A Children’s Discovery
Garden
Letting Nature build Bridges at the
Jerusalem Botanical Gardens
Politically and culturally neutral, it can provide a meeting point for children whose deepest and healthiest instincts draw them to the same age-old getting-wet-and-dirty activities. By inspiring wonder, it can give youngsters a sense of their own place and belonging in a larger, unifying web of life, and a sense of what’s really important.
And there’s more. Israel is a tiny country sitting astride three continents. It is a recognized biodiversity hotspot, whose natural treasures are under huge urbanizing threat. Jews and Arabs share responsibility for its environmental problems. It is only by working together that they can effectively reverse the trends.
The starting point has to be the next generation of adults. The challenge is to entice youngsters down from their high-rise apartments to the verdant ground.
Because the child who has sat in a tree and delighted in the play of light on the leaves in a breeze is more likely to fight against uprooting the wood down the road, or the rainforest on the other side of the world, when he or she is old enough to actually do something about it. As nature educator David Sobel points out: "One transcendent experience in nature is worth a thousand nature facts.”
Whither the land of Israel?
Did you have a secret childhood space? Perhaps a tree house, a rock, or a den?
Ask today’s Israeli children what they most enjoy doing, and like their overseas counterparts, they will talk about their Play Stations and digital screens.
Direct contact with the soil has declined in modern Israel. Jews and Arabs are leaving the countryside for the urban life. Youngsters in both communities spend more time indoors, in sedentary virtual pursuits. Child obesity is rising.
And yet research shows that direct experience of nature is critical to a child’s healthy development - unsurprising, given that for most of human history, children have learned to be creative, to solve problems, and to cooperate with others in natural settings.
In Jerusalem, a city divided along ethnic, religious and linguistic fault lines, nature has a uniquely healing role to play.
The Jerusalem Botanical Gardens – with its expertise in plants, education, and coexistence
activities - is the ideal location for what will be the first Children’s Discovery Garden
in Israel.
This flagship project will attract three to 12-year-olds from all walks of life
precisely because it will start from what children instinctively
love to do in nature…Look for secret places; build dens; “hunt and gather”( search for and collect things); create miniature
worlds; climb; get dirty; play out fantasy adventures…
, different layers of experienceThe Children’s Discovery Garden will offer
from plenty of play, to tracks and trails, opportunities for quiet
observation, and guided activities
, from activity sheets and kits distributed at the different mediaIt will use
Botanical Garden’s entrance, to activity symbols embedded into a
special new path
into account, encouraging children’s developmental stagesIt will take
empathy with nature in tots, exploration in primary school children, and
eventually, the taking of environmental responsibility
, from all sectors of societyreach out to all childrenAnd it will
“Start from the children, not the problem” David Sobel
The Concept: Plants in the Web of Life
plants underpin all life Beyond having a great time, the Botanical Gardens hope that children will one day grasp that
on Earth.
To help them, the Discovery Garden will break the great story of ecology down into a series of simple, constituent
parts to show the interaction between plants and the elements around them.
Nine activity environments will be linked by a specially designed path. The environments are:
Water -- Sun -- Rock -- Up in the Trees -- Down to the Roots -- Seeds-- Maze -- Butterfly Garden -- Field
Location within the Botanical Gardens: right in the middle. A loop trail will take visitors from the upper car park through the North American, Australian and Asian sections, passing the tropical conservatory.
The entire path will measure 910 meters. The first stage, for which initial planning has been completed, will measure 460 meters. All environments will have “outdoor classroom ” spaces.
Timescale: 12mths for detailed planning and tender; 12 months construction.
The designers: Tsurnamal Turner Landscape Architecture, Ido Bruno Exhibit Design.
The Children’s Discovery Garden
Rocky Treewalk The Path Roots Waterworks Intro
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F I E L D
Stage 1 460m
Stage 2 200m
Stage 3 250m
Total: 910m
Activity environments – Stage 1a
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“Rocks” and the start and finish of the
canopy walk are accessible from existing
paths; a small section of the new path will be
laid to connect the canopy walk with
the roots exhibit.
Rock
Miniature World Rock environment - plan
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Miniature
World
This will appeal to children
who explore life’s challenges
by setting small toys into their
own imaginary stories. Mini
landscapes will be provided by
adding Lilliputian features and
plants to a collection of
boulders of different types.
Desert stone shelter
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Marine area - Lighthouse Miniature Rock environment - details
Surprise! – Dino Fossil
: Two boulder climbs will Boulder climboffer physical fun for ages 3-5, and 6-12.
A repository for :Rock and soil sortingdifferent stones, and various types of soil, will encourage young diggers to get to work, as well as provide for activities on the adaptation of plants to different soil types.
area will be located making-denA
in a nearby clearing
Washing facilities will be provided
Building dens
Climbing boulders
Sorting stones
Additional “Rock” exhibits
Up in the Trees
The discovery path becomes a 95-meter
, that loops in Canopy bridgeand out of a dense cluster of trees in the Garden’s tropical Australia section, reaching a height of five meters.
