Collaborations with UW Courses

Allen Centennial Garden is the perfect place for collaboration and learning by doing for students from across the University. We’ve worked with instructors from L&S, CALS, SoHE and Education to develop experiences in the Garden to fit with their course goals and objectives. Could you be next?  Explore some of our past and ongoing partnerships below or fill out the classroom visit form here to start a conversation about the possibilities.

Departments and Programs we’ve worked with:

Agroecology Entomology Pharmacy
Art Environmental Studies Plant Pathology
Chicano/Latino Studies Folklore Religious Studies
Community and Environmental Sociology Forest and Wildlife Ecology Science Communication
Counseling Psychology History of Science Urban Planning
Curriculum and Instruction Horticulture
Design Studies (Textiles) Landscape Architecture

Specific examples:

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C&I 399 - Cultural Foundations of Learning and Development

Prof. Diego Román

Students in this course worked in small groups to create interactive plant labels that tell a cultural backstory about plants at ACG (or plants that could be added) as they learned about ways to integrated plants and nature into their own teaching practices as the prepare to be primary and secondary level teachers. Click on the photos below to watch some of the videos the students created:

Woman holding a poster of a bloodroot plant in the Garden.

Image showing lemon thyme in the Garden with the text

Eucalyptus in a container in the garden

DS 327 – Textile Design: Manual/Computer Generated Imagery and Pattern

Prof. Jennifer Angus

Textile design students visited the Garden for a special tour about the seasonality of plants to get them thinking about how they might create textile designs that are ecologically accurate. Then, they returned on their own to volunteer in the Garden and took pictures in the Garden that they transformed into beautiful textiles of their own design. See a few of their creations below.

student holding up sheer fabric with hand drawn koi and lily pads on red bridge over pond Student holding up fabric featuring pink and green succulents in front of the rock garden Student holding up fabric in front of the English Garden featuring alliums and other purple and green flowers

LA 375/URB R PL 590 – Mindfulness & Restorative Environments

Prof. Nathan Larson

Students in this course use Allen Centennial Garden as their classroom every week during fall semester until the weather gets too cold. Over eight weeks they have the chance to try out numerous activities in the Garden like nature journaling and making mandalas. Plus, the Garden serves as a space for lectures and other course content too. See some examples of their activities below.

Students and instructor gathered under pergola and sitting on lawn two students standing on path between conifer trees and holding notebooks rainbow of flowers on a banana leaf on the lawn with garden in background student sitting on grey patio holding ping and yellow flowers hanging down like a curtain