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Programs for Teachers and Students

Teacher Education

Teacher Education Programs are offered at BBG year-round and are designed to help you integrate plant studies in your own classroom and extend your lessons to the Garden and other green spaces in your community.

Professional Development Courses are offered at BBG for individual teachers in collaboration with the NYC Department of Education. Check our menu of programs below. For more information, call BBG's Teacher Education Coordinator at 718-623-7381.

BBG is approved by the NYC Department of Education to provide science professional development services to individual schools, regional districts, and parent/teacher associations. We will gladly work with your staff to develop a program tailored to your staff development goals. Call BBG's Teacher Education Coordinator at 718-623-7381 for more information.

After-School Professional Development Program In-Service Course

(NYC Department of Education 3P-credit course/30 hours/Pre-K-12 Teachers)

Registration must be completed online at the After School Professional Development Program at www.nyaspdp.org.

What Did a Plant Ever Do For You?

Offered Spring and Summer

This course will enhance teachers' use of plants in classrooms and school gardens to enrich science, social studies, math, language/literature and arts curricula. Educators are introduced to BBG's extensive plant collections and learn how to use the Garden as an extension of their classroom, a living laboratory for environmental and science explorations.

Title II Professional Development Program for Non-Public School Educators

Pre-K-8 Teachers

Registration must be completed through the Bureau of Non-Public Schools; call 718-935-4975

Kitchen Botany: The Plants We Eat

Offered Fall

Enhance your understanding of basic botany and the role of plants in your everyday life through a hands-on workshop and guided tour of Brooklyn Botanic Garden, focusing on plants we eat. Participants will plant a kitchen windowsill garden, have the opportunity to register for a free school workshop at BBG, and receive printed materials.

Starting With Seeds: Beginning Investigations Through Inquiry

Offered Spring

What do seeds need to grow? Participants will record observations, share prior knowledge about seed germination, and design and construct their own experiments to answer this question. Working in teams, they will follow the scientific method to generate their own answers to the questions they pose in this workshop. Participants will take home their seed experiment materials, a seed starting kit for the classroom, printed materials, and have the opportunity to register for a free school workshop at BBG.

Brooklyn Compost Project for Teachers in New York City

Pre-K-12 Teachers

Worm Composting in the Classroom

Call for schedule

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. Teachers will receive a voucher for a pound of red wiggler worms, a worm bin, and the activity guidebook Worms Eat Our Garbage, by Mary Appelhof. Classes are held at BBG but may also be scheduled at your Brooklyn school for a group of ten or more teachers. $10 fee for materials. For registration information and workshop schedule, call 718-623-7290 or e-mail compost@bbg.org.

Project Green Reach

Project Green Reach (PGR) is a specially funded outreach program available to K–8 teachers in Brooklyn's Title I schools. PGR provides classroom instruction with a plant for each student, a visit to BBG, as well as training and supplies for a community horticulture project. Project Green Reach curriculum offerings include:

For information, call 718-623-7358.

Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (BASE)

In September 2003, BBG, in partnership with Prospect Park Alliance and the New York City Department of Education, launched the Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (BASE), a new public high school dedicated to science, environmental studies and urban ecology. BASE is located directly across the street from the Garden at the Prospect Heights High School campus. BASE is part of the city-wide New Century High Schools Initiative to create small, effective high schools that help students meet high standards of academic and personal success.†Students at BASE have the opportunity to take advantage of three campuses that are within a stone's throw of each other: the Academy itself, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Prospect Park. Students participate in a weekly field study at either Prospect Park or the Garden, using a wide range of equipment and learning scientific research skills from professional scientists. For more information about BASE, check our website at www.bbg.org/edu/base.html.

Community Horticulture

Brooklyn GreenBridge, BBG's community horticulture program, offers technical assistance and a free bi-monthly workshop for adults (parents, teachers, etc). Those signing up for the program will receive an activity booklet "City Kids Get Green" and numerous tip sheets. For those ongoing gardens that are registered GreenBridge gardens we offer occasional supplies, including plants, compost, and bulbs. For information and to receive our free newsletter "The Brooklyn Gardener", call 718-623-7250.

Registration must be completed through the Bureau of Non-Public Schools; call 718-935-4975