Botanical Garden of the Piedmont

For the two year period 2024-2026 we were awarded funding to create a Plants and Climate Change Education pilot program as part of a six public garden cohort. The Botanical Garden of the Piedmont in Charlottesville, Virginia piloted a climate change curriculum focused on empowering teenagers with knowledge, speaking skills, and meadow gardening experience. The target audience was tenth graders from public and private schools in the Charlottesville area. Over the course of five Saturdays, a self-selected group of tenth graders studied advanced plant-relevant climate change information; learned and practiced public speaking; and prepared, planned, and planted a meadow garden. We chose tenth graders (fifteen years old) to provide a sense of agency and power for students at a stage of life where young people often feel powerless. One of the most powerful things they can do is learn to speak cogently, accurately and engagingly about essential matters.

We offered and taught the five-part program during the 2025-2026 school year. Our program was called Head, Heart, and Hands. Recently we, along we the other members of the cohort presented our results at the APGA Educational Symposium in St. Louis, MO. We hope to continue this work in the future.

See the YouTube address (link included above) for a short video summary.