Audio Transcript

Published: 13 August 2017
APA 7 Citation: Newsome, B. (Host). (2017, August 13). What you can discover at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney [Audio podcast transcript]. Fizzics Education. https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/podcast/fizzicsed/what-you-can-discover-at-the-royal-botanic-garden-sydney/

Ben Newsome CF is the recipient of the 2023 UTS Chancellor’s Award for Excellence and a Churchill Fellow. He is a global leader in science communication and the founder of Fizzics Education.

[00:00:00]
Mary Bell: We can bring language into our programmes and use the gardens as a backdrop to tell stories like Alexander’s Outing, which is the book written about a duck that lives here. Or we can do mathematics programmes, or traditional science and life cycles. The world’s your oyster, it’s a lot of fun.

[00:00:17]
Ben Newsome: That was Mary Bell from the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. And yes, they certainly do plants and soils and things, but as you just heard, they do much more than that. In this interview, we talk with Mary about what goes on in a major garden like the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney, and that includes a little bit of science with chocolate.

[00:00:34]
Announcer: You’re listening to the Fizzics Ed Podcast. For hundreds of ideas, free experiments and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. And now, here’s your host, Ben Newsome.

[00:00:51]
Ben Newsome: Yes, welcome again to another Fizzics Ed Podcast. My name is Ben Newsome and, as always, we love talking about science and especially how science can be used in education. In this case, we’re talking with Mary from the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney.

[00:01:09]
Ben Newsome: Now in this episode, unfortunately, Mary had a bit of a hard time because she had to move around and dodge renovations, as you’re just about to hear, which means occasionally the audio kind of does a very squeaky kind of chop-and-change sound. It really comes down to trying to run a connection over 3G in the heart of Sydney. But anyway, the information is still worth your time because Mary has got a lot to share and a lot of background when it comes to teaching about plants, soils, the environment, and much more. Enjoy.

[00:01:40]
Ben Newsome: Hi Mary Bell, welcome to the Fizzics Ed Podcast.

[00:01:43]
Mary Bell: Hey there, Ben. Nice to talk to you today.

[00:01:46]
Ben Newsome: I know it is. I know you’ve had a flat-out time, especially describing what you’ve had to do even just preparing yourself for this particular interview. What have you had to do this afternoon?

[00:01:58]
Mary Bell: Well, since we’re having our office space renovated and we’ve had lessons going on all day with lots of different schools, and I couldn’t get the laptop to work, I’m now talking to you in a large theatre by myself on my iPad. But we got it worked out, which is pretty good.

[00:02:17]
Ben Newsome: You’ve got to love that quick jump onto iTunes, download the app, and off you go.

[00:02:22]
Mary Bell: Yeah, it’s great.

[00:02:25]
Ben Newsome: Hey, we probably should let people know, Mary. Obviously, I know you, but some people might have never met you. So tell us, who are you, what do you do, what is it that floats your boat and all that type of thing?

[00:02:38]
Mary Bell: Okay, cool. Well, I’m a coordinator of school and community programmes at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and also at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden at Mount Tomah. So these are both beautiful botanic gardens in Sydney, and I get to run a lot of school programmes at them.

[00:02:58]
Mary Bell: When I’m not doing that, I run video conferences with schools all over the place. My passion is plants. So when I’m doing my job, I’m organising lessons along a lot of different curriculums for schools to visit our gardens and learn about what we do. There are little kids, big kids, TAFEs and universities all wanting to know more about plants, which is really great.

[00:03:24]
Mary Bell: I work with a living collection, so botanic gardens are living collections of plants and this is what I like to make accessible and available to the people that visit us. We not only have a living collection, we have preserved plants in our Herbarium that date back to Banks and Solander, who collected on the trip out with Captain Cook in 1770. So yeah, it’s a really amazing job to work with plants and people and science. I love it.

[00:03:54]
Ben Newsome: That’s fantastic. And just out of interest, obviously you’re heavily involved in working in the gardens, but where did this love of plants come from?

