The United Nations has established a new decade, beginning in 2020, focused on the power of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). “ESD for 2030” calls for educators to help advance new skills, empower youth, increase public awareness, and build...

This webinar will introduce extension agents to concepts of urban ecology, which addresses the intricate relationship between humans and urban trees, air, water, soil, wildlife, and more.
The world has become increasingly urban with roughly half...

Read this issue of Public Garden here.

Additional Content: Vol. 35, No. 1
 
Learning in the Garden
...

Reading questions and writing prompts developed for Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. 

Conifers are commonly planted in North America to provide year-round screening, as windbreaks or as focal trees in the landscape. However, conifers including certain species of spruce, pine, hemlock, cedar and fir planted in northern areas of North...

Across the United States, a growing number of schools and educational programs are planting gardens, engaging in Farm to School activities, and integrating plant science into the curriculum. To support and expand these hands-on learning activities,...

Academic campuses across the Great Plains can serve as landscapes for teaching and learning about native flora of cultural importance with regard to food, medicine, and lifeways. Campus visitors (tourists) and local community members could benefit from...

Despite the importance of bees, there is a gap in the public's understanding of them. To help address this gap, we developed the outreach tool Experience Bees, a series of simple learning and hands-on activities to teach community members about bees...

Educators know, based on years of research, that effective learning happens when learners are:

• Actively engaged (as opposed to passive recipients of information)
• Equal partners in the learning process
• Socially engaged
...

Employers are desperate to fill a labor shortage on the front lines in urban forestry, yet struggle to source and retain a sustainable workforce. Few employers have successfully tapped into the supply of workers in communities with the lowest tree...

Plants permeate human life. Our physical and cultural environments are infused with the lives of plants. Even the oxygen in the air we breathe is the result of their biological processes. Indeed, “we rely on plants for food, shelter, fuel, and fibers...

STEM careers and programs have gained prominence in recent years as youth are shown opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through robotics, computer programming, and game development. Although often overlooked, horticulture...

Citizen science offers the opportunity to actively involve a variety of audiences both on site and in communities with our collections, our research, and our conservation activities, increasing scientific and environmental literacy as well as awareness...

Earth Day is coming soon. Be prepared to engage visitors, students in higher education, K-12 students, and more! 

Climate Education Week occurs annually the week leading up to Earth Day. This year it will run Monday, April 15th to Earth Day,...

Professional Development of Environmental Educators: Guidelines for Excellence is a set of
recommendations about the basic knowledge and abilities educators need to provide high quality
environmental education. The guidelines are designed...

China is home to an astounding number of species, 31,500, and 12 percent of these species
can be found only in China. The Missouri Botanical Garden, working with an international
team and the Chinese government for 25 years, is on track...

We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate, which will have unknown but                          potentially devastating consequences for the Earth’s planetary systems. Before we can
conserve biodiversity, however, we must understand it...

Humans and plants have a complex relationship extending far back into our joint
evolutionary history. This legacy can be seen today as plants provide nutrition, fiber,
pharmaceuticals, and energy for people and animals across the globe....

Teaching Tools in Plant Biology, published by the American Society of Plant Biologists, combines up-to-date peer-reviewed research-based content with flexible presentation components that can be used alone or integrated into your lesson plans so that...

These books were written or edited by Association members OR are about Association gardens. This is a wonderful list of resources for those in our industry with relevant material and up to date topics.