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THE BASIC reviews were more phonetic than philosophical Tuesday when the first class of kids descended on the new Chase Manhattan Discovery Center at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
"Yikes," was the consensus of the 11 visiting 4and 5-year-olds from the Twelfth Street Pre-School, but there were "Eeeeeeks," "Yeeeeeees," and even an occasional "Blecccch."
The Discovery Center, the latest in a series of new facilities at the BBG, is housed in a whole new educational facility at 1000 Washington Ave., beside the garden's recently opened gift shop and not far from the impressive Steinhardt Conservatory, just over a year old itself. Besides the Discovery Center, the education building includes four spacious classrooms and three state-of-the-art teaching greenhouses, with hydraulic potting benches that can move up or down to accommodate the largest to the smallest gardener, and also those in wheelchairs. The building's opening means the garden education department is able to serve three times as many people, young and old, as it could in the past.
The debut of the Discovery Center, the first of its kind within a botanical garden, falls in a year of youth-oriented celebrations at the BBG, which is marking its 75th year of teaching...