On several recent occasions I have been truly thrilled to see "crowds" in the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. By using that term I don't mean to suggest that people were elbow to elbow, but on certain days the landscape really takes on the appearance of a place where education is thriving. Groups of junior high school students on tour walk past college classes, both examining some of the same plants but for different lessons. One can often catch a glimpse of a biologist studying photosynthesis of plant specimens. During spring quarter, a mechanical engineering researcher performed acoustic tests in the garden. Students enrolled in a life sciences course for non-majors--entitled, "The Green World: Plants for Now and in the Future"--planted and tended a vegetable garden overlooking Circle Drive South. A UCLA Extension class in introductory horticulture learned gardening principles while gaining hands-on experience. A graduate student who investigates mosquitoes in Mali, Africa, practiced triangulation and site location in the garden, using a device that obtains ground position from four or more satellites in space. Each of my forty-nine seniors in the plant evolution program had to become a specialist on one assigned plant in the collection. On one quiet Sunday afternoon, the School of Public Health's industrial hygiene commencement celebration took place in the garden.
It would be hard to place a dollar value on these events, but many members of the campus community develop close bonds with our garden through such activities. The garden also provides opportunities for instructors and researchers to conduct observations and experiments outside that would not have the same results indoors. The pictures speak volumes. Need I say more?