Why do plants grow the way they do? What characteristics make them different or similar? How do climate zones determine plant adaptations? How do plants attract certain pollinators? How are plants used by different cultures? Build your students' awareness of the natural world during this general tour of the Conservatory and Trails.
- Awareness, sensitivity, questioning and investigation, climate zones, adaptation, ethnobotany
- Elementary, Middle, High School
Why do plants have fragrances? Are they rough, sticky, or smooth to the touch? What temperature and sounds in a natural and man-made environment can we identify around them? What different shapes do they take and why?
Through observation and investigation, students will compare and contrast plants based on sight, sound, smell, and touch in the Conservatory and Trails.
- Awareness, sensitivity, investigation, comparing, classifying
- Early Elementary
How are parts of an ecosystem related? How do they interact? Students will explore basic ecosystem concepts and processes in the human managed environment of the Conservatory and the more natural environment of the trails.
- Ecosystem relationships, food chains and web, energy distribution, succession, cycles, human impacts
- Elementary, Middle, High School
How do plants grow? Why are plants green and how do they feed themselves? How do they reproduce? How do plants live in extreme environments? Which plant parts are used for classification? Using the plant collections in the Conservatory and the outdoor environment, students will be shown living examples to explore plant parts and their functions, plant life cycles, plant energy production and storage, and plant classification.
- Investigation, classification, life cycles, energy use, adaptation, awareness, sensitivity
- Elementary, Middle School
What plants are native to the Americas? What is so special about them? How do they differ from plants found n Europe, Asia and Africa? How did people use them? Students will take an ethnobotanitcal tour of the New World plants in the Conservatory and outside on the garden grounds.
- Sensitivity, awareness, human and environmental interactions, ethnobotany
- Elementary, Middle, High School
What animals and plants can we find in and around a pond? How can we test for water quality? What plants do we find in a natural vs. a managed wetland? Students will explore the similarities and differences between several wetland areas. This two hour tour is hands-on and takes place outdoors.
- Classification, wetland ecology, ecosystem relationships, succession, life cycles, human modifications and impacts, water quality
- Elementary, Middle, High School
