagate themselves. Themes of biodiversity, adaptation, and plant-animal interdependence are introduced.

Science Standards Connections

Use this matrix to find NYS Science Core Curriculum Standards supported by Project Green Reach.

Key

• S - Scientific Inquiry
• LE - The Living Environment

Leadership support for Project Green Reach provided by National Grid

After-School Professional Development Program “P” In-Service Course/NYC Department of Education

3 “P” credit course*

What Did a Plant Ever Do for You?
Offered Spring and Summer
This course provides an introduction to the science and art of botany and horticulture, taught in the context of the extensive indoor and outdoor plant collections of Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG). An understanding of the value of plants in natural and human history will complement an inquiry-based approach to learning how plants are built, how they work, and how they interact with the living and nonliving components of the diverse environments they inhabit.
12 Sessions/36 hours/Pre-K–12 Teachers

Fee: $200 (includes curriculum materials, reproducible handouts, plants, and potting-up supplies)

*3 “P” credits available for an additional $125 fee.

Registration must be completed online through BBG's online registration system and through the NYC DOE's After-School Professional Development Program.

For questions, please call BBG's teacher education coordinator at 718-623-7381.

Science Standards Connections

Use this matrix to find NYC Science Performance Standards supported in BBG School Programs.

Teacher Education

Programs are offered at BBG year-round and are designed to meet the educational needs and priorities of individual teachers, schools, regional districts, and parent/teacher associations.

Key

• S - Scientific Inquiry
• LE - The Living Environment