The Quad City Botanical Center hosted its Plant Discovery Bus ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, June 13th.
The Plant Discovery Bus has been a two year long project that serves as a mobile classroom. The botanical center will now be able to go off-site and reach students to have a more positive and greater impact on their education. The bus will resemble the experience that the botanical center has to offer.
Ryan Willie, executive director, says that the bus will help solve the problem that many schools face of not being able to travel. “There’s cost prohibitness. There’s transportation challenges. There’s a variety of hurdles [schools] have to cross. So we thought, ‘Okay, what can we do to make it as easy as possible for students in our community to learn from us’. And we landed on the phrase that was brought up during this meeting was ‘Wouldn't it be cool if we could put our greenhouse on wheels?’“
The conservative projections show that over the next five years, the bus will have the opportunity to impact thousands of learners. This will lead to a doubling of the current impact numbers at local schools and community events.
The goal of the project is to help remove geographical factors that stand between students and visiting the gardens. The Plant Discovery Bus allows more access for students to see the gardens from their own schools, communities, and neighborhoods.