Teacher Information
A. Field Trip Preparation
B. Checklist for the Trip to the Botanic Garden
C. Classroom Tool Kit
D. Contact Information
E. Butterfly Basics- Information for techers and docents
A. Field Trip Preparation
Directions upon arrival to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden
Your program begins thirty minutes prior to your ticket entrance time, so plan to arrive accordingly. If traveling by bus or large van, have driver unload students in the north lot, across from the Leonhardt Auditorium. Proceed to the double glass doors leading to the Auditorium and Garden Center (see map). If your group numbers more than 25, it will be subdivided into smaller groups of students and adult chaperones. Your docents will meet your small groups (25 or fewer) at the double glass doors for your program’s beginning, which is thirty minutes before the time on your ticket. You will be directed to the butterfly exhibit at your ticket entry time.
If your group has more than 75 persons, you will have several entry times. You may explore the Garden until your program begins. Please return to the double door entry thirty minutes prior to your ticket time to start your program. Restroom needs must be completed prior to beginning program.
Please arrive on time. We cannot guarantee your entry if you arrive late. Your program may be shortened due to other scheduled tours.
Education Program
Your students will experience an exciting educational adventure as they learn about careers in science and the interdependence of plants and animals. This teacher and docent guided program introduces students to butterfly life cycles and behaviors to prepare them for their visit to the conservatory with live butterflies. Outdoors in the Garden, students observe plants through the eyes of a pollinator to learn about adaptations of plants and animals.
Student Journals: A journal to guide the student’s experience has been prepared for you. Teachers, please make copies for each of your students before you arrive. (2 pages, printed on front and back and folded as a journal).
Student journal
Student Clipboards: a simple cardboard “clip board” will support students’ journals throughout the school program. You can make 5 ½” x 8 ½” clip boards by cutting a standard 8 ½” x 11” sheet of cardboard in half and attaching the journal to the clipboard with a paperclip.
Facilitator Guiding Questions
An inquiry approach to learning through questioning challenges your students to observe and “think like scientists”. Curriculum concepts and guiding questions are included for both teachers and docents leading students through the education program.
Facilitator Guide
Program Flow
Your group will be met outside the double door entry between the Leonhardt Auditorium and Garden Center thirty minutes before your ticket time. Your group may be subdivided into as many as three smaller groups and assigned to a docent. Please stay with your assigned docent. Your docent will lead you to the classroom.
In the classroom your group will rotate through three experiences: careers in science/butterfly behaviors, the life cycle of the butterfly and the USDA Guidelines for butterfly exhibitions.
You will then view Pollination Partners exhibit, created by the Botanical Research Institute of Texas’ (BRIT) and the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.
At the proper time your group will be placed into the queue for entrance into the Conservatory. There is no time limit in the conservatory. After spending time among the butterflies, we encourage your chaperones to continue their plant and insect investigations outdoors in the Leonhard Courtyard and Fuller garden. You may return to the hall to view exhibits. There is a restroom available near the Gift Shop.
Teachers are responsible for managing the behavior of their students. Docents will rely on teachers and chaperones to supervise children.
Lunch
Tables and play equipment are available across the street in Trinity Park for a picnic lunch. There are no picnic tables at the FWBG. Please bring a trash bag if you choose to eat lunch in the parking lot or in your vehicles, and place the trash bag closed and tied by a trash barrel, or take it with you.
B. Check List for the Butterflies in the Garden field trip
C. Classroom Tool Kit
1. Pre and Post Activities for your visit
2. Integrating butterflies into your curriculum
3. Resources and Literature Connections
4. Metamorphosis poster *
Information on monarchs and milkweed
*Teachers receive a beautiful color poster illustrating the life cycle of the monarch and its host plant, the milkweed. The poster and information sheet can be picked up from a docent at the end of the visit.
D. Contact Us
For program information, contact Judy Bauereisen (Botanic Garden) at 817-871-7682 or Kathy Scott (BRIT) kscott@brit.org at 817-332-4441, ext. 37.
For ticket questions, call Central Ticket Office at 800-462-7979.
E. Butterfly Basics- Information for teachers and docents
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