27 Sep Powell Gardens Receives $5,000 grant from the Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation
Powell Gardens was recently awarded a $5,000 grant from the Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation to support Plants Matter! curriculum development, outreach to teachers, transportation, and program delivery.
During the 2019-2020 school year, Powell Gardens will launch Plants Matter! This pilot program will provide in-depth experiences at Powell Gardens to support Independence classroom teachers as they teach fifth-grade level Missouri Learning Standards for science. Students will benefit from a total of three sessions taught by Powell Gardens staff onsite and in their classroom with up to twelve hours of teaching through hands-on lessons and complementary pre- and post-visit resources.
Powell Gardens’ mission is to be an experience that embraces the Midwest’s spirit of place and inspires an appreciation for the importance of plants in our lives. Founded in 1988, Powell Gardens is a Kansas City treasure with 970 acres of natural beauty less than an hour from downtown. The Plants Matter! program aims to deeply immerse students in the outdoors through multiple garden visits and in-class sessions. Curriculum will emphasize topics such as the cycle of matter, plant ecosystems, energy loss via decomposition, energy needs for plant growth, and the environmental conditions needed by several species of Missouri plants to survive and thrive in our region. Effective science instruction is crucial to students both for the present and the future. An academic foundation in science allows students to not only better understand the world around them, but to also be better prepared for high-demand, well-paying careers in the science and technology fields.
Powell Gardens (the Gardens) is a Kansas City treasure with 970 acres of natural beauty less than an hour from downtown. Highlights of the area’s only major botanical garden include the Heartland Harvest Garden, the nation’s largest edible landscape; the Island Garden, featuring more than 200 varieties of water plants; and the David T. Beals, III Woodland and Stream Garden, where plants thrive in the shade.