The Garden's main purpose is to serve as an educational center for all visitors, and most especially for teaching young children. The trails themselves provide an "outdoor classroom" of living plants. Signs along the trails identify plants and trees by common and botanical names, as well as country of origin. Some signs relate legends connected with particular plants and tell stories of Garden landmarks.

The Garden has a special program that offers free admission to all Hawaii schoolchildren and their teachers. The Garden would like to thank our recent participants in the program including:

• Christian Liberty School
• Connections Charter School
• E Makala School
• Haili Christian School
• Hale Aloha Nazarene
• Hamakua Home Schoolers
• Hawaii Montessori School
• Highlands Intermediate School
• Hilo High School
• Hilo Seventh Day Adventist Church Eager Beavers
• Hualalai Academy
• Kamehameha School
• Kamehameha Summer School Program
• Kalanianaole School
• Keaau High School Photography Class
• Kealakehe High School
• Keiki Steps
• Keike college
• Kua Ookala Public Charter School
• Lau Huki Preschool
• Mid-Pacific Elementary School
• Montessori Country School
• Mountain View Head Start
• Mountain View School
• Navy Youth Programs
• St. Mark Lutheran School
• Volcano School
• Waimea Christian Academy
• Waikoloa Elementary School
• Waikea Intermediate School
• Waters of Life Public Charter School
• YWCA

The Dan & Pauline Lutkenhouse and HTBG Scholarship Fund

Each year, The Garden contributes funds to the Hawaii Community Foundation to benefit children residing on our Hamakua Coast.

The Founders created this Fund to benefit the youth of the community in which they live. Eligibility criteria require that applicants be residents of the Hilo Coast or Hamakua Coast, north of the Wailuku River; Students must major in agriculture, sciences, medicine or nursing, or plan to learn a recognized trade.

Camp Internet

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden is one of ten internationally recognized institutions selected to participate in the California-Hawaii Rural Inter-Island Distance Learning Project through Camp Internet. Camp Internet provides stimulating online content, but not as an end in itself. The content and curriculum is used as a tool for students working on classroom and real-world, hands-on projects. Students are challenged to create their own content, to become active contributors to an interactive learning community.

The Islands Explorers Project facilitates an educational exchange between California schools studying the Channel Islands and Hawaiian schools studying the Hawaiian Islands. Students from both states, in pilot projects running 2004 through 2006, will be able to use both Hawaiian and California Islands thematic online resources for comparative research. Themes include archaeology, maritime history, paleontology, archaeoastronomy, literature, art, social studies, history, native languages and earth sciences including GPA/GIS mapping and robotics.

More information on the project can be found at www.campinternet.net. Current participating schools throughout the State of Hawaii can be found at www.hnlc.org (Hawaii Networked Learning Community).

Girl Scouts of America

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden is now an active participant with the Girl Scouts of America. We offer age-appropriate curricula for Daisy, Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts to maximize their use of the Garden's educational resources.

While in the Garden, the girls partake in activities such as plant rubbings, leaf hunts, palm sketches and seed identification. Upon satisfactory completion of their assignments, they earn an environmental merit badge.