On the 10th of March 20222, a group of 36 pupils from year 11s were taken to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (commonly known as the Kew Gardens), under the supervision of the Science Department. This was an educational visit that featured completing a Science core practical ‘’ Sampling technique using quadrats’’ on Kew fields. Kew is home to the most diverse botanical collections from the world, hence providing an opportunity for the pupils to relate scientific facts to the plants while closely observing nature at Kew gardens.
We have been lucky to have pleasant weather on the day of the trip which enabled us to make the most of this trip. First, the girls were taken to the fields at Kew Gardens where they performed the core practical ’Estimating the population size of daisies using quadrats’’. The field was full of daisies scattered all over the place which enabled them to gather data quickly. This was supervised and lead by Ms Gul and Ms Tauseef in their individual Science groups.
The practical was followed by visiting various attractions at Kew. The students were put in 4 groups of nine, supervised by one teacher per group. Kew offers multiple attractions and we managed to visit the main ones. Due to the walking distance between each attraction it was a bit of a race against time. We visited the ‘’Temperate House’’ first, which is a massive glass greenhouse, home to 1500 species of rare and extinct plants from Africa, New Zealand, Asia and the Pacific Islands. Pupils got a chance to explore the variety of plant life here and gather evidence on how plants adapt over time due to the survival mechanisms. This links in with their KS4 Science curriculum and helped them understand evolution through natural selection by studying how plants adapt to their environment to maximise their survival.
Straight after the ‘’Temperate house’’ we headed off to the ‘’Treetop Walkway.’’ This was an exciting experience for the girls who enjoyed climbing up to the tree canopy. They loved observing the factors affecting the intricate ecosystem of the trees by walking along a winding path along the tree canopy at a height of 1800 metres above the ground.
Next we visited the ‘’Marianne North Gallery ‘’ that has a collection of botanical art from the 19th century, displayed all over the walls of the gallery. This provided motivation to some of our visual and artistic learners stimulating their minds to learn more about the plants.
On our way out from the gallery, we briefly stopped at the ‘’Palm House’’ where we had the opportunity to experience the hot and humid rainforest environment. This massive greenhouse was bursting with vegetation from rainforests around the world. We learned here that the rainforests cover only 2% of the world’s surface but make 50% of species vital to sustaining life on Earth. We also learned that the Palm House collection is used for botanical research by scientists working towards discovering new medicines and sustainable cropping.
It was finally time for us to have lunch and pray before visiting the gift shop. The girls really enjoyed this trip and felt refreshed as it gave them a chance to learn while having a fun day with friends.
