EDUCATION PROGRAM
Groups are welcome
to visit the 22 acres of gardens at Zilker Botanical Garden
in Austin's Zilker Park. Docents can be reserved for tours
for both adult and children's groups. For more information,
or to make reservations for tours, contact us by emailing
education@zilkergarden.org or
calling 477-8672 or faxing 481-8254.
Group
Tours (all require advance reservations):
- Reservation
form in PDF format or Word
format. Please complete this form for tour reservations.
- Self
Guided Tour in PDF
format
This 13-page document was developed to provide information
for Austin area schoolteachers as they tour the Zilker
Botanical Gardens. The ZBG
Self Guided Tour is available online in Acrobat
PDF format, which can be viewed and printed with Acrobat
Reader. Find out more about Adobe
Acrobat Reader.
- School Tours
Trained docents will provide informational tours for groups
of 15-18 students, preschool through high school age.
This basic tour is correlated to the Texas Essential
Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and emphasizes problem
solving. The tour dialogue is available to all teachers
through the downloadable self-guided
tour.
Each tour is about 90 minutes. Individual
docents will bring their special knowledge to each tour.
All docents are avid gardeners and very familiar with
the gardens. Each is trained to work with a variety
of student groups. Some are especially facile with
special needs children or ESL kids. When you register
make sure you identify any special requests for your
groups. March, April and May are especially busy months,
so please make your reservations early.
- Adult Tours
The Adult tours are also led by trained docents and
cover all aspects of the gardens. The cost for the tours
for adults is $2 per person with a $50 minimum.
Book Lending
Program
For children in younger grades we now offer a free book lending program which
includes copies of The Story of Mother Tree and Journey
of the Third Seed. Teachers are welcome to call in
advance to reserve the books and pick them up at the reception desk upon arrival
(leaving a driver's license or other form of i.d. as a deposit). Teachers and
students are encouraged to visit the teahouse or other comfortable
garden location, and to read these wonderful children's books written expressly
about the Taniguchi
Oriental Garden.
Docents
We are always looking for enthusiastic gardeners to act as volunteer docents
for school and adult tours. A training class is provided. Incentives are
provided to docents after they have given their fifth tour. Look for the
green aprons and badges that our docents have earned. Trained
docents have frequent opportunities to update and expand their knowledge
of Zilker Gardens and horticulture. Monthly sessions are available to all
docents. Attendance at each session will earn the docent an additional badge
to place on their green apron A schedule of training dates will be posted
on the website in August for the current school year.
For more information,
or to make reservations for tours, contact us by emailing
education@zilkergarden.org
or calling 477-8672 or faxing 481-8254.
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