YES! Experience with D.C. High Schools

This summer Smithsonian Gardens (SG) joined the National Museum of Natural History and the National Zoo in an outreach program designed for high school students. Youth Engagement through Science (YES!) connected students to Smithsonian collections, experts, and training in an effort to provide them with practical experience, inspiration and encouragement to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. The program also equipped the students with resources to help them in their next step of attending college to pursue their career interests.

Students who participated in YES! worked side by side with SG horticulturists and educators in the Smithsonian Gardens’ Greenhouse, Victory Garden and Heirloom Garden. The mentors, Tom Mirenda, Joe Brunetti and Erin Clark, worked with three students, Damani Eubanks, Kumar Madhav and Dion Anderson, from various high schools in the D.C. metropolitan area. Each mentor designed a project highlighting subjects in their area of expertise. The students worked with the mentors to complete the projects, keep a field journal and produce a poster for a special open-session presentation at National Museum of Natural History.

A special tour of the SG Greenhouse gave SG YES! students, Kumar and Damani, a chance to share their project with all 25 YES! students. Kumar and Damani demonstrated their newly gained knowledge when they explained how they measured and recorded various parts of blooming orchids.

Dion Anderson’s poster outlining his experience in the Heirloom and Victory Garden. Dion helped Joe and Erin identify hostas in the gardens surrounding the National Museum of American History.

 This fall, when the students return to school, they are required to take a leadership role among their peers and promote the YES! program in a community outreach project. The students will be ombudsmen for Smithsonian Gardens!

YES! was a positive experience for both the mentors and the students. Smithsonian Gardens is looking forward to participating in next year’s programs with the new projects for new students.

Youth Engagement Through Science site

Interest-driven Learning Makes Garden History Digital

Funded by the Pearson Foundation, the Smithsonian’s Mobile Learning Institute seeks to find new ways for teachers and students to create, explore, and learn. Mobile Learning Institute educators at the Smithsonian EdLab encourage “interest-driven learning,” facilitating collaboration between teachers and students within informal settings, sharing ideas in person and online utilizing social networks. Earlier this week, teachers were assigned an important task: to share a story about our Heirloom and Victory Gardens as well as our Medal of Honor Tree.

On Tuesday, teachers met at the Hirshhorn Museum to share their projects. Many of the groups created innovative multimedia presentations, using Voice Thread, Animoto, and Prezi to produce animated, narrated stories. The subjects of these tales ranged from a short film illustrating the  medicinal properties of Echinacea (found at the Heirloom Garden) to a monologue sourced from informal interviews that teachers had with visitors to the Medal of Honor Tree. Through sharing not only their presentations, but also their digital resources and their research process, visiting teachers will be able to take new learning methods and tools back to their own classrooms.

To view the group’s facebook page, see http://www.facebook.com/groups/381035355276704/

To learn more about the Smithsonian EdLab, visit http://www.edlab.si.edu/about.html

Kristina Borrman, Katzenberger Art History Intern

Come Move in the Gardens! Let’s Move! Debuts

Spring has sprung! The sun is shining, birds are singing and our gardens have begun to bloom. Spring is also the perfect time to kick off our newest educational program, Let’s Move! with Smithsonian Gardens. Part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s national initiative to promote physical fitness and healthy diet choices, our program encourages visitors to our gardens to get active!

Last week we debuted our Let’s Move! interpretative panels in our gardens near the National Mall. Each panel provides some interesting facts about the garden and a fun way to be active. We also want to know how you’re moving in the gardens, so we’ve included some fun texting polls to keep track of how many steps you take as part of Let’s Move! Keep an eye out and see if you can spot all the panels as you explore Smithsonian Gardens.

We’ve also been working on our Let’s Move! Healthy Hunt Guide. The guide includes a scavenger hunt through our gardens with tips on how to be active in nature. It is currently available on our website and we just sent it to the printer, so you will be able to pick it up at any Smithsonian information desk soon.

We hope to see you moving in the gardens soon!

Bridget Sullivan, Education Intern