[00:04:03]
Mary Bell: Yeah, well, I have a memory, my first memory in my life is being in a cot inside a tent in the bush. So I would have been really young, and I was singing songs to myself. It was a happy memory.

[00:04:21]
Mary Bell: My family went on regular camping trips and four-wheel drive trips, and I just loved all that. I just had a deep love of the bush. And so when I went to uni, I decided that I’d do any course that had a field trip in it. Yes, and my mum was a science teacher and at that age everyone was saying, “You’re going to be a science teacher, aren’t you?” And I went, “No, I’m not.” Guess what?

[00:04:50]
Ben Newsome: It’ll happen to you.

[00:04:53]
Mary Bell: So there you go. I don’t know, it was just all around me and yeah, I can see myself giving my mum books on plants in my early 20s and stuff like that. I don’t know what was going on, but that’s what’s happened.

[00:05:08]
Ben Newsome: Look, I totally get it because I grew up all along the East Coast of Australia. My father was in the army, and the family locus, the main part where we came from in Northern New South Wales, is a series of properties, rural properties, so cattle, sheep and that type of thing.

[00:05:31]
Ben Newsome: I have distinct memories as a kid as well playing in bushland areas and making cubby houses and all that type of thing. My first job directly out of university happened to be bushland regeneration. Maybe there’s a theme here.

[00:05:46]
Mary Bell: Ah, yeah. Certain people are attracted to certain things.

[00:05:53]
Ben Newsome: Fantastic. Now, you’re right, you basically are a science teacher, but you also taught in primary school?

[00:06:01]
Mary Bell: I actually haven’t. No, so I actually haven’t taught in a school. My whole career’s been based in a lot of outdoor education. So there you go, I started off in pure science in my career and whilst I liked it, I liked the idea of teaching and being with children and learning and teaching understandings.

[00:06:28]
Mary Bell: So I went and did some teaching training, but at that time I was working at a farm in Western Sydney doing education programmes there. So I did it all by cassette tape mostly.

[00:06:44]
Ben Newsome: Oh wow, for a start let’s just say for sure, I mean, obviously you’re a brilliant educator. I can just imagine you in front of young kids and old kids. That’s probably where I thought that you’d had a bit of a primary background, but wow, I’m just thinking about teaching via tape. Tell us more.

[00:07:05]
Mary Bell: Yeah, so the only university that ran external courses that I could do while I was working was the University of New England and they sent you your lectures by cassette tape. So that’s how I did it. But I did teach in the classroom, of course, as part of my prac. But I never did practice in the classroom. I always wanted to do this kind of work, outdoors or in museums, that kind of thing. So I’ve been lucky.

[00:07:36]
Ben Newsome: It’s good fun, isn’t it? You get to meet a lot of different schools and classes and see what makes them tick and what they’re interested in, for sure. I was actually having a look at what you’ve been doing. You used to work in soils.

[00:07:53]
Mary Bell: I did, I did. Yes. So I worked for an organisation that at the time didn’t have a high workforce of women and there was an opportunity for them to employ through government grant women in soil science. So I did some extra studies in geomorphology, and I was working for the Soil Conservation Service so I was teaching people about conserving soil, conserving the land.

[00:08:24]
Mary Bell: And that was in the 80s. Oh my goodness. So yeah, and I also did mapping. I mapped soil in the southern areas of New South Wales around Cooma and Queanbeyan using air photo interpretation.

[00:08:42]
Ben Newsome: Wow, because the funny thing about soils is that some, especially students, have often no idea that there are different types of soils even in smaller localities like Sydney itself. I mean, there are three distinct soil areas let alone the smaller parts as well of Cumberland Plain, Cooks River Clay Plain, you’ve got sandstone areas and it really affects directly what the plants do.

[00:09:12]
Mary Bell: That’s right. You have these certain vegetation types. So that was actually soil landscape mapping at the time, which was looking at what the vegetation told you about the soils underneath and the geology related to that and what kind of risks that held for soil erosion and things like that.

[00:09:37]
Mary Bell: So in terms of our clean drinking water, you need to have a clean catchment. You don’t want soils washing down into our rivers where we, you know, end up having our water from that we drink and use in our everyday life. So it’s actually really important to manage the land around it. So yeah, soil is essential to plant life and our lives. It’s really good stuff.

