Top 10 Ways to Explore your Neighborhood

Use all of your senses to view your neighborhood through wonder and to experience the natural world around you just outside your door. Our sensing organs help us to send information to our brains to help us understand the world around us.

Top 10 Outside Activities (English)
Top 10 Outside Activities (Chinese)
Top 10 Outside Activities (Bosnian)
Top 10 Outside Activities (Spanish)
Top 10 Outside Activities (Swahili)

 

Curriculum for Download

PlantLab Student Scientists
Grades 3–5
These cross-curricular units include 8–10 lessons covering Botany and Biodiversity, Plants and People and Ecology and Engineering.
Learn more

 

China Educator's GuideChina Educator's Guide
Grades K–8

This guide contains nine lessons exploring the plants of China and touching upon Chinese culture, history and literature, as well as botany, ecology and conservation. Extensive background information is included for the teacher. 

Download guide (3.49 MB)

 

A Place to Learn Field Trip Guide
Grades K–6

Download a selection of tested lessons help you use the Garden to present concepts in ecology, plant biology, art, classification, math and social studies. Maps, leader guides and reproducible student activity sheets accompany each lesson.

“A First Look at the Garden” (Grades PK–K)
“People and Plants” (Grades K–2)
“Plants and Products” (Grades 3–6)
“Plant and Animal Interactions” (Grades 6–8)

 

BananaTropical Rainforest Curriculum
Grades 2–8

Rain forest ecology, products, deforestation and the importance of biodiversity are highlighted in this curriculum originally designed as part of a circulating kit. (Note: kits are no longer available.)

Grades 2–4
Grades 5–8

Also available for download is the booklet A Tropical Feast featuring fruits, vegetables, spices, roots and starches, nuts and other plants used for food that are found growing in the tropics.

 

Mapping Your Community
Grades 4–12

These ArcGIS® tutorials help students gain mapping skills and build toward independent investigations. Tutorials are available for both ArcGIS® 9.2 and ArcGIS® 10.

Go to the Mapping Your Community webpage

 

In the Air curriculumIn the Air
Grade K–Adult

Developed by Missouri Botanical Garden’s EarthWays Center and funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, these environmental education materials help K–12 students and adults better understand airborne toxics issues in their communities. The goal is to increase knowledge about air pollution and to make connections between behaviors and air quality. Five modules have been developed (Grades K–3, 3–5, 6–8, 9–12 and adult).

Go to the In the Air website

Online Resources

What’s It Like Where You Live?
Grades 4–8
This website offers a wealth of information about six terrestrial biomes (rainforest, tundra, taiga, temperate deciduous forest, grassland and desert) and six aquatic ecosystems (rivers and streams, ponds and lakes, wetlands, shorelines, temperate oceans and tropical oceans).

Biology of Plants
Grades 1–3
Based on the MBG video series of the same name, this site introduces plants to young children. Concepts such as photosynthesis, pollination, seed dispersal and adaptation are explained. Classroom lesson plans are available for download.

Butterfly School
Learn about butterflies, moths and other insects at this website maintained by the Garden’s Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House. Learn about educational opportunities at the Butterfly House, download classroom activities and visit a butterfly photo gallery.

Story Time with the Garden: Tales from the World of Plants
YouTube playlist of story books read by Garden staff.