Students get back to nature

By Gianni Francis

Apr 5, 2022

Nature walk: Guthrie Street Primary School Year 6 students Gurmanjot Singh and Eleanor Long with Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria learning facilitator Carolyn Shurey. Photo by Megan Fisher

Year 6 students from Guthrie Street Primary School have crossed the newly built bridge across the Broken River to Shepparton Botanic Gardens for an education day.

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Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria chose Shepparton Botanic Gardens as one of the first regional sites to deliver a new education program about biomimicry — using nature’s solutions to solve human challenges — to about 90 students on Tuesday, April 5.

This comes after many months of relationship building between RBGV, the Friends of the Australian Botanic Gardens Shepparton and the RiverConnect Program, to give students in the Shepparton region access to RBGV’s education programs.

Eager to learn: Guthrie Street Primary School Year 6 students Benjamin Niyon, Gurmanjot Singh, Eleanor Long and Alyssia Aston-Brien with Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria learning facilitator Carolyn Shurey. Photo by Megan Fisher

“The Friends of the Australian Botanic Gardens Shepparton have been ‘chatting’ with the education team from RBGV for over 12 months regarding education days at the botanic gardens,” Friends of the Australian Botanic Gardens Shepparton president Jill Grant said.

“We feel privileged to be chosen for their new push to reach regional students.

“This should be an amazing day for students and teachers, and the botanic gardens volunteers can expand our knowledge and horizons in so many different ways, and looking at biomimicry is one of these ways.”

The education program, Design by Nature, was delivered by RBGV’s education staff, and supported by RiverConnect and the Friends of the Australian Botanic Gardens Shepparton volunteers.