Is anyone doing anything new/innovative/exciting/successful to support school teachers' efforts to achieve the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards or AAAS's Benchmarks for Science Literacy? If so, I would love to hear about it. Here's why: For the past few years we at the Chicago Botanic Garden have been collaborating with four other institutions (Missouri Botanical Garden, Morton Arboretum, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, & Holden Arboretum--we call ourselves the Midwest Public Garden Collaborative, or MPGC for short) to develop a plant science curriculum and new way of delivering programs to school groups to improve science education at our sites (funded by NSF). This week, we are hosting a workshop called "Partners for Growing Science" to 1.) disseminate the curriculum; 2.) share and gather new ideas; 3.) begin a network of institutions working towards the same goals. It would be useful to know what's happening outside of the MPGC and the 25 other institutions involved in the workshop. I will share your responses at the workshop, unless you request otherwise. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Katherine Johnson Coordinator of Youth Education Chicago Botanic Garden <[log in to unmask]> (I presently do my net surfing from home.) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%