[00:10:05]
Ben Newsome: Absolutely. Actually, we run a forensics programme and one of the parts of it is actually incorporating a station where the potential suspect has this soil on a particular piece of evidence that the students have to work out, where was the suspect in this area based on the crime scene soil smear that’s in the room. It’s kind of weird how you can use soils in different ways to teach science.

[00:10:34]
Mary Bell: Oh yeah, that sounds really fascinating, Ben.

[00:10:38]
Ben Newsome: Bit of fun. It’s all good fun. So obviously wind forward, you’re heavily involved with Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney as well as the one at Mount Tomah. Now there might be people not realising what is out at Mount Tomah. Let’s hear about that.

[00:10:54]
Mary Bell: Okay, so this botanic garden at Mount Tomah celebrates its 30th birthday this year. So it’s smack bang the middle in a World Heritage Area. It has cool climate plants, and it also conducts revegetation type relocation programmes of the Wollemi Pine. It’s an amazing and beautiful garden with a stunning view of Sydney. Yeah, come up and see us there sometime.

[00:11:28]
Ben Newsome: That actually brings up the point because obviously there’s going to be a lot of educators listening to this and some of which has school groups in the Sydney Basin area. Obviously, there’ll be people all over Australia, but there’ll be some in and around you. When they come in to visit you and your team, what sort of things can they do with their students?

[00:11:52]
Mary Bell: Well, what I like about what we do is that we tend to be all across the curriculum. So it’s not just science, it’s history. Here at the botanic gardens where we celebrated our 201st birthday this year as a botanic garden, we have a deep history, we have Aboriginal culture special sites here, we have the site of the first farm, so there’s great history.

[00:12:24]
Mary Bell: But we can bring language into our programmes and use the gardens as a backdrop to tell stories like Alexander’s Outing, which is the book written about a duck that lives here. Or we can do mathematics programmes, or traditional science and life cycles. The world’s your oyster, it’s a lot of fun.

[00:12:46]
Ben Newsome: What age group tends to come to your gardens?

[00:12:49]
Mary Bell: We do get a lot of primary schools. Generally in the junior years, they really love to come here and do planting and learn about plant life cycles. They do love those Aboriginal programmes we offer that are really authentic with fabulous educators who have great relationships with kids and can talk about their culture at great length and get them excited. We do get high school groups as well. I’d love to have more. I love working with high school groups because they’re the ones that are going to move on hopefully to study plants or study science and learn some more.

[00:13:28]
Ben Newsome: Imagine this chat is over and you’ve got a spare hour. Someone turns up and says, “We would love you, Mary, to run a workshop on plants and you can do whatever you want.” Just show me what you love to show people. What would that lesson look like? What would be the best lesson where you say, “I just wish people would book this more often”?

[00:13:55]
Mary Bell: I like plant classification. We’ve got the seaweeds, the algae. We love to get that out and show students and teachers that seaweed is a plant. Even freshwater algae and how they grow and indicate environmental factors. Then we can move on to the mosses and liverworts, which are just really cute plants. I don’t know if everyone is aware of liverworts, but they’re one of my favourites.

[00:14:25]
Mary Bell: Then we can go on to ferns and we’ve got a beautiful fernery to look at. We can look at all the conifers, all the cone-bearing plants. When we talk about the flowering plants, there are just so many, including the unusual and beautiful Australian flora. I’d love to do the whole breadth and depth of that. Maybe finish it off with some bush tucker, using some of our Australian flora like lemon myrtle, maybe sweetening some toffee and cordial with leaves and fruits.

[00:14:55]
Ben Newsome: All right, so we’re not going to do an hour, we’re doing a whole day and if not a camp overnight.

[00:15:02]
Mary Bell: Oh yeah, we want that too.

[00:15:05]
Ben Newsome: What a great day or potential several days, that’d be awesome.

