As part of the free semester program, the ‘Gardener for a day’ program in the Korea National Arboretum was newly
developed in 2018. The program was developed as a free semester program reflecting the works of a ‘gardener’
who performs the planning, preparation, maintenance and management of exhibition gardens. This ‘Gardener for
a day’ program was applied to a total of 106 middle school students in October 2018. Educational elements were
extracted from Korea National Arboretum exhibition gardens and career exploration of gardeners. The program
was designed to provide education on theory and practices, including watching the gardener video, visiting the gardener booth, meeting with actual gardeners at Korea National Arboretum, visiting two exhibition gardens, and participating in three types of practical training as a gardener. A survey about program satisfaction and education was
conducted after the program to analyze the students’ satisfaction with the program (contents, management, instructor), free semester program (career planning, occupational attitude, independence), and education (awareness
of forest biospecies, preservation will). The analysis showed that the following results: satisfaction with the program
(score 4.0), free semester program (score 3.8), and education (score 4.0). Comparative analysis of the pretestposttest
questionnaires showed that there were significant educational effects in career planning, occupational
attitude, and awareness of forest biospecies.