The Earth Science Club (ESC) will be hosting its next event trip to the Botanical Gardens located in Bronx, N.Y. on Saturday, October 29, 2106.
Tickets for the Botanical Gardens trip are on sale now and can be purchased at the box office located in Wilkins Theatre. Before buying a $10 ticket, students must complete a SAPA form and submit it to the box office. Tickets include admission to the Botanical Gardens, transportation to the gardens and a lunch voucher to a local Italian restaurant. To find the SAPA form, students can go on ESC's Cougar Link page under the "Documents" tab.
All students are welcome to participating in the trip, but should be aware that if they purchase a ticket and do not show up for the event, they will be charged a fee for being absent.
Since it is the middle of autumn, students may wonder why take a trip to the Botanical Gardens.
"This event was highly requested from our members. The Botanical Gardens is a great place for students to disconnect from stress and just enjoy and appreciate the beauty of nature," said Sarah Mack, President of the ESC and junior environmental biology major.
The New York Botanical Garden is an iconic, living museum and has served as an oasis in the busy metropolis of New York. The gardens serve as a National Historic Landmark, stretching over 250-acres and providing landscape that supports over one million living plants in extensive collections. Each year more than one million visitors enjoy the Botanical Garden not only for its remarkable diversity of tropical, temperate and desert flora, but also for programming that ranges from renowned exhibitions in the Haupt Conservatory to festivals on Daffodil Hill.
The Botanical Garden also serves as a major educational institution.
"Studies have proven that being in nature reduces stress and enhances concentration. Since our last trip to island beach state park was such a hit, we are expecting this trip to also be sold out. The level of student participation and enthusiasm this year is tenfold from what I have seen in previous years! ... I am really honored to be leading this solid group of diverse students!" said Mack.
More than 300,000 people annually — among them Bronx families, school children and teachers — learn about plant science, ecology and healthy eating through Botanical Gardens' hands-on, curriculum-based programming. Nearly 90,000 of those visitors are children from undeserved neighboring communities, while more than 3,000 are teachers from New York City's public school system participating in professional development programs that train them to teach science courses at all grade levels.
The Botanical Gardens operates one of the world's largest plant research and conservation programs, with nearly 200 staff members — including 80 Ph.D. scientists — working in the Garden's state-of-the-art molecular labs as well as in the field, where they lead programs in 49 countries.
This trip to the Botanical Gardens will be ESC's last travelling event for the fall semester.
Mack says, "The Botanical Gardens is our last off-campus event of the semester, although we will still be remaining active on campus through our recycling initiatives and various other small projects. Next semester our big event will be The Earth Day Fair, and other earth week activities! We will also lead a hiking trip with emphasis on geology in the Delaware water gap. We are also planning on volunteering as a group to plant dune grass!"
Hurry and grab tickets before they sell out!