[00:15:11]
Mary Bell: It would be great. Maybe we get to meet some of our scientists and look at some of those herbarium specimens that Banks and Solander collected. We could try our hand at some botanical illustration while we’re at it. We could do anything you like, Ben. When are you coming?

[00:15:31]
Ben Newsome: I will happily turn up and do that. That sounds awesome. Especially when I think about how you’re weaving history and art in as well. That’s what they always talk about. It’s not just STEM—science, technology, engineering, maths—there is an ‘A’ for art, which sometimes gets missed.

[00:15:51]
Mary Bell: Yes, exactly.

[00:15:53]
Ben Newsome: That would be fantastic. Obviously, the Banks collection is very impressive. When you speak to the general public, what do they imagine the collection is going to look like? Are they expecting dusty drawers filled with old brown specimens or plant pressings under newspaper?

[00:16:14]
Mary Bell: I’m not sure. The Herbarium is not open very often to the public, so I think they’re very surprised by what they see. I’ve been working with Herbarium specimens today, and every time I look at them, they look stunning. They’re perfectly preserved examples of plants displayed on archival paper and presented in such a way that all the plant features can be studied. You look at a big Banksia cone and, Ben, do you know who the Banksias are named after?

[00:16:46]
Ben Newsome: Joseph Banks?

[00:16:48]
Mary Bell: Exactly. I like that one with the kids because they have to really think. Can you imagine trying to present a Banksia cone on a flat piece of paper? It’s not flat, it’s three-dimensional. It looks amazing. These were collected a long time ago.

[00:17:05]
Ben Newsome: Sorry to talk over you there. I got a little excited because I remember a conversation I had about three or four months ago. I was lucky enough to pick up a Churchill Fellowship, which allowed me to travel around the world and speak to people who do science video conferencing. It also introduced me to a wide network of people doing cool things. Someone I ran into went to Harvard to study how they made a plant collection out of glass.

[00:17:37]
Mary Bell: Really?

[00:17:39]
Ben Newsome: Yes. There’s a particular plant collection at Harvard where the curator decided, using great skill, to create botanical specimens at a serious level whereby the flowers are almost indistinguishable from the real thing. We’re talking colour, shape, size. Even to the point where the right number of seeds are arranged in the right way, little hairs in the right spot, the works. This particular person got to travel to Harvard to spend six or seven weeks trying to work out, as a professional glassblower, how this was done.

[00:18:14]
Mary Bell: Wow. Did you see it?

[00:18:17]
Ben Newsome: He showed me photos. I was like, “Oh my gosh.” He didn’t tell me what it was yet. I said, “Oh cool, that’s a plant collection.” He goes, “No, it’s a glass collection.”

[00:18:30]
Mary Bell: Wow, that’s really interesting. I love it.

[00:18:34]
Ben Newsome: Really impressive. You wouldn’t think of it. That’s putting the ‘A’ into STEAM to the nth degree.

[00:18:42]
Mary Bell: Indeed, indeed.

[00:18:45]
Ben Newsome: So when you’re talking botany with children, what tends to grab their attention the most?

[00:18:52]
Mary Bell: I’ll tell you what grabs them the most, and that’s the bum seed. I was going to mention that today.

[00:19:00]
Ben Newsome: What is that?

[00:19:02]
Mary Bell: It’s the biggest seed in the world. It’s the Double Coconut, and it just happens to look like a bum. You have it to the side, then bring it out and you can see them all giggling and laughing. I say, “I’m going to show you the biggest seed in the world,” and it just looks like a bottom. This tree is actually quite endangered, and the seed we have is from when we had a museum here last century. They’re very rare these days, sort of on the black market. It’s a huge seed the size of a basketball. That kind of gets them in.

[00:19:45]
Ben Newsome: I bet it does. That’s so much fun. Obviously, you’ve been doing this for a long time. Have you ever had a time where you’ve been teaching a topic, like pollination or germination, and something’s not quite working? The class has gone on a tangent or an experiment isn’t working. Have things ever just not gone right?

[00:20:08]
Mary Bell: I’m not sure I can remember anything in particular because working outdoors at the Botanic Gardens is always like that. The garden bed is closed, or they’ve decided to mow exactly where you’re standing. It’s a movable feast.

