The Missouri Botanical Garden proposes to improve its program of informal environmental education through major renovation of the exhibits in its Climatron, a public conservatory that features displays on plant specimens of the tropical rain forests. The purpose is to increase public literacy in environmental science, with the focus on severely threatened tropical biomes. Along with renovation of the exhibits there also will be full revision of tours, courses, instructional packages and teacher training where they relate to tropical ecology or use the Climatron as a teaching resource. Funding from the NSF will support portions of two years of salaries for three Education Division staff who will devote 50% of their time to developing adjunct interpretation for use in the Climatron, for production costs of four of the five science exhibits, and for all other new interpretive signs. The MBG will assume all remaining costs from a combination of its operating and campaign budgets.
