Botanical Garden as an Out-of-School Learning Environment for Mathematics: In the Context of Different Problems

Out-of-school learning environments can help transform the formal and abstract mathematics of school to daily life contexts and thus can help change students’ common perceptions of mathematics as a difficult subject out of touch with their own realities. In this chapter we propose that botanical gardens can play an important role as out-of-school learning environments for mathematics. In particular, botanical gardens can provide individuals with a stimulating environment where mathematical concepts such as geometry, measurement, data collection and patterns can be directly observed. We begin with a brief overview of the purpose and importance of botanical gardens, and then zero in on the use of botanical gardens for educational purposes. We pay special attention to how botanical gardens can be productive environments for mathematics teaching and present examples of activities related to different learning areas of mathematics. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.