Red Balloon - NW London

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Kew Gardens

The Gardens are famed for its contributions to increasing the understanding of the plant kingdom. With its collections of living and preserved plants, of plant products and botanical information, it forms an encyclopaedia of knowledge about the plant kingdom. The staff at Red Balloon thought this would be an ideal place to go to get the students interested in exploring different elements of history, biology and science. It was seen as a cross curricular activity where even English could be incorporated.

Firstly the students had to solve various English word puzzles to get clues to various destinations in the park. These included the Treetop Walkway and The Badger Sett. Students were able to observe how badgers live and how their homes are constructed and it was a highlight for many of them to crawl in and through the “human sized” badger tunnels.

Some had to conquer their fear of heights to climb up to the top of the spiral staircase in the Palm House for some spectacular views; while some learnt more about evolution in “The Evolution House”. While quite cold outside, all of us enjoyed the heat of the rainforest section of the Princess of Wales Conservatory. In this part of the conservatory we were also able to view various animals like poison arrow frogs, turtles and piranah's as well as carnivourous plants like the Venus Fly Trap.

Overall it was a highly successful trip with much learnt by students and staff alike.

-- Posted by Red Balloon - NW London on 30th November 2010 --