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Gardening for children & familiesat Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Joseph O. Holmes

Brooklyn Botanic Garden was founded in 1910 with the revolutionary vision that

environmental education, conservation, and community engagement were necessary parts of urban life, at a time

when Brooklyn was still principally agricultural.

Notable collections include:BonsaiJapanese Hill & Pond GardenOrchidsCycadsNative FloraPrunus (flowering cherries)Roses...and many more!

Plant collections comprised of:

17,313 accessions

+120,000 living plant specimens

+300,000 herbarium specimens

Horticulture

Sasha Wolf Gallery

Rebecca Bullene

Horticulture & Facilities

Plant Collections

Plant Records

Herbarium

Conservatories & Hort. Programs

Indoor Horticulture

GreenBridge Community Horticulture

NYC Compost Project in Brooklyn

Gardens & Grounds

1. Outdoor Gardens

Grounds Maintenance

Arboriculture

Facilities

Maintenance

Custodial

Horticulture & Facilities Team

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Children’s gardening programs at Brooklyn Botanic

Garden and design installations for children &

families

Caroline Voagen Nelson Education and Interpretation

The Garden’s Education and Interpretation Department creates

formal and informal educational opportunities for all ages grounded in

inquiry-based, hands-on experiences to encourage life-long learning about

science and the environment.

Children reached through education programs: 150,000/yr

CHILDREN’S EDUCATION director

SCHOOL PROGRAMS manager

SCHOOL PROGRAMS coordinator

PROJECT GREEN REACH (PGR) coordinator

BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT manager

TEACHER TRAINING coordinators (2)

YOUTH PROGRAMS manager

GARDEN APPRENTICE PROGRAM coordinator

CHILDREN’S GARDEN coordinator

INTERPRETATION AND EXHIBITIONS director

INTERPRETATION manager

DISCOVERY GARDEN & FAM. PROGRAMS manager

LIBRARY head librarian

LIBRARIAN assistant

CONTINUING EDUCATION manager

CONTINUING EDUCATION ccoordinator

REGISTRATION manager

REGISTRATION associate

Education Team and Resources

22 Full-time staff

167 Seasonal staff

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Numbers by the Year

• 150,000 program participants

• 85,000 self-guided school groups

• 13,000 drop-in program attendees

• 1000 children’s garden participants

• Informal education through new signage and exhibits and guided tours. (hard to quantify)

Youth ProgramsChildren’s Garden (ages 2 -18)

(1000 children/yr)

Garden Apprentice Program (60 high school

students/yr)

Summer Sessions (2nd grade – 8th grade)

•Nature Explorer’s Club•Summer Science Adventures•Field Investigators

School ProgramsSchool Workshops (192 classes, 4,651 children/yr)

Teacher Training (200 teachers for 36 hours each)

Urban Advantage (173 schools, 525 teachers, 53,100 students)

Project Green Reach programs (80 classes, 800 students)

Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (High school partnership)

Project Green Reach (PGR) • An outreach program for K–8 teachers and their classes

• from Brooklyn's Title I schools. • Inquiry-based program delivered by staff in schools – each

child gets a plant

• Paid transportation to BBG for guided tour

• Teacher training over multiple Garden visits and supplies for a community project.

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Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Caroline Voagen Nelson

Garden Apprentice Program (GAP)

• Work with staff and Garden visitors of all ages

• Learn about botany, ecology, environment, and conservation

• Grow, harvest, and cook food

• Explore Garden's plant collections

• Develop job skills, including teamwork, communication, and responsibility

9-month program for teens

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Continuing EducationAdult education for professionals and others (some family classes)

•Horticulture Certificate program•NYC Parks Department Horticulture Training

And classes in:•Gardening and horticulture•Floral design•Wellness•Edibles and cooking•Art•Botany

Library•80,000 volumes on subjects including science, botany, gardening, and horticulture •10,000+ photos•110,000+ slides (some on glass)•15,000 archival documents•3,000 pieces of art and artifacts

•Rare book collection - 1500 volumes from the 15th century through the 20th century

•Garden’s Historic Archives

•Gardener’s resource help line

Interpretation and ExhibitionsInformal learning in the Garden

•Signage and Exhibits on the groundsand in the Conservatory Gallery

•Directional and regulatory signage•New Garden projects (capital projects)

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Interpretationand Exhibitions

• Discovery Garden exhibits and programs

• Drop in programs for families

• Guided tours

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Key Trends• Expanding programming for underserved audiences

–Increasing our successful programming and educational opportunities to reach more, diverse audiences (ages, economic status, ability)

• Counteracting ecophobia and nature disconnect

• Children and adults are increasingly spending less time in nature

• Increasing life-long, informal learning opportunities

–Senior population attendance in museums is growing

–Out of school learning is increasingly seen as important

–Focus on test scores and core curriculum leaves less time for inquiry-based and exploration learning

GreenBridge

Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest

NYC Compost Project in Brooklyn

Brooklyn Urban Gardeners (BUG)

BBG Community Garden Alliance

Making Brooklyn Bloom

Street Tree Stewardship

60,000 people participate in BBG’s Community Horticulture programsannually.

Elizabeth Peters

Marketing and Public Engagement

The Garden’s Division of Marketing and Public Engagement is responsible for positioning the Garden as a highly attractive, year-round destination to the broadest possible audience.

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Education

Caroline Voagen Nelson

Children’sGarden

BBG

DiscoveryGarden

Joseph Holmes

Children’s GardenLouis Buhle

Children’s GardenLouis BuhleLouis Buhle

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Children’s GardenLouis Buhle

It is still the same program

after 100 years!

Louis Buhle http://elizabethwinpennylawson.com

Children’s Garden Today...

Caroline Voagen Nelson

BBG.org

Children’s GardenBBG

1-acre (0.40 ha) site

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Children’s GardenAntonio M. Rosario

Children’s GardenCaroline Voagen Nelson

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Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

Children’s Garden

Children’sGarden

BBG

DiscoveryGarden

Joseph Holmes

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BBG Discovery Garden before Joseph O. Holmes

Discovery Garden

Caroline Voagen Nelson

Discovery Garden 14

Discovery Garden last year...

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

BBG

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Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

Discovery Garden 21Discovery Garden

Caroline Voagen Nelson Caroline Voagen Nelson

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Access to freshwater & water conservatio

BBG.org

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nextcentury.bbg.org

Access to fresh water & water conservation

31water conservationnextcentury.bbg.org Development

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Cover of The Kid's Guide to Exploring Nature, 2014. Written by The Children’s Education Staff at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Illustrated by Laszlo Veres.

American Association for the Advancement of Science Prize for Excellence in Science Books:

2015 BEST HANDS-ON SCIENCE BOOK

Publications

Shows buds, leaf, flower, fruit, and seed of 33 trees that grow in North America with science stories and histories of each tree.

Winner, Garden Writers Association Gold Award

Publications

The design team collaborates with Interpretation to develop construction signage, brochures and guides as well as the Garden Shop to create branded products.

Design

For further info contact me:melaniesifton@bbg.org

M. Sifton. Courtesy of BBG

Tack!...and please visit us

in Brooklyn