If you cannot make it to the professional development classes at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, you can still download the materials to use in your classroom. Each course unit includes handouts, resources, vocabulary lists, suggested homework activities, labs and other activities for the classroom. The course units are as follows:

Unit I: School Gardens
Unit II: Pine Rocklands and Other South Florida Ecosystems
Unit III: Ethnobotany
Unit IV: Green Machines
Unit V: Flower Power
Unit VI: Plant Adaptations and Conservation
Unit VII: Plant Kingdom
Unit VIII: Palms: From Seed to Tree
Unit IX: Activities for Young Learners

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I. School Gardens (back to menu)

The following resources and activities provide information on how to plan, implement and maintain a school garden, as well as ideas and lesson plans to use the garden as a living laboratory.

Lecture resources/handouts:
School Gardening Resources
Elementary School Garden Resources
Garden Grant Resources
Composting Resources
Native Plants for your Garden
Butterfly Plants for your Garden
School Garden Powerpoint
School Garden Design Powerpoint

Activities:
Plant Survey Activity (grades 6-12)
Super Garden Botany (grades 6-12)
Coordinate grid garden (grades 6-12)
Pollen Movers (grades 6-12)
Garden Math (K-5)
Parts of a Plant (K-5)
Living with Plants (K-5)
Soil Scavenger Hunt (K-5)
Root Top Garden (K-5)
Terrarium Activity (K-12)

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II. Pine Rocklands and Other South Florida Ecosystems (back to menu)

Explore one of South Florida's most unique and imperiled habitats - pine rocklands. Pine rocklands are home to more than 225 plants, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. Threats such as development, conversion to agriculture, fire suppression, exotic plant and animal invasions, and alterations to hydrology have reduced pine rockland habitat in Miami-Dade County to less than 2% of their original extent, with existing habitat occuring as small isolated fragments. Education and research are critical to the future of pine rockland habitats.

Resources:
Pine Rockland Plants for your Garden
Where to buy Pine rockland plants
Connect to Protect Network - link to website
Connect to Protect Network brochure.pdf
Plants and Ecosystems
Native Plant Picture Guide
South Florida Native Plant Uses
Native Plants for your Garden

Activities:
Plant Adaptations in Pine Rocklands
Investigating Seed Dispersal
Identifying Native Plants (South Florida)
Using your Pine Rockland Garden to teach science
Meet a Native
Investigating Ecosystems
Investigating Pine Rocklands
Investigating Hardwood Hammocks
Investigating Mangroves
Where Do You Live?
South Florida Survivor

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III. Ethnobotany - How people use plants (back to menu)

We recommend this unit as the "starter" unit for anyone who just wants to get their kids interested in plants. This unit explores the different ways humans interact with and use plants - from food to medicine to building materials and more. This unit can open your kids' minds to how important plants really are in our daily lives and will help them begin to think about plants as more than just those green things that grow everywhere!

Lecture resources/handouts:
Definition and Scope of Ethnobotany
Most Useful and Economically Important Plant Families
Native Plant Use Guide
South Florida Native Plant Uses
Ethnobotany Vocabulary
Resource List for Teachers
Ethnobotany and Conservation

Activities:
Ethnobotany Basics Worksheet
24 Hour Inventory
Interview Guide
Native Plant Use Worksheets
Lab: Extracts and Tinctures
Lab: Growing a Useful Plant
Ethnobotany of Leaves
Ethnobotany of Fruits and Flowers
Ethnobotany Crossword Puzzle
Suggested Homework Exercises
South Florida Survivor
Ethnobotany Case Studies
Ethnobotany Stakeholder Analysis
Ethnobotany Stakeholder Analysis Table
Ethnobotany Stakeholder Analysis Teacher Key

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IV. Green Machines - The Local and Global Power of Plants (back to menu)

This unit explores the structure and function of a plant's "green machines" - its leaves. It covers photosynthesis, transpiration, nutrient transport, plant ecology and more. This unit will help your students begin to understand the amazing contribution that plants make to the global environment and why the planet could not function without them.

Lecture resources/handouts:
Leaf Classification
Anatomy and Physiology of Leaves
Green Machines Vocabulary
Resource List for Teachers

Activities:
Leaf Classification Activity
Lab: Transpiration Demos
Lab: Dissecting Microscope Lab
Staining Techniques with Toluidine Blue
Pressing and Preserving Plant Specimens
Suggested Homework Exercises

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V. Flower Power (back to menu)

This unit eplores the sex life of angiosperms (flowering plants), from pollination to fertilization to fruit development and dispersal.

Lecture resources/handouts:
Flower Structure and Function
Fruit Classification
Fruit Key
The Birds and the Bees: Pollination and Dispersal
Flower and Fruit Vocabulary
Flower Power and Conservation

Activities:
Lab: Flower Dissection
Lab: Pollination
Lab: Nectar
Lab: Honey
Fruit Classification Worksheet
Additional Classroom Exercises and Suggested Resources

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VI. Plant Adaptations and Conservation (back to menu)

This unit looks at the unique ways that plants have adapted to a wide variety of environments, and explores the process of evolution.

Lecture resources/handouts:
Evolutionary Concepts
What are Adaptations?
Adaptations, Evolution and Conservation
Adaptations and Evolution Vocabulary
Global Conservation Issues

Activities:
Evolutionary Concepts Puzzle
Adaptations Treasure Hunt
Adaptations Hunt practice worksheet
What do you Wonder?
Adaptations Tram Tour Worksheet (for use during Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden tram tour)
Other Homework or Classroom Exercises

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VII. Plant Kingdom (back to menu)

This unit includes resources for teachers to learn about the characteristics and classification of the different plant groups and plant adaptations. The goal is to increase teachers' and students' knowledge and understanding of the importance of plants and plant uses in our world and daily lives through discussion, hands-on activities and garden resources.

Lecture resources/handouts:
Plant Kingdom Resource Kit
Monocot and Dicot Characteristics

Activities:
Plant Kingdom Stations Activity
Monocots and Dicots Station Activity

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VIII. Palms: From Seed to Tree (back to menu)

Explore the unique characteristics of palms - from seed to mature plant - with Dr. Jack Fisher, a Fairchild Palm Biologist. These activities are sponsored by an NSF grant (0620827) to FTBG.

Lecture resources/handouts:
What's a palm leaf?
How are palm leaves different?
Do palms have flowers?
How do palms grow?
Growth in the Tropics, Part I
Growth in the Tropics, Part II
Fairchild Guide to Palms

Activities:
Palm Leaves 
Are palms monocots or dicots?
Furniture Detective
Schoolyard Palmetum

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IX. Activities for Young Learners  (back to menu)

These activities are great for young explorers and junior naturalists. They may be done in a backyard, in a school yard habitat, or on a visit to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

Garden Math.pdf 
Living with Plants.pdf
Parts of a Plant.pdf
Root Top Garden.pdf
Soil Scavenger hunt.pdf
Terrarium Activity.pdf

last updated 9/4/09