SCHOOL NUMBER 
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
LEAFLETS 
THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
Series V 
Brooklyn, N. Y., April 11, 1917. No. 2 
LIST OF TALKS FOR ELEMENTARY 
SCHOOL CLASSES 
The following list of talks is the fifth offered at the Brooklyn 
Botanic Garden. It differs very little from those preceding it. 
The Botanic Garden can accomodate more children this year than 
ever before in its history. The lecture hall will be completed by 
the time these talks start and this means that where, for the past 
seasons, we have been able to accomodate less than one hundred 
children at one time, we can now seat many more. 
The seating capacity of the auditorium is over five hundred. 
We do not recommend that five hundred children come at one time 
unless it be with a distinct understanding that they can receive 
only a limited amount of attention. Five hundred children can 
all listen to a talk on rice, for instance, and see the pictures at 
one time, but it will be impossible for us to divide the five 
hundred into small enough groups so that the individual child 
gets very much from a trip through the greenhouses. Heretofore, 
it has been possible to have a teacher for each group of fifteen or 
twenty children. This means that as these children walk through 
the greenhouses they get individual attention and instruction, 
and if they go out upon the grounds to study trees or wild flowers, 
they are receiving the benefit of a private lesson. This method 
of giving individual instruction has always made the trips to the 
Botanic Garden of special educational value. As groups increase 
in size, the value of the work decreases in about geometric pro- 
portions, so while we can accomodate groups of five hundred we 
do not recommend that schools should send children in any such 
numbers when the lecture is to be followed by demonstrations. 
When a teacher gives up a half day for a trip to the Botanic 
Garden, she should expect that the children would receive a great 
deal from such a trip in the form of subject matter that she could 
work on in her nature study for some lessons to come. 
