2015 BGCI Congress Program

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Girl smelling herbs Review and acceptance of proposal submissions has concluded. The BGCI Education team, along with the Missouri Botanical Garden Education team, is pleased to share the Congress Program, which we hope enables you to plan, prepare, and get the most out of your Congress experience.

The 2015 BGCI Education Congress Program boasts an extensive selection of 30 panel sessions, 20 workshops, 3 world café’s, roundtable session and poster showcases. In addition to the inspiring and motivating sessions, we are offering tours of Missouri Botanical Garden, a special opening reception event, a field trip to Shaw Nature Reserve with dinner, and a nocturne event at Missouri History Museum.

When you register, don't forget to sign up to our engaging tours! There are several day-long, pre- and post-congress tours around Missouri and into Illinois, as well as the 3 day tour around Chicago, Illinois.

Download a copy of the complete Congress Program.

Download a print-friendly Congress Program Schedule.

Program Schedule at a Glance

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9:00		Plenary Address	Plenary Address	Plenary Address	Plenary Address	Plenary Address
9:30		Plenary Address	Plenary Address	Plenary Address	Plenary Address
10:00		Coffee & Posters	Coffee & Posters	Coffee & Posters	Coffee & Posters
10:30		Coffee & Posters	Coffee & Posters	Coffee & Posters	Coffee & Posters	Coffee & Posters
11:00		Concurrent Sessions	Concurrent Sessions	Concurrent Sessions	Concurrent Sessions	Coffee & Posters
11:30						Concurrent Sessions
12:00
12:30		LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH
1:00				LUNCH		LUNCH
1:30				Biodiversity, Bluegrass, and Bar-B-Que at Shaw Nature Reserve		LUNCH
2:00		Concurrent Sessions	Concurrent Sessions		Concurrent Sessions	Closing Ceremony
2:30						Closing Ceremony
3:00
3:30		Coffee & Posters	Coffee & Posters		Coffee & Posters
4:00		Coffee & Posters	Coffee & Posters		Coffee & Posters
4:30		Concurrent Sessions	Concurrent Sessions		Concurrent Sessions
5:00	Taste of St. Louis Welcome Reception
5:30
6:00		Networking			Communities in Nature Nocturne Evening at Missouri History Museum
6:30		Networking
7:00
7:30
8:00
8:30
9:00
9:30
10:00

Monday April 27, 2015

9:00-10:00	Plenary Address
	Featured Speakers: Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson, Dr. Paul Smith, Dr. Asimina Vergou, and Sheila Voss
10:00-10:45	*Coffee & Posters*
11:00-12:30	Panel Conserving, Preserving and Training the Next Generation of Botanic Garden Horticulturists	Panel Innovative Ways to Connect Children with Nature	Panel Developing Audiences to Gardens Through Art	Workshop Enlisting Formal Educators as Partners in Conservation Through Citizen Science	Workshop What Plants are you Wearing Today?	MBG Tour The William L. Brown Center and the Sacred Seeds Program	MBG Tour Behind the Scenes: The Garden's Herbarium and Peter H. Raven Library
12:30-2:00	*Lunch*
2:00-3:30	Panel Innovative Public Garden Engagement Activities	Workshop The Future of Botanic Gardens Education: Developing a Strategy	Workshop Crucial Role of Volunteers as Garden Interpreters	World Café MBG Teen Network: Energizing Next-Gen Thinkers, Doers, and Problem-Solvers	MBG Tour Sustainability at the Garden	MBG Tour Behind the Scenes: The Garden's Conservatories	MBG Tour Experience the Japanese Garden
3:30-4:15	*Coffee & Poster Session*
4:30-6:00	Panel Communicating Climate Change to Diverse Audiences		Panel The Importance of Unstructured Children’s Play		Pecha Kucha Conversations Between Education and Horticulture: Planting Ideas for the Future
6:00-6:45	Networking

