Teacher Professional Development
Teachers netting invertebrates“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”
—Mark Van Doren

At Missouri Botanical Garden, we regard teachers as close colleagues. The role they play in our world is simply heroic, and we thank them for their daily, unwavering commitment to creating curious, lifelong learners. To support and strengthen teachers, we offer a diversity of courses, workshops and other experiences in the summer and throughout the school year.

Our inquiry-driven programs are infused with subject matter expertise in core content areas, including botany, ecology, biology and environmental studies. Garden educators work with teachers to deepen science content knowledge and enhance science pedagogy through grant-supported, sustained teacher programming in many schools and districts across the St. Louis region. Partnerships with local informal science institutions, such as the Saint Louis Zoo, and with universities, such as Maryville University, Washington University and others enable us to stimulate teachers to connect their students with the natural world outside their classroom door.

Some schools and districts count Garden professional development toward district-required professional development units. College credit is available for select summer workshops.

Scholarships are available for teachers to attend our workshops.  Download a scholarship application.

For more information, please call (314) 577-5147 or e-mail: teachertraining@mobot.org.

See what's new for Summer 2012 below! (Registration and contact information is listed with each offering.)

 

Summer 2012
Sustainable Schoolyards
Can your students plan and create a schoolyard wildlife habitat while they are achieving curriculum objectives? A growing number of St. Louis area schools and a local nature center say, "Yes!" During this workshop, you will be introduced to methods for analyzing the history and ecology of your school and for developing a schoolyard habitat with your students, all in support of your curriculum. Project mentoring is available during the school year. Applications will be accepted from teams of two or more teachers.

Dates/Times:
June 11–15; 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

Location:
Litzsinger Road Ecology Center (Ladue)
Learn more about this site...

Fee:
None. Two credits available with additional university charge. 

Call (314) 540-4068 for more information.

Download a registration form.
Inquiry Institute: Physical Science and Beyond
Actively dig into the pedagogy of inquiry using physical science activities that challenge your own thinking. Increase your skills in teaching inquiry by comparing inquiry approaches and their most effective applications for teaching different concepts in your own classroom.  Participants will be given time to create their own inquiry lesson using learned approaches with a bent toward the life sciences. Taught in conjunction with the Saint Louis Zoo.

Dates/Times:
June 18–22; 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

Location:
Commerce Bank Center for Science Education, Room 119
Download map/directions.

Fee:
$200. Two credits available with additional university charge.

Call (314) 577-5147 for a complete syllabus or additional details.

Register online with a credit card, or download a printable registration form to pay via check.
3-R's Institute: Educator Workshop
Spend five days learning about the end of a product's life cycle and walk away with a thorough understanding of what it means to reduce, reuse and recycle in the St. Louis region. Behind the scenes tours may include a landfill, materials recovery facility, transfer station, City Museum and other businesses and facilities engaged in innovative ways to reuse materials, compost and recycle. This program is made possible through the St. Louis Jefferson Solid Waste Management District.

Dates/Times:
June 18–June 22; 8 a.m.–8 p.m. (hours vary within this time frame, and are determined by the tours we take)

Location:
Commerce Bank Center for Science Education, Room 119
Download map/directions. We will also be touring other locations.

Fee:
$300. Two or three credits available with additional university charge.

Call (314) 577-5185 for a complete syllabus or additional details.

Register online with a credit card, or download a printable registration form to pay via check.
Effective Outdoor Learning
Learn great ways to take your kids outside into the schoolyard and neighborhood while meeting curriculum requirements. Develop a field study project at the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center that links to your schoolyard investigations, then bring students to LREC during the school year—busing is even provided for students!

Dates/Times:
Either June 25–27 (M–W) OR July 25–27 (W–F); 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

Location:
Litzsinger Road Ecology Center (Ladue)
Learn more about this site...

Fee:
None for workshop or follow-up student field experience.

Call (314) 540-4068 for more information.

Download a registration form.

 

Future Programs
Plants & People: Ethnobotany for Educators
From economics to ecosystems, refresh your curriculum as we travel through time and across cultures, discovering the role of plants in espionage, battles, medicine, cosmetics and in the stories of people's everyday lives. Garden ethnobotanists share their scientific findings and stories of people-plant interactions from their world travels. Our outdoor explorations connect plants with local history, ancient Chinese and American civilizations, Earth and Life Science concepts and colonization. Delve into plant foods, maps and mysteries. The course is tailored to teachers' needs, focusing more on grades 4–8 Science and Social Studies concepts. Each session includes a lecture and relevant labs followed by an hour of classroom connections.

Are you interested? Call (314) 577-5147 for the next 2012 session!

One to two credits offered for an additional fee.

Vanilla planifoliaTopics and Labs

  • Ethnobotanical interviewing
  • Papermaking
  • World/American ethnobotany
  • Medicines: basics of herbal medicine; tinctures and bioassays
  • Modern herbal medicine/testing efficacy/safety of herbals; bioassays
  • Toxins and social change;
  • Natural dyes; chemistry of dyes
  • Spice trade and the Age of Exploration; economics/energy activity
  • Planting science; vitamin C titration
  • Supermarket botany; Anthropac workshop
  • Native urban plant ethnobotany; dichotomous keys and plant anatomy
  • Field trip: ancient river civilizations: geology, geography, native plants and settlement
  • Storytelling trip at the Garden (tea, Climatron, etc.); starch and sugar lab
  • Climate and biodiversity of plants; mapping data
Quick Links
Education Outreach for Teachers

Looking for professional development opportunities? Topnotch inquiry science and inquiry assessment for K–12? Plant science for K–8?

We will come to your school or you can come to us!

Outreach costs for professional development programs are:

  • $100 for the first hour per staff member and $40 for each additional hour per staff member
  • Each teacher will be assessed a $3 materials charge
  • Mileage is $1/mile over 20 miles
  • Professional development uniquely designed for a school may incur additional planning costs

Please call (314) 577-5147 to discuss programming options.