Making Botanical Adventures for Children

In 2002, the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis began to create a place where children could explore science, nature, and plants. Missouri Botanical Garden planners envisioned an educational and exciting area with a secret garden, caves, wetlands, and a treetop adventure in Missouri history.

Now completed, the Doris I. Schnuck Children's Garden is a place where families can discover nature, learn about the significance of plants, and consider ecological issues. The Monsanto Fund provided a grant for construction of the garden and the creation of several educational areas for children's adventures. Elevated above 100-yearold Osage orange trees, a rustic boardwalk provides views of the garden from canopy level. From this vantage point, children learn about several aspects of plant science: condensation and precipitation, plant structure, transpiration, seed dispersal, photosynthesis, and gravity and aerodynamics.

The garden introduces children to plant sciences at the age when their curiosity is at its peak. The garden brings history and botany to life through the theme "A Missouri Adventure." By using historical figures that helped shape the Missouri region, the Children's Garden introduces the spirit of discovery to visitors. These figures include Louisiana Purchase explorers Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Sacagawea; frontiersman Daniel Boone; author Mark Twain; and Missouri Botanical Garden founder Henry Shaw.

Other areas of the garden allow children to explore more issues important to plant science: biodiversity, genetic adaptation, agriculture, horticulture, conservation, and ecosystems.

$1.0m
The Monsanto Fund contributed $1 million toward construction of the new children's garden.