Tuesday April 28, 2015

9:00-10:00	Plenary Address
	Featured Speakers: Dr. Peter H. Raven, Dr. Rebeca Quiñonez-Piñón , and Catherine Werner
10:00-10:45	*Coffee & Posters*
11:00-12:30	Panel Botanic Gardens, Technology, and Innovative Ways to Connect People with Nature	Panel Engaging the Public: Science Communication Initiatives at Botanic Gardens	Panel Visitors, Educators, and Innovative Methods in Botanical Gardens: Perspectives from Educational Research	Panel INQUIRE: International Collaborations for Inquiry-Based Science Education	Workshop Inclusive Programming: Engaging Visitors of All Abilities	Workshop Voicing the Garden	MBG Tours History & Heritage of the Missouri Botanical Garden
12:30-2:00	*Lunch*
2:00-3:30	Panel Interpretation Worth Sharing: Inspiring and Educating for a Better World	Panel Knowledge Management: Bring the Information Highway to Garden Pathways	Workshop A New Sustainable Educational Toolbox for Botanic Gardens, Parks, and Arboreta	Workshop Phenomenological Approaches in Learning with Plants	Workshop Education Hopes and Dreams of United States Gardens	MBG Tour Behind the Scenes: The Garden's Conservatories	MBG Tour Behind the Scenes: The Garden's Living Collection
3:30-4:45	*Coffee & Poster Session*
5:00-6:30	Panel Training for Employment in Botanic Gardens	Panel Getting Ahead of the Roadblocks in Plant Science Education	Panel Native Plants and Environmental Culture	Panel Agents of Change: Reconnecting People to Nature Through Biophilic Design and Art		MBG Tours Behind the Scenes of Lantern Festival: Magic Reimagined

Wednesday April 29, 2015

9:00-10:00	Plenary Address
	Featured Speaker: Dr. Akpezi Ogbuigwe
10:00-10:45	*Coffee & Posters*
11:00-12:30	Panel Staff and Student Exchanges for Professional Development and Learning	Panel Working with Communities to Improve Wellbeing	Workshop CSI Missouri: A Forensic Biology Workshop	Workshop The Arabian Desert's Botanical Bounty: Poems to Celebrate Qatar's Quranic Botanic Garden	Workshop The Science of Taste: A Sensory Approach to Botanical Education	Workshop Seeing With Your Pencil	Technology Showcase
12:30-1:30	*Lunch*
2:00-8:00	Biodiversity, Bluegrass, and Bar-B-Que FIELD TRIP to Shaw Nature Reserve

Thursday April 30, 2015

9:00-10:00	Plenary Address
	Featured Speakers: Dr. Rainer Bussmann, Dr. Cary Fowler, and Marly Cornell
10:00-10:30	*Coffee & Posters*
10:45-12:15	Panel Innovative Uses of Online and Computer-mediated Teaching to Expand Audiences and Facilitate Learning	Panel Biocultural Conservation in the Context of Botanic Garden Education and Outreach Programs	Workshop Connecting Climate to Communities	Workshop Building Models to Build Up Understanding: Practical Approaches to Pollination Biology Evolution	Round Table Leaders in Biodiversity Conservation: Working Together for Botanic Garden Environmental Education	MBG Tour Behind the Scenes: The Garden's Herbarium and Peter H. Raven Library
12:15-1:45	*Lunch*
1:45-3:15	Panel Training the Next Generation of Leaders in Botanic Gardens	Panel Botanic Gardens Building Bridges Between Generations, Communities, and Careers	Workshop Inspiring a Green Revolution	Workshop The Passionate Fact: Storytelling Science	MBG Tour Behind the Scenes: The Garden's Living Collection	MBG Tour Behind the Scenes: Kemper Center for Home Gardening
3:15-4:00	*Coffee & Poster Session*
4:15-5:30	Panel Role of Botanic Gardens in Knowledge Transfer to Enhance Sustainable Food Production and Food Security	Panel Children's Garden: A Case for Program Impact	Workshop Bringing Science to Life: How to Create and Maintain Successful Education/Research Collaborations	Workshop Increasing Youth Environmental Engagement through Location-Based Mobile Games	Workshop Grow With Us: The Development of Educational and Commercially Successful Adult Learning Programs	Workshop Botanic Gardens at Night
6:00-10:00	Communities in Nature Nocturne hosted at the Missouri History Museum World Café - Engaging Your Community: Who's Missing from Your Garden?

Friday May 1, 2015

9:00-10:30	Plenary Address
	Featured Speakers: Gil Penalosa and Dr. Joe E. Heimlich
10:30-11:15	*Coffee & Posters*
11:30-1:00	Panel BiodiverseCity St. Louis: Cultivating Community Partnerships	Panel Planting Seeds During the Early Childhood Years	Panel Education Research in Botanic Gardens: Case Studies from China and Austria	Workshop Interpretive Master Plan Development at Public Gardens: Three Case Studies from Finland, Australia and the United States	Workshop Tackling “Organizational Inertia” and Perceptions about the Social Role of Botanic Gardens	MBG Tours Experience the Japanese Garden	MBG Tours Behind the Scenes: Kemper Center for Home Gardening
1:00-2:00	*Lunch*
2:00-3:00	Closing Ceremony
3:00-??	Explore the Garden On Your Own
4:00-6:00	Coach Transportation to Airport or Host Hotel

Botanic Gardens Conservation International, the world’s greatest force for plant conservation is co-organizing its 9th Education Congress in partnership with Missouri Botanical Garden. Learn more about BGCI