Education

Education is at the core of the Botanic Garden's mission and we pride ourselves as being a gateway for botanical and horticultural information. Utilizing our living plant collections as an environment for learning, we serve students, faculty, local educational institutions, the international botanical and horticultural community, alumae, and the general public. 

Learning takes place formally in courses at Smith College as well as public lectures, but also informally through plant displays, educational exhibits in our gallery, interpretive signage, guided tours and audio tours, publications, and any other way we can devise to present information to the public.

Educators

Smith faculty, local K-12 teachers, and educators at the Five Colleges and beyond will find the Botanic Garden to be a great resource for them. The Botanic Garden’s outreach and education programs include tours for school groups and adults, teacher workshops, developing curriculum materials, a newsletter, and more.
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Students

Students may take classes that engage them with the Botanic Garden, participate in a variety of internships, or get a work-study position at the Botanic Garden. 
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student learning about plants

The subject [horticulture] is one of those rare ones which combines the scientific, the aesthetic and the useful, and is therefore one which ought carefully to be cherished. In fact there is, in my opinion, no subject whatever more appropriate in a college for women. 

 

William F. Ganong, first director of the Botanic Garden, 1910