[00:20:25]
Mary Bell: The story I like to tell is that my office is next to a lawn where teachers get ready for their lessons. One day, I knew we had no lessons booked. I saw this teacher come and sit on the lawn with her class looking very happy. I went outside to talk to her and she said she was there for a lesson. She showed me the paper and she’d booked the wrong day. There she is with her whole class wanting to do something. I said, “Okay, I’ll make a lesson for you.” We walked around the garden and went up to our then Tropical Centre. Life on the hop, Ben. That’s how it goes.

[00:21:10]
Ben Newsome: I was at a science festival once. You’ve got multiple schools running around to go to their workshops at the right time. I remember a teacher with students who was at her wit’s end because the timetable had been messed up. Every single workshop she arrived at had someone else already in it. They’re 10 or 11 years old, wanting to do fun stuff, but they’re being barred at the door. I was presenting with a second person, which I didn’t really need to do, so we actually ran some stuff out in the corridor for them.

[00:21:48]
Mary Bell: Corridors are great places to run lessons, especially indoor ones.

[00:21:53]
Ben Newsome: I remember running a science programme in a broom cupboard at another science festival because they literally didn’t have a location. We had to rip out what we could into the corridor and shove 30 kids into this space. It was probably a fire safety issue. It’s amazing what you can do when you have to.

[00:22:15]
Mary Bell: It’s not uncommon, these kinds of challenges, I must say.

[00:22:20]
Ben Newsome: It is very much a moving feast. If you had a contact from a primary teacher who said, “I really want to get these kids learning about their local wildlife and bushland,” but they didn’t have much cash to visit a garden, what advice would you give them to start these kids appreciating nature?

[00:22:43]
Mary Bell: I think it happens a lot. All I want to say is go outside. It’s a constantly changing environment. If you spend time to just look and discover, even with simple macro lenses that attach to iPads, or magnifying glasses, just look at the small world going on around you under the tree bark, under the leaves, or in the mulch. There’s a whole new world there. It’s good to appreciate nature by looking up close and being outside.

[00:23:16]
Ben Newsome: Doesn’t leaf litter just grab kids’ attention when they’re directed to it? It has so much stuff in it.

[00:23:25]
Mary Bell: That’s right. When you’re on a timetable running a leaf litter hunt and need to move on to the next activity, but you’ve discovered another little creature, it can be tricky to get the kids disengaged for the next thing.

[00:23:41]
Ben Newsome: Totally. I love the idea of just taking them outdoors. If we’re going to learn about nature, we might as well go out into it.

[00:23:51]
Mary Bell: I think it’s a great idea.

[00:23:54]
Ben Newsome: Awesome. There will be people out there who’d love to find out how they can engage with the gardens, even if they’re in another country. How could they get in touch with you?

[00:24:07]
Mary Bell: I’ve got an email address I can share. I’m on Twitter, and our web pages have a lot of information. I’m really keen to do video conferencing with other countries, so if anyone wants to get involved with that, I’d love to hear from you.

[00:24:24]
Ben Newsome: Before you sign off, let’s chat about that, because I know you’re doing a little bit into South East Asia.

[00:24:32]
Mary Bell: We’re trying to get into South Korea and particularly Hong Kong at the moment with some special sponsorship for our video conference programme. We’re hoping to engage students from those countries. I’m looking forward to that.

[00:24:48]
Ben Newsome: That would be really cool, because the students could show what’s happening in their site with their plants and teach you.

[00:24:57]
Mary Bell: Indeed. I’d love to learn more from kids. I’m always keen on that.

[00:25:03]
Ben Newsome: Flipped learning is awesome. Thank you very much, Mary. That’s great to have a chat with you. I know you’ve had a very busy day being moved around different parts of the site to even make this connection, but we made it in the end.

[00:25:20]
Mary Bell: Appreciate the time, Ben. I’ve really enjoyed it.

[00:25:24]
Ben Newsome: Much appreciated. Mary, we’ll put that all in the show notes so people can contact you. I really enjoyed our chat, especially talking about an area that grabs my fancy, as I really enjoyed restoring bushland areas before I became a science teacher.

