Programs > Programs for Schools

Programs for Schools

The North Carolina Botanical Garden offers a variety of on-site education programs for visiting schools and other groups. These programs are hands-on explorations of plants and nature. On-site programs for kindergarten through 5th grade groups are aligned with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, and include lesson plans for teacher-led pre-visit and extension activities.

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Registration and Scheduling Information ↓
On-site Education Programs ↓
On Your Own Tours (Self-Guided Programs) ↓
Outreach Programs ↓

Children gather near the entrance to the Main Visitor Area.

Registration and Scheduling Information

We require one chaperone for every five students. The fee for On-site Education Programs is $30 /classroom of 30 students or less. For a class of more than 30 students, an additional $2 per student above 30 is required. There is no fee for a Self-Guided Tour, however, registration at least two weeks in advance is required.

To request an On-site Education Program, or for more information, call 919-962-0522.

Once your visit is scheduled, should you need to cancel due to a change of plans or inclement weather, please call us at the same number as early as possible so we can alert the Tour Guides.

Important Information for planning your Tour of the Gardens:

Please plan for one hour for your tour, plus additional time to gather prior to the tour, and again afterwards.
Nametags are helpful to the Guides, especially with children's groups.
The Totten Center (visitor center) has limited bathroom space; please make allowances for sufficient time for a bathroom break if arriving from out of town.
Wheel chairs are available at the Totten Center. When scheduling, please tell staff of this or any other special accessibility issues for visitors in your group.

On-site Education Programs

Children gather for an activity.

Nature Tales: Recommended for Ages 4 - 5—Visitors will be broken into small groups, where they will hear a nature story. Following the story, docents will lead the group on a short nature walk through the Garden.

Herbal Adventures: Recommended for Kindergarten Classes—In this program, students are led to 5 different stations in the Mercer Reeves Hubbard Herb Garden. At each station, students learn about one of the five senses, and they use their senses to explore nature. This is a multi-sensory experience for students, who will see, smell, hear, touch, and taste nature.

Flora Explorers: Recommended for 1st Grade Classes—This hands-on program is designed to teach students about the different parts of a plant, and how those parts play a role in helping the plant survive. Students have a chance to use Yellowroot (Xanthorrhiza simplicissima) as a crayon, make a bark rubbing, and taste sunflower seeds.

The Monarch’s Journey: Recommended for 2nd Grade Classes—This program focuses on the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly. Students learn about the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and adult stage of the Monarch Butterfly and their unique relationship with Milkweed (Asclepias spp.). Teachers can choose to have this program taught using models of the life stages of the Monarch, or by using live animals at each of the Monarch’s life stages. The live animal option is only available May - September and requires an extra fee.

From the Mountains to the Coast: Recommended for 3rd Grade Classes—In this lesson, students learn about the different geographic regions of North Carolina and how plant communities are shaped by the regions’ unique climates and soils. Students also have the opportunity to explore the different soils of the regions, learn about carnivorous plants and dissect the leaf of the carnivorous Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia spp.).

Native Plants, Native People: Recommended for 4th Grade Classes—This interdisciplinary lesson focuses on both Science and Social Studies. Students are introduced to American Indian tribes of the different regions of North Carolina. Students learn about their history, lifestyles, and the unique ways in which they used plants to meet their daily needs. This lesson aligns with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for Social Studies.

Ecosystem Expeditions: Recommended for 5th Grade Classes—In this lesson, students will learn some of the basic principles of ecology. Students learn about producers, consumers, and decomposers and their unique roles within an ecosystem. The students also get a chance to dissect an owl pellet as a way to better understand food webs.

General Tours of the Garden—The North Carolina Botanical Garden also offers tours of the Garden that can be general or focused on a particular topic.

Students investigate the Carnivorous Plant Beds behind the Totten Center

On Your Own Tours (Self-Guided Programs)

Piedmont Nature Trail:The Piedmont Nature Trails provide an easy hike through a typical central North Carolina forest. This self-guided tour offers many points for observation of the workings of a forest, and an elementary introduction to forest ecology.

