During the last year 35 Fife Primary Schools, as well as two schools from across the Tay, took the opportunity to organise class visits to St Andrews Botanic Garden. Thus 700 children were given opportunity to enhance their knowledge of Living Things.
With the support of the Friends of St Andrews Botanic Garden and the encouragement of Fife Council’s Community Services and the University of St Andrews, our Botanic Garden Teaching Team is at present organising a full programme for the current year, 2004. Trained professional teachers, including the Vice-Chairman of Fife & Kinross SWT, lead the children on tours of the plant collection in the greenhouses and grounds as necessary. They also make full use of the excellent classroom facilities, popularly known as the “Glass Class”, in a much more formal way, but it is always a real “hands on” approach.
The study projects offered, from simple bird watching and tree identification (including our collection of native Scottish species) to tropical rainforest and desert plants, are adapted to meet the specific needs of visiting schools. Schools can also opt for pond-dipping for minibeasts in the excellent facility provided at the garden and which, pleasingly, has led to the identification of several species new to the area, including both palmate and smooth newts, and the red darter dragonflies which were a first at several Fife sites in 2003.
St Andrews Botanic Garden has a wide collection of plants, both native and exotic, including carnivorous species such as pitcher plants, epiphytic orchids, tree ferns and tropical crops like banana, dates and papaya. The garden and greenhouses are open to the public 7 days a week all year from 10.00 till 16.00. The garden itself stays open until 19.00 in summer. Guides can be provided for tours by pre-booked groups. For more information visit the Friends of the Botanic Garden web-site at www.st-andrews-botanic.org, e-mail : botanic@standbg.plus.com.