October 02, 2024
Samantha Turner-Rosa, 2024 Douglas Dockery Thomas Fellow in Garden History and Design, seeks to harness “the power of botanic gardens, educators, scientists, and garden practitioners” in a community-driven project that will connect kindergarten - 8th grade students to the Chicago Botanic Garden’s natural areas. Turner-Rosa, a PhD candidate in Biological Sciences at University of Maryland, says that support from GCA Scholarships has allowed her to explore new pathways linking students to plant biology research, restoration, and conservation. “Funding allowed me to kick off this project’s collaborative curriculum development process where I was able to gather in-person with a seed bank researcher, managing ecologist, seed biologist, seed bank manager, and plant propagator from the Chicago Botanic Garden.”
Meeting with experts in their fields this summer, Turner-Rosa planned logistics and learning objectives to ensure students experience and conduct seasonal seed research and stewardship. Turner-Rosa explains, "Students will conduct vegetation surveys and seed collection in the fall, sow seeds and cut woodies in the winter, and (do) restoration planting in the spring.”
Turner-Rosa reports that this year four classrooms will pilot the project, with a timeline aligned with the Chicago Public School academic calendar. Programming will launch in October and extend to the end of the school year.
“I believe collaboration is a vital first step,” says Turner-Rosa, “and support from the GCA provided me with the resources to design and implement a pilot that will be the seed of future sustained contributions to equity in Chicago science education.”
Turner-Rosa is one of 100 recipients in the GCA’s Class of 2024 Scholars. In 2024, a record $459,000 was awarded to young people in fields including botany, landscape architecture, horticulture, and urban forestry. Applications for the 2025 GCA Scholarship season opened on September 1.
Applications for the GCA’s 2024 Douglas Dockery Thomas Fellowship are due February 1st, 2025, and are accessible through the GCA website : https://www.gcamerica.org/scholarships.
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