Treewalk – Entry Perspective
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The Path - “Up in the Trees”
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The bridge will feature:
Nesting boxes for birds
Three ‘human nesting boxes’ (tree houses)
on different levels, and of different sizes,
each with numerous openings through
which to observe flora and fauna.
View from east
Treehouse I
Treehouse II
Play area
Nesting boxes
Treehouse III
Play elements
such as a
rope bridge, ladders and a slide, will keep the more adventurous of the children well occupied.
Plant roots sustain the master recyclers, without whom we would all have drowned in the waste of living things a long time ago.
The Children’s Garden will lead young visitors ‘underground’ to play among the roots, in
) for swinging on, ‘soft roots’ (ropesthis case down-harder ones (possibly upsideand
for crawling through. )trees
The Roof of this underworld will serve as a for visitors to refreshment and viewing deck
the children’s garden and the adjacent Tropical Conservatory.
Down to the Roots
Activity environments – Stage 1b + path
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Water: Discovery deck
A new discovery deck will invite children to cross a watery world (the pond requires total overhaul) where they can touch and
explore the plants, and the relationships with creatures such as dragonflies.
Water tables on the lower level of an
adjacent two-level wooden look-out (also in
need of total repair) will keep tiny tots
occupied, while their parents supervise from
the level above.
The Path - into water area
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Interactive water sculpture
The surrounding rock wall will feature a specially-designed ‘water
tumbler’ sculpture. Children will operate levers to direct an existing
waterfall down through a series of moving elements.
Boat racing
Pictures for illustration only
Canals and dams
Hand pumps and watering
cans
Water tables
A series of tiny canals will allow children to play with water and to direct it by
building and moving dams.
Pint-sized hand-pumps will enable little ones to fill watering cans and to ‘water’
plants.
An existing stream will be earmarked for racing small vessels, from little ships
brought from home to boats made from plant-based materials.
A system, in which plants filter water, will be installed, conveying an important
educational message. The Health Ministry is expected to approve this water
for play in 4-5 years. In the meantime, a UV filter system will be in place.
Boat racing
Water use: Israel is in the grip of a severe water shortage. Water used in the
play exhibits will be part of circular systems filtered either by plants or UV. Run-
off water will flow into the Garden’s existing Lake, helping to offset water lost
there to evaporation
The path will link the activity environments, and
supply the project’s identity and backbone.
Made of high quality cement segments, it will also be
an exhibit, with embedded materials, texts,
games, activity hints (“look for something
interesting, in summer”), and introductions to
approaching stations (eg. water’s effect on rock
in the approach to the water station)
The discovery path
Leading the visitor into the stations
Walk the rocks!
Water ahead..!
Illustrating natural phenomena
Texts and games
Clues for trails
There’s something to see here…… In summer!
A new strategic plan for the Gardens will be
underpinned by “geography, diversity (in all
its forms) and the relationship between
plants and humans.”
Under the masthead “Plants Grow People” new
programs are being developed to reach out to
groups from a wide range of backgrounds
and ages from Jerusalem, Israel, and
overseas.
Some 70,000 children, Jewish and Arab
alike, currently visit the Gardens, either with their
classes, their families, or with
organizations such as community centers.
A special Jewish-Arab coexistence project, now
in its fourth year, brings classes from both
communities together for ten hands-on, plant
–related activities, ranging from spice and
perfume production to making olive oil.
Explanatory signs,
in Hebrew and English to date,
are gradually being translated
into Arabic
A major new trail will explore the role of plants
In the literature and practice of the
three monotheistic religions
Arabic as well as Hebrew-speaking guides
are being trained for the growing number
of children coming for group activities.
A new young environmental leadership
program is being planned to heighten
awareness and encourage community
action among Jewish and Arab teenagers.
A pilot event celebrating Id El Fitr (at the end
of Ramadan) sent an important message that
the Gardens are open to all
“Plants Grow People”
Established as an internal university garden in the 1950s, opened to the public in 1985, and expanded in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Gardens constitute a non-profit organization governed by six bodies: the Hebrew University, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Jewish National Fund, the Jerusalem Foundation, the Kaplan-Kushlik Foundation, and the Friends of the Botanical Gardens. Friends’ associations are active in Israel and the UK.
The Gardens:
Exhibit some 10,000 plant species in six geographical sections, plus a tropical conservatory and a herb and medicinal plant garden. This is the largest plant collection in Israel.
Attracted 180,000 visitors in 2010, more than double the number in 2008
Protect endangered plant species from Israel and elsewhere in the world.
Educate thousands of schoolchildren in plants and the environment via an education department, and the Ministry of Education’s on-site Agricultural School
Educate the general public about gardening, nature preservation and botany via events, tours and courses.
Train professional gardeners in professional gardening and botanical practice.
Test and acclimatize plants (especially drought resistant ones) for the horticultural industry
The Jerusalem Botanical Gardens
Thank you
Copyright © 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means other than for the
purpose of raising funds for the Children’s Discovery Garden at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens.
הגן הבוטני האוניברסיטאי ירושלים
The Jerusalem Botanical
Gardens