By Wendy Wolf,  Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, one of Miami’s National Historic Landmarks, is pleased to provide field study experiences in the arts, history and environment as one of the Cultural Passport partners for 4th grade students and teachers.

This year Vizcaya welcomed 896 students and 84 chaperones from 10 different schools throughout Miami-Dade County. Many of these were first time visitors to Vizcaya and were delightfully surprised by what they found. A student from Shenandoah shared: “in the map the gardens looked small but in real life they are enormos [sic.] and look like a jungle.” Another reported that his visit had made him “want to learn more about Miami’s history.”

A school tour gets underway in the courtyard of the Main House

This year Vizcaya added a garden tour to the list of thematic programs available to schools. This has proven enormously successful, allowing students to fully appreciate the significance of both native ecosystems and the formal gardens. Visiting from Pinecrest Cove Preparatory Academy, a student said he was surprised that “there were so many gardens and how they each represented something different.” For many students the gardens are their “favorite part!”

Tours at Vizcaya support object-based learning and are designed to be interactive, encouraging critical thinking and group discussion. A first time visiting teacher was pleased to observe that “the tour guides were quite informative and provoked critical thinking as they asked questions relative to specific sites/artifacts.”

Vizcaya looks forward to continuing its partnership with Cultural Passport. As in the past, an orientation workshop will be hosted by Vizcaya in the fall for participating teachers. School programs at Vizcaya are designed to support Social Studies, Language Arts, Reading, and the Visual Arts as well as learning through ‘big’ or ‘enduring’ ideas and themes, critical thinking and peer learning.

Teacher workshop session in the gardens at Vizcaya