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EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES IN THE BOTANICAL GARDEN, FACULTY OF SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF ZAGREB (CROATIA)

Throughout its long history, Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science (University of Zagreb, Croatia) has always been a place where the students of biology and related sciences, visitors and citizens would learn about the secrets of botany. We intensify our efforts to increase the social role of the Garden, as advised by BGCI, implementing many new activities in cooperation with schoolchildren of all ages and general public. The oldest public-oriented activities in the Garden are the professionally guided-tours. Every first Tuesday of every month from April to October we have provided totally free guidance for citizens and foreign visitors. On average base, cca 200 groups are led trough the Garden during the working-seven months of each year. The Garden has been providing the professional assistance to the biology teachers, particularly in respect to designing school gardens and helping their pupils in their practical activities and preparation of their final papers for various competitions. Since 2004, the educational activities are improved by the launch of the Garden website, installation of many info-boards, printing of leaflets and brochures, production of paper-back-guides and CD-guides to the Garden, a series of postcards on the topic of Rare and Endangered Plant Species of the Republic of Croatia grown in the Garden, etc. Exhibitions (educational, historical and artistic) started in 2007, after the renovation of our exquisite exhibition pavilion (from 1890) sharing a common topic: nature, particularly flora. In the pavilion we also organize numerous educational and creative workshops on the topic of botany. The garden regularly participates in the "Festival of Science" with popular lectures and guided tours for citizens. Since 2011, the Botanical Garden takes part in the national event “Week of the Croatian Botanical Gardens and Arboreta”, featuring numerous free events for the general public. The capacity of the Garden is around 1200 people. In seven days, we would often exceed the number of participants, not counting the screening of films, storytelling for children, theater performances and the concerts. As most of the children growing up in urban areas do not have the opportunity to grow plants, the “Children's Flower and Vegetable Garden” was opened in 2013. The pupils from the nearby primary school and kindergarten use the designated, fenced area to grow plants in an organic manner, assisted by their teachers and the Garden-botanists. Botanical Garden is planning activities in the school garden with the cooperation of the local community, which includes the nearest secondary school, association “Ozana” for persons with disabilities and senior citizens. The only thing that prevents us from our social role is the insufficient number of staff. In order to meet that challenge we have trained a number of students of biology who helping us.

Zagreb Botanic Garden ; social role ; guided tours ; exhibitions ; workshops ; “Week of the Croatian Botanical Gardens and Arboreta” ; “Children's Flower and Vegetable Garden”

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