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School Programs
Building programs that reach out to older youth continues to be an important focus for BBG. In September 2006, Sharon Myrie, vice president of Education, Elyssa Arnone, program manager for BASE, and Barbara Kurland, manager of School Programs, attended the Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) 6th Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens, held in Oxford, England. Over 320 delegates from 40 different countries were present. Based on BBG's work with Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (BASE) and the Garden Apprentice Program (GAP), Myrie, Arnone, and Kurland presented a paper entitled "Connecting with Teens: Strategies for Engaging Youth in Botanic Gardens" and led a hands-on workshop demonstrating activities that can be used to engage older youth.
Salutatorian Diedre Willer (right) receives her diploma from BASE Principal Veronica Peterson in the school’s first graduation ceremony.
Marking the Garden's fourth year as a partner with Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (BASE), educators at BBG maintained a leadership role in BASE, the public high school established at the former site of Prospect Heights High School on Washington Avenue, across the street from the Garden. Launched in 2003 in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance and the New York City Department of Education (DOE), BASE is part of the city-wide New Century High Schools Initiative, a joint initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Open Society Institute to create small, effective high schools that help students meet high standards of academic and personal success.
During its fourth year (2006–07), 450 students in grades 9 through 12 were enrolled at BASE, and the school was staffed by 33 teachers and 14 administrators and support staff. BASE was accepted into the first cohort of DOE's Empowerment School Initiative for the 2006–07 school year. This designation allows BASE Principal Veronica Peterson a high level of autonomy in academic leadership to choose programs that best meet student needs. In January, Sharon Myrie participated in a special visit to BASE by Allan Golston, newly appointed president of U.S. Programs for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This is the foundation's third visit to BASE, including a visit by Patty Stonesifer, chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. BASE was the only one out of 83 schools in New York City under the auspices of New Visions for Public Schools to be selected for a visit by Golston. BASE was also featured in an article in the April 2007 Mott Mosaic, published by the Charles Stuart Mott Foundation.
On June 26th, 2007, BASE achieved a major milestone—it held its first graduation. Eighty-two students (a 67 percent graduation rate) were granted a diploma—a significant increase from Prospect Heights High School's graduation rate of 33.9 percent in 2001–02 prior to being phased out. The keynote speaker at the graduation was Reverend Alfonso Wyatt, vice president of the Fund for the City of New York. The valedictorian for the class of 2007 was Thinlay Dolma and the salutatorian was Diedre Willer, both of whom had been active members of BBG's Garden Apprentice Program for three years.
A total of 144 ninth-grade students at BASE used the Garden's collections and facilities in 13 weekly field-study classes to supplement their required Living Environment class. Eight BASE juniors participated in science internships at BBG, working with Drs. Susan Pell and Gerry Moore. Interns helped build a DNA database of BBG's living collections and conducted a study of flotation properties of Carex seeds to determine whether they are dispersed via water. Students at the school have participated in experiential learning expeditions in locations such as the Florida Everglades and upstate New York. One student took part in research on polar bears in Manitoba, Canada. New this year, the Learning Passport program, created by BBG's partners at Prospect Park Alliance, began releasing students from school one afternoon each month to participate in explorations of cultural and environmental resources throughout the city, community service projects, and college preparation.
Discovery Tables and Carts on display during special events and exhibitions give children further opportunities to learn at the Garden.
Guided programs for public and private school groups throughout the city remain a vital way for BBG educators to help teachers and students make use of BBG plant collections to enhance science learning. During the past school year, 189 pre-kindergarten through grade-12 classes—a total of 4,604 students—attended school workshop programs at BBG. An additional 878 students in 47 classes had tours and plant-potting sessions led by volunteer Garden Guides. And 54,435 children from 2,015 groups visited with their teachers on free self-guided tours, having taken advantage of BBG's new online preregistration system.
For Brooklyn schools unable to take part in regular field trips to the Garden, Project Green Reach (PGR) provides a school-based, semester-long botanical education program, which includes an in-class lesson, a field trip to BBG, professional development for the teacher, and materials for a planting project to benefit the local community. This year, 40 schools, 86 teachers, and 1,723 students participated in the program. In summer 2006, 22 students who had taken part in the PGR program with their school classes were selected to work as Junior Botanists (grades 4, 5, and 6) or Plant Investigators (grades 7 and 8) onsite at BBG for six weeks. These children, from low-income backgrounds, received full scholarships to the program. They raised plants in the Children's Garden, conducted scientific experiments, and took a three-day camping trip to the Delaware Water Gap.
Through the Teacher Education Program, BBG educators work with teachers from all five boroughs to provide training in current educational methods in science and other disciplines. Eight one-day workshops provided professional development for 118 educators; they included four workshops for 42 teachers from nonpublic schools and four workshops custom-designed for individual schools or groups, serving 76 teachers. Another 67 teachers enrolled in a 30-hour course offered three times during the year, entitled What Did a Plant Ever Do for You? The course is equivalent to three graduate credits through the After School Professional Development Program of the New York City Department of Education. BBG also served as an informal educational training and observation site for 12 education-major students at Kingsborough Community College and New York University's Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education.
BBG continued to be a partner in the Urban Advantage collaboration with seven other scientific institutions led by the American Museum of Natural History. The goal of Urban Advantage is to improve the quality of required eighth-grade exit projects (individual student research projects) through teacher training and making institutional resources accessible to their students and families. Funded by the New York City Council, Urban Advantage in its third year provided 219 middle school science teachers (representing 21,810 students in public schools throughout the city) with professional development sessions, science equipment for their classrooms, and access to the partner institutions' resources. BBG educators collaborated on program development and new teacher orientation, provided a 24-hour course at the Garden for 21 teachers and a 12-hour course for an additional 21 teachers, and hosted several one-day sessions on site. New program elements this year included training of school Parent Coordinators to facilitate student visits to the institutions and the development of demonstration schools to serve as model centers of project-based learning for educators from other middle schools throughout the city. BBG educators also cooperated on the Citywide Urban Advantage Science Expo, a year-end celebration that featured a display of student projects, which was attended by 1,200 students, parents, and teachers.
BBG has a partnership with two public schools, City-As-School and P.S. 77, to provide service-learning projects for students. High school students from City-As-School gain real work experience acting as assistant BBG educators and assisting in program preparation and horticulture projects. Two classes of special needs students from P.S. 77 come to the Garden every week to perform maintenance duties in the education greenhouses.
In May, the Children's Plant Sale welcomed 4,454 students from local schools and day care centers over a two-day period. Each child received a plant to care for at home for the low cost of 50˘, from a selection of easy-to-grow begonias, marigolds, tomatoes, and coleus.