[00:25:42]
Mary Bell: I’ve done a bit of it myself. There’s nothing like quiet time in the bush.

[00:25:48]
Ben Newsome: Exactly. With that, we should leave you for that quiet as you head into the weekend. Thank you very much, Mary. Enjoy your afternoon.

[00:25:59]
Mary Bell: No worries, Ben.

[00:26:02]
Announcer: This is the Fizzics Ed Podcast. We’re all about science, ed tech, and more. To see 100 free experiments you can do with your class, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F-I-Z-Z-I-C-S, and click 100 free experiments.

[00:26:20]
Ben Newsome: There you go. That’s Mary Bell from the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. I’m proud to have her on board. Even in the middle of a renovation, she could have easily said it was too hard, but she made it happen despite hammers banging and internet struggling. I definitely grabbed a couple of takeaways from that interview.

[00:26:45]
Ben Newsome: Firstly, be a little cheeky. Mary was talking about the bum seed, the world’s largest seed. Having a little twinkle in your eye and an inside joke will certainly grab kids’ attention. We’re meant to be educators and hold a certain decorum, but sometimes being too formal for too long turns kids off.

[00:27:10]
Ben Newsome: Number two, check out an Herbarium. It has more than just a series of dusty plant collections. They’re there so scientists and botanists can compare against other specimens to work out what plants are in the area and how diversity is changing over time. It means we can discover new species purely by comparing Herbariums. You can find living plant collections, like arboretums, in many botanical gardens. Go check them out, it’s well worth your time.

[00:27:45]
Ben Newsome: Number three, definitely consider using history, culture, and language when teaching science. It gives science context. Being able to go back in history and say, “This is what we knew then, and this is what we know now, and this is why we know it,” helps kids understand that science doesn’t exist in a vacuum. A number of our guests have talked about this. Drop us a line with your learnings, I’d love to hear more.

[00:28:15]
Announcer: Thanks for listening to the Fizzics Ed Podcast. Love your science? We do too. Here’s this episode’s education tip of the week. Grab your pencil and get ready to make some notes.

[00:28:30]
Ben Newsome: As we come into National Science Week, I think in Australia and beyond, we should be looking at citizen science as a major theme. What can your students, friends, and colleagues be doing to help scientists in the real world? If you’re in Australia, jump on the Australian Citizen Science Association, the Atlas of Living Australia, or the Australian Museum Centre for Citizen Science. They’ll help you find projects near your home.

[00:29:05]
Ben Newsome: If you’re not in Australia, check out Discovery Circle, SciStarter, or search for “Citizen Science Association.” You’ll find ways to help out. Finding galaxies, classifying birds or fish, tracking weather or reefs—there are heaps of ways you can contribute, and all you probably need is a smartphone and to download an app.

[00:29:30]
Announcer: This is the Fizzics Ed Podcast. We’re excited about science. Grab a copy of our new book, Be Amazing: How to Teach Science the Way Primary Kids Love, from our website. Just search “Be Amazing book.” It’s available in hard copy and ebook. Go to fizzicseducation.com.au.

[00:29:50]
Ben Newsome: During the interview with Mary, I mentioned the glass flowers collection at Harvard. It is very real and you should check it out. Jump onto huh.harvard.edu/glass-flowers. You’ll find the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants. It’s a massively popular collection with over 4,300 individual glass models, including 847 life-size models.

[00:30:25]
Ben Newsome: These are botanically accurate models made between 1886 and 1936. They were stunningly done. These flowers completely boggle the mind. When you look at the glass flowers collection online, you will find some flowers that will blow your mind and leave you wondering how they are made from glass.

[00:30:50]
Ben Newsome: Speaking of creativity, our last guest talked about the importance of being creative. That guest was Corrina Strecker from the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. Check out what she had to say.

[00:31:05]
Corrina Strecker: I think it helps to have that creative side. Sometimes with our education programmes, not having a strong science background is helpful because I have to learn it myself. Asking, “How can I make this relatable just for myself to teach it?” is really useful. If I’m talking about molecular structure, I have to learn what that means to begin with. In that learning process, some really creative ways to teach students can emerge.

