May 15, 2013 Boston.com

Harvard researchers grow a garden in the lab, a nano-landscape best seen with an electron microscope. more »

May 15, 2013 Arnold Arboretum

The Arboretum welcomes Boston science students from pre-school through primary grades with new programs. more »

May 15, 2013

Learning in the Arnold Arboretum landscape

Spring flowers and new leaves at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University signal the return of schoolchildren for outdoor field study experiences. For three decades, the Arboretum has reached out to students from Boston Schools to participate in structured explorations of the collections, life science instruction, and engaging interactions with the natural world. This season the Arboretum welcomes hundreds of science students from pre-school through primary grades with new programs, an enhanced partnership for in-class instruction at a neighborhood elementary school, and six additional volunteer guides.

Beginning in April, young explorers delve into the landscape through five educational programs designed for hands-on learning. The youngest participants—pre-schoolers from Head Start and kindergarten students—discover plants, animals, and habitats in the Explorations program. Boston’s first grade students explore living things and their habitats in the Organisms program, and second grade students compare plants grown in the classroom with the Arboretum’s mature tree specimens in Old Plants. Upper elementary school grades investigate how flowers make seeds in Flowers Change, and compare evergreen conifers and deciduous flowering trees and their cultural uses in Native Trees/Native Peoples.

Over the past five years, the Arboretum has enhanced the value of its Field Studies experiences for local students through partnerships for in-class science instruction. Arboretum educators will continue to visit classrooms at the Boston Teachers Union (BTU) School in Jamaica Plain this spring, supporting teachers and helping facilitate science instruction on a weekly basis. Science Specialist Ana Maria Caballero will also visit classrooms of a pre-school partner, ABCD South Side Head Start, to lead activities focused on plants that include observation, drawing, collage, and painting.

The Arboretum’s programs for schoolchildren depend on the dynamic participation of volunteer guides, and with the addition of six new recruits this spring, the corps now comprises 40 individuals. Training commenced in March and provided an opportunity for seasoned guides to help mentor their new colleagues. Trainees learned the curricula and practiced techniques for teaching children in outdoor settings, working in groups to explore the living collections and build cohesion as a team.

As a fundamental part of the institution’s public mission, programs for children’s education initiate a continuum for lifetime learning at the Arnold Arboretum. In celebration of the scope and accomplishments of these programs and specifically its partnership for in-class instruction, the Arboretum will mount an exhibition of observational drawings of plants and other organisms by students at the BTU School. “Through a Child’s Eye” will be on view in the Hunnewell Building Lecture Hall from June 15 through September 1, 2013.

May 14, 2013 Emerald Necklace Conservancy

We congratulate Sarah Freeman and remember John Blackwell, honored for their outstanding volunteer service to parks. more »

May 7, 2013 Arnold Arboretum

Announcing a new mobile application for mapping and exploring the living collections, Arboretum Explorer. more »

May 8, 2013

Arboretum Explorer in the landscape.

Last May on Lilac Sunday, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University introduced visitors and online audiences to two mobile applications for mapping and sharing information on the Arboretum’s living plant collections—Mobile Interactive Map (MIM) and Arboretum Navigator. Following a year of rigorous testing and evaluation, the Arboretum has combined the best attributes of both in a single application, Arboretum Explorer. Set for launch on May 12 as part of this year’s Lilac Sunday celebrations, Arboretum Explorer represents the latest advance in the Arboretum’s historical commitment to expanding access to its collections for science, learning, and recreation.

All of the more than 15,000 accessioned plants at the Arnold Arboretum are mapped, recorded, and tracked digitally with the help of a collections database, BG-BASE. Arboretum Explorer allows users to tap into this information by harnessing the GIS (geographic information system) capabilities of their mobile phones and tablets to locate and identify specific plants in the landscape. Arboretum Explorer also significantly enhances how visitors interact with plants they encounter in the collection, from taking self-guided tours to finding information on Tree Mobs and sharing plants on social media.

“As stewards of one of the world’s most important living collections of plants, our charge is to do everything we can to share information and insight into our extraordinary trees, shrubs, and vines,” said Director William (Ned) Friedman. “It’s a big part of what has made the Arboretum a hugely valuable resource to school children, the visiting public, and scientists from around the globe. We are committed to pushing the digital frontiers that connect people to our plants and promote greater interactions with biodiversity.”

Try out Arboretum Explorer on your mobile device this Lilac Sunday, at home, or on your next Arnold Arboretum visit. The Arboretum requests continued feedback from users to help identify new features and guide the engineering of future releases.

May 1, 2013 Arnold Arboretum

Three renowned experts shed light on Ginkgo biloba as part of a May 11 symposium at the Arboretum. more »

May 1, 2012

A living fossil with an ancestry dating back some 270 million years, Ginkgo biloba stands out in the plant world as an object of fascination. A deciduous gymnosperm that persists as a single genus and species, Ginkgo offers scientists a unique glimpse at our botanical and evolutionary past. To celebrate this relict species and explore its botanical importance and relevance in our time, three eminent ginkgo researchers will share their expertise as part of a full-day symposium—Ginkgo Fest—at the Arnold Arboretum on Saturday, May 11 (this event was rescheduled from April 20).

Sir Peter Crane, Dean of Forestry and Environmental Science at Yale; William “Ned” Friedman, Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and Director of the Arnold Arboretum; and Peter Del Tredici, Senior Research Scientist at the Arnold Arboretum and ginkgo specialist, will lecture on their combined fifty years of ginkgo investigations and lead a tour of the Arboretum’s ginkgo collection. The program will spotlight the history, culture, biology, and conservation of ginkgo, and displays will include examples of ginkgo bonsai created by Peter Del Tredici.

Recognized by its fan-shaped leaves and known for both the beauty of its autumn foliage and the fetid odor of its fruits, Ginkgo has its share of enthusiasts and detractors. The tree and its seeds—when removed from the fleshy and odorous fruits—have been an integral part of Chinese and Japanese culture for centuries. Once distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere but now native only to central China, Ginkgo has made a resurgence in the temperate zones, finding wide use as a street tree and as an ornamental favorite in managed landscapes.

In his book, Ginkgo: The Tree That Time Forgot, Peter Crane writes, “Ginkgo is one of the world’s most distinctive plants and has one of the longest botanical pedigrees; there is no other living tree with a prehistory so deeply intertwined with that of our planet.” The Arboretum’s Ginkgo Fest celebration honors the tree’s unique biology and its critical role in helping us unravel Earth’s deep past. At the same time, as a plant with an ancient history of adapting to challenging and disturbed environments, Ginkgo biloba continues to excite scientists for what it may reveal about the future of plant life in a changing climate.

April 29, 2013 Arnold Arboretum

Though spring seemed to get a bit of a late start in Boston this year, spring planting is already well underway at the Arnold Arboretum. more »