Sculpture in the Garden: Our annual garden art show, Scuplture In The Garden, usually runs from mid-September to mid-November. It offers a bit of a twist on earth science and visual arts studies. Students investigate physical properties of the sculptures such as magnetism and explore artwork in an outdoor setting. These programs are correlated with the North Carolin State Standards.

Coker Arboretum: Located adjacent to Morehead Planetarium, Coker Arboretum offers quiet respite from the hubbub of Franklin Street and the busy UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Self-guided tours sheets are available for school groups. Please call the Programs Office to arrange for the tour materials.

Outreach Programs

Students stand in front of a pile of honeysuckle vines,
which they have helped clean up.

In an effort to bring the world of plants to students at school, the Botanical Garden has developed volunteer led, user-friendly programs for the classroom. Program activities are correlated with the North Carolina State Standards. Garden staff will provide the training and materials for these presentations. Call 919-962-2887 for more information or to arrange one of these programs.

Visiting Plant, as the name implies, puts native plants in 3rd and 4th grade classrooms for close observation and study. As a spokesperson and interpreter for the plants, a garden docent guides a class in observation and understanding of one or more species of North Carolina flora from the Botanical Garden's nursery. Students learn basic science concepts such as trophic levels of the food chain and the intricate connections of plants and animals in their habitat as well as some very basic botany. The hour-long presentations are seasonal, one each for Fall, Winter, and Spring.

Last updated by Laura Cotterman on February 20, 2008 at 05:02:47 pm.

Your support is crucial to our continued success. Become part of the Botanical Garden through volunteering or becoming a member.

Learning at the UNC Herbarium

Herbarium specimens

The UNC Herbarium, located on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has an archive of about 750,000 specimens, including the tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) and American chestnut (Castanea dentata), shown above. This educational and research collection is open to the public.

To view more specimens from the collection, visit the UNC Herbarium website

Calling All Teachers & Students:
The Botanical Garden, UNC Herbarium, and UNC School of Information and Library Science have colaborated to create a virtual herbarium at the Plant Information Center, a website where students and teachers can learn more about native plants.

Fourth Grade Resource for Teachers

Cover of Native Tales CD

A Teacher Resource Guide—
4th-Grade Activities: North Carolina Native Plants across the Curriculum

Plants have stories to tell. Throughout history people have depended on the plants that grow around them for survival. By exploring these plant stories, fourth grade students will learn much about the history of North Carolina, the natural history of the land around them, and the culture of the people who inhabited that land. Native plants can be used across the curriculum to explore and discover the many connections between plants, animals, and people while learning math, science, social studies, language arts, and the arts.

Created by The Sarah P. Duke Gardens (SPDG) and the North Carolina Botanical Garden (NCBG). Funding provided by the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.

Written by Ann Nashold, Director of Children’s Education and Family Programs, SPDG, and Nancy Easterling, Education Specialist, NCBG.

Purchase price $10. Please visit the North Carolina Botanical Garden or Sarah P. Duke Gardens to purchase a copy. Or give us a call for more information: 962-0522.

Accessibility

The Totten Center is wheelchair accessible. Visitors can enjoy an accessible pathway through the gardens. If you have special needs that could be accommodated to enable you to visit the Garden or participate in one of our programs, please let us know in advance by calling 919-962-0522.

Please see the parking map as a guide.

Several marked accessible parking spaces can be found next to the pedestrian entry gate that serves as the public entrance to the garden. To get to these accessible parking spaces drive through the parking lot onto Laurel Hill Road; the spaces are on the other side of Laurel Hill Road. OR, driving south on the US 15-501/NC 54 Bypass (Fordham Blvd.), turn left onto Manning Drive ; go 1 block and turn left on Coker Drive; go 1 block and turn left on Laurel Hill Road; go straight 0.2 mile and look for designated spaces on your left, just past the pedestrian entrance gate. If you require assistance in moving from a parking space to the building entrance, please call (919-962-0522) and tell us when to expect you, and a member of the staff will be available to assist you.