[00:31:38]
Ben Newsome: Corrina Strecker definitely knows her creative abilities because she has a background in theatre. Nowadays, she’s an education manager at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum in Michigan. Jump on last week’s episode to find out how she went from theatre to working on planes, quality control for toys, and now a major hands-on museum. It’s quite a story.

[00:32:10]
Announcer: Thanks for listening to the Fizzics Ed Podcast. Sign up now for our fortnightly email newsletter. It’s loaded with details on new experiments, STEM teaching articles, exclusive offers, and events. Go to fizzicseducation.com.au, scroll to the bottom, and add your email.

[00:32:30]
Ben Newsome: That brings us to the end of another podcast. Jump onto our website and check out those free experiments. Also, jump onto your favourite podcast app and hit subscribe. Next week, we get to talk with Derek Williamson from the Museum of Human Disease at UNSW in Eastern Sydney.

[00:33:00]
Ben Newsome: That museum is very cool and somewhat unknown. Even some students at the university don’t realize that these weird and wild disease specimens are housed under one roof. Derek allows high school and medical students to check it out, but he also teaches about it all over the world using video conferencing.

[00:33:30]
Ben Newsome: Until then, I’d love to hear what you think about the podcast. Leave a review if you can. As always, may your science lessons be fun, informative, and grab your students’ imagination. My name’s Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education, and you’ve been listening to the Fizzics Ed Podcast.

[00:33:55]
Announcer: You’ve been listening to another Fizzics Ed Podcast. We’re excited about science. Subscribe to us on iTunes to download the next episode as soon as it’s released. And don’t forget, for hundreds of ideas, free experiments, our new Be Amazing book and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F I Z Z I C S.

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of educational programmes are offered at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney?
The garden offers a diverse range of programmes that span the entire curriculum. While science and life cycles are core components, the gardens also provide lessons in history (focusing on Aboriginal culture and the site of Australia’s first farm), mathematics, and even language through storytelling using the gardens as a backdrop.

What is the difference between the living collection and the Herbarium?
The living collection consists of the active, growing plants throughout the gardens. The Herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens used for scientific study. Some of these specimens date back to 1770, having been collected by Banks and Solander during Captain Cook’s voyage to Australia.

Why is soil science important in a botanical context?
Soil is essential to both plant life and human survival. Understanding soil landscapes helps educators teach students about land management, erosion risks, and the importance of maintaining clean catchments to ensure the safety of our drinking water.

What are some of the most effective ways to engage children with botany?
Engagement often comes from highlighting the “unusual” in nature, such as the Double Coconut (frequently called the “bum seed”), which is the largest seed in the world. Additionally, simple activities like exploring leaf litter or using magnifying glasses to observe the “small world” under tree bark are highly effective at grabbing students’ attention.

How can schools outside of Sydney participate in these programmes?
The Royal Botanic Garden has a robust video conferencing programme. This allows the education team to connect with students across Australia and internationally, recently expanding their reach into South East Asia, including South Korea and Hong Kong.

Extra thought ideas to consider

The Integration of Art and Science (STEAM): Consider the historical importance of botanical illustration. Before the advent of high-resolution photography, scientific accuracy depended on the skill of artists. Discuss how modern students can use drawing and illustration as a tool for “slow looking,” which forces a deeper observation of biological structures than a quick photograph might allow.

The Role of Citizen Science in Schools: Mary mentions several organisations, such as the Australian Citizen Science Association and the Atlas of Living Australia. Educators might consider how students can transition from “learners” to “contributors” by using smartphones to record local flora and fauna, providing real-world data to scientists and fostering a sense of environmental stewardship.

Nature as a Multi-Sensory Classroom: The interview highlights that some of the best lessons occur in “corridors” or through “leaf litter hunts.” This suggests that a formal laboratory or classroom setting is not always superior for science education. Reflect on how unstructured time in local bushland can be used to provoke scientific questioning and curiosity through touch, smell, and microscopic observation.