A Garden for Every Child A Scientist

Every child a scientist’ is a concept developed by Prof. M S Swaminathan with the objectives of education for children in science, art and cultural aspects of biodiversity at MSSRF CAbC. Children’s garden has designed to engage both children and youth in the natural world. There is a space for children to be innovative and creative to resolve the challenges of environment. In the programme the students are formed into groups to get exposure to various components of the garden and the landscapes in the locality to observe and collect plant species during various seasons. They can observe and cite the local names, describing the details of the habit, habitat and uses of the plants. These samples and data are thoroughly examined for the record and the students are trained to prepare herbarium specimens of the important species. Every three months the entire team of children can attend two days nature education camp that has activities like star gazing, trekking, bird watching, butterfly watching etc. These initiatives are aimed at motivating the children, youth, teachers and parents to take part in the protection and maintenance of the biodiversity of this region, in situ, ex-situ and on-farm.