Page 5 - Spring 2019

The Bronx Institute at Lehman College • Bronx GEAR UP Network
www.TheBronxInstitute.org
New York
Botanical Garden
The New York Botanical Garden has worked with The Bronx GEAR UP Network program for years, providing botanic education workshops and hands-on internship opportunities Recently, Bronx GEAR UP Network students from West Bronx Academy for the Future and Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music were given the unique opportunity to attend the New York Botanical Garden’s Fall Wild Medicine Institute. The Fall Wild Medicine Institute is a workshop series where students can observe and learn about plants from across the globe that grow in varying ecosystems. Brian Hockaday, a research assistant for the New York Botanical Garden Institute of Economic Botany, outlined the life cycle and unique features of rare plants, such as the corpse flower, which only blooms once every 15 years. Students were even instructed on how to use aloe vera for medicinal purposes, using the plant’s natural sap to create their own hand sanitizers.
The class we went to at The New York Botani- cal Garden was very interesting. Learning here has such a different atmosphere than learning in the classroom. There are even things we learn here that we don’t learn in school at all. One of those things is how different plants have different uses, including some that are used to make med- icine. We learned that the aloe vera plant is used for shampoo, skin lotion and acne cream. It’s good to learn where the things you use come from. This class has definitely changed my way of thinking about the world around us. The things we use every day come from the environment, so it’s important to take care of our surroundings. I’d say this class is worth coming to for fellow students. The environment is part of everyday life. It’s im- portant to broaden your horizons about life and what you may want to do as a career. Some peo- ple don’t realize they want to do something until they try something new.
Diliana Mejia - 9th grade, Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music
What really stood out to me was leaning that each plant has its own descriptions and name. They actually make the description of the plant before naming it. Plants actually have male and female genders, and some plants are even siblings! Making the aloe vera hand sanitizer was the best part. It was something I haven’t experi- enced firsthand, so it was interesting to do. The sap of aloe vera actually smells like vapor rub. The plants here are eye-catching, mesmerizing and beautiful. I just had to preserve them for myself by taking pictures! It was really great to get to expe- rience something like this in person rather than in a classroom through a textbook. My favorite plant we learned about was the cacao plant, because that’s where chocolate comes from.
Joselyn Aguilar - 11th grade, Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music
“At the New York Botanical Garden, we went around the different biomes seeing the many types of plants that grow in each one. Visiting the biomes was my favorite part of the class because it was interesting to learn about which plants grow in a biome like the desert and what makes them unique. Some plants that grow may have water in- side of them, while others need water from out- side to help them grow. I feel like it’s better to learn this way than from a classroom, because there are people that can tell you different things about the plants that you wouldn’t get from a normal class.” Anderson Sarante - 10th grade, West Bronx Academy for the Future
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The Bronx Institute Bronx GEAR UP Network