Main story: Gilroy Gardens teaches kids learning science is lots of fun
Park hosts up to 900 K-5 students Fridays in May
Photo by Calvin Nuttall
Young students learn about geological science examing various types of rocks during Natural Science Days at Gilroy Gardens.
By Calvin Nuttall
Amidst the twisting trunks and wondrous waterfalls of the lush Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park, children from schools all around the region come to discover the wonders of Mother Nature.
Natural Science Days at the Hecker Pass venue offers an opportunity for classes K-5 to have the 536-acre attraction to themselves as they explore six educational “stations” designed to impart a curriculum ranging from geology to modern renewable energy.
young student pets a snake held by a docent at Gilroy Gardens. Photo by Calvin Nuttall
“The program is 100 percent geared toward exposing children to natural sciences,” said Cameron Childers, 24, Gilroy Gardens’ manager of education. “We feature programs to teach things like the anatomy of a flower and rock identification. Our newest program this year is clean and renewable energy. We’re trying to keep up-to-date with some of the more commonly used STEM topics, as well as what’s relevant right now.”
Childers manages the event with the assistance of more than 50 volunteer docents, many of whom are former educators. Together they have the capacity to host up to 900 students at a time, with separate curriculums for grades K-2 and 3-5.
Natural Science Days are hosted every Friday in the month of May, with two additional Thursdays set aside for exclusively Gilroy Unified School District field trips.
“We see a lot of private schools, a lot of home schools, and public schools as well,” Childers said. “This year we even had a group come out as a high school group because they have a Future Educators club as part of their own activities. They came out just to kind of shadow and watch our docents and learn what it means to put on a field trip like this.”
Natural Science Days has been a part of the park’s educational mission since its earliest years, when it was Bonfante Gardens, owned and operated by local business owner Michael Bonfante. Back in 2009, Childers himself was a beneficiary of the program as a fourth-grade student at Rucker Elementary School.
“Bonfante built this park with the incredible love and appreciation for trees that he had,” Childers said. “He wanted to share that and build something unique and different. There is no other horticulture theme park in California like this. And on top of that, the education that we do here with the students through our 501(c)(3) listing as a nonprofit is unique.”
At the Anatomy of a Flower learning station, students have the opportunity to dissect and examine flowers to learn about how plant pollination works, as well as gain experience operating science equipment. This station is equipped with a suite of sparkling new microscopes.
Students learn about plants during a Natural Science Days learning event for the region’s schools.
Photo by Calvin Nuttall
“For years we had been using a lot of old equipment,” Childers said. “But this year, with the help of the Amazon AWS ChangeX grant that we were awarded, we were able to purchase all new microscopes for our flower anatomy station.”
In their geology lesson, students are given a bin of rock specimens and walked through various identification techniques, including a scratch test and an acid test. The lesson is contextualized as the kids wander the park between learning stations and have an opportunity to spot the many native rocks along its twisting paths.
In the Claudia’s Garden area of the park, students learn to practice plant identification through the Plants with Funny Shapes lesson. This garden, named for Michael Bonfante’s wife, contains some of the most unique grafted plants and circus trees that the park is known for.
“Our docent team takes the time to explain a couple of the different trees, plants, and such items that are currently in the garden,” Childers said. “Then, in their booklet packets that (the students) are given, they either are given the general location of an item and then they have to go fill in the blank, or they’re just given the picture and that forces them to go search the entire garden to find the name of the plant.”
At the Food Chain station, students get the chance to meet many native animals that interact with the ecosystem and rely on plants for food, expanding their educational exposure beyond just the botanical element of nature that the park’s theme is focused on.
“I do personally love the food chain station,” Childers said. “It is so fun and interactive, and the reactions of the kids never fails to amaze me. We have a great presenter, she does her own work but she comes out every year at least as long as I have been doing the program, and she is a great presenter, great with the kids.”
Photo by Calvin Nuttall
Jen Van Deren of Gilroy-based Animal Art Farm has worked with Gilroy Gardens in one capacity or another for more than 13 years, she said. Once upon a time, she ran the park’s petting zoo. Since the nonprofit has shifted focus to more events-based programming, she has been delighted to bring her animals to Natural Science Days to teach students. Her menagerie includes chickens, goats, snakes, tarantula, cockroaches, bunnies, and a bearded dragon named Sunshine.
“I was born loving animals,” Van Deren said. “Animals fit into the park because there is a whole ecosystem here. You’ve got the whole botanical garden aspect, but what keeps that going? Animals, all the way down to insects. I think that’s where it ties in, it’s the nature aspect. You’ve got the plant and the animal life going on. I love Gilroy Gardens, they’re amazing. It’s just such a family-oriented park, it’s got the best vibes, I love it. It’s so wholesome.”
Veterans of the park might remember Banana Bob, a 14-foot yellow Burmese python who was one of the recurring residents of the park’s petting zoo.
“Everybody still asks about Banana Bob,” Van Deren said. “I am delighted to report that Banana Bob is now happily retired.”
At the Renewable Energy learning station, developed in partnership with Silicon Valley Clean Energy, students learn about the differences between renewable and non-renewable power sources, and the specific merits and drawbacks of different renewable types including solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal.
“This is our first year of this program, and we want to get it cutting-edge,” Childers said. “Silicon Valley Clean Energy provided the sponsorship to us last year to get the program going, and we’re hoping to just maintain and renew that sponsorship over the years. This station will definitely get some love over the next couple of years as we build it up.
All of our curriculum is Next Generation Science Standard accredited.”
In the famous Monarch Gardens greenhouse, students get the chance to learn about where many of the fruits they eat come from. They even get the chance to see some types of tropical fruit growing on the exotic collection of trees planted there, including bananas, pomelos, and sapote fruit.
“Michael brought all of these trees in by himself,” said a docent in charge of the greenhouse station. “Half of the things in here, we don’t even know what they are. He’d see a pretty tree somewhere and he’d say, ‘Oh, I want that tree. Get it to the Gardens for me.’ These are trees that won’t grow anywhere else, and he set this all up where it ran by computer. Everything is beautiful.”
Calvin Nuttall is a Morgan Hill-based freelance reporter.
