Middle School D.C. Trip

• Report rights infringement
• published: 30 Mar 2012
• views: 1003

Middle School recently took a trip to our Nation's Capital. This slide show captures of the highlights from their travels. Middle School trips provide our students an opportunity to: •Strengthen the atmosphere of being within a community •Gain more independence and autonomy •Experience academic work in non-academic settings Every other year, the Middle School makes a school trip to Washington, D.C. On alternate years, we hike up the Chisos Mountains and canoe down the Rio Grande in Big Bend, Texas. This year was a D.C. year. They organized their sights around the following themes: •History •Government •Museums •Honor and Remember They begin their trip with a tour of the historical Jamestown settlement in Virginia. They toured Yorktown and explore Colonial Williamsburg. These experiences gave the students an appreciation for the beginnings of our nation. The students' first D.C. experience was an orientation of sorts to the city as they got on bikes (they had been biking around the neighborhood and school parking lot as our PE class prepared for the experience) and tour the city, starting from Capitol Hill and heading west through the Mall (Smithsonians) to see a number of monuments (Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, World War II, Vietnam Veterans, Korean War Veterans, and the newest Martin Luther King, Jr. monument), stopping by the White House along the way. The students also took a night tour of some of these monuments as they are even more spectacular at night. They toured the Capitol building, the Pentagon, and the Library of Congress. They also visited visited the National Archives as well as the Supreme Court building, to round up their "government" experience of the three branches of government. They spent a couple of afternoons visiting the Smithsonian Museums, particularly the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the National Art Gallery, and a few others that pique the students' interests. They also drove by Embassy Row as well as the National Cathedral. Some of their time in D.C. was used to honor and remember those who have fought for our freedom and independence by visiting monuments (mentioned earlier) and memorials. A group of St. Alcuin students laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at the Arlington National Cemetery. They all visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Before our Pentagon tour, they walked around the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. This trip, as with all other MS trips, required a lot of physical stamina, as they navigated the city on two wheels, four wheels, by rail, and on foot. The city has a great public transportation system -- they road the Metro bus and rail into and out of the city daily. There was also be a lot of walking from one museum to another. It's always amazing to see how our students will have oriented themselves by the end of the trip, to a point where we can actually have them "lead the way" back home (to the 4-H Youth Center in Chevy Chase, MD) on our last day. These trips serve as a great educational and bonding opportunity for our students. The activities around the trip are curriculum based and play an integral part of the International Baccalaureate classrooms. As you can tell by the details above, these trips are physically and mentally challenging. However, every graduate will attest that going on these trips is one of the fondest memories they have of their years at St. Alcuin!