“When are we going on our next field trip?” is the most common question asked by our seventh graders. This school year, the seventh graders have already traveled three times throughout the DMV—once without ever leaving the classroom.
The first field trip this year was to Medieval Times in Hanover, Maryland. Students feasted on chicken legs, corn, and potatoes (no utensils allowed) while watching a jousting tournament (on foot and on horseback) for the king and queen. English Language Arts (ELA) teacher Ms. Mercier organized the experience to help students connect to what they were reading and writing. In 7th grade ELA, students read stories from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that showcased a joust tournament, and then they wrote stories set during medieval times. “It was great to see the actors recreate jousting like how it was in the book. I got to have fun cheering on the different teams with my classmates,” said seventh grader Anthony A.
In their second field trip of the school year, students traveled to the National Portrait Gallery without ever leaving the classroom. Via Zoom, museum educators helped students analyze the only known portrait of Pocahontas created during her lifetime. Students were able to apply their knowledge from class to explain why Pocahontas’ family would likely not recognize her from the Europeanized version of her in the portrait. “I like it because I was able to learn about the background and history of Pocahontas with more information than what we learned in class,” said Kennedy W. After the virtual visit, the museum educators said that they were impressed by how comfortable our students were sharing their answers and taking risks with new ideas.
“I like it because I was able to learn about the background and history of Pocahontas with more information than what we learned in class.”
—Kennedy W. 7th Grade Student
During the third and most recent field trip, the seventh graders traveled to the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) to complete a scavenger hunt that reinforced their classroom learning. One lucky group met a man, who was visiting the museum, who attended a Navajo boarding school. In addition to learning about Native American boarding schools in history class, students transferred their knowledge to ELA class where they are currently reading Code Talkers. Code Talkers is about the Navajo code talkers, some of whom attended boarding schools, who helped the U.S. military create codes during World War Two. The group demonstrated that they are able to communicate about challenging topics when they asked the Dine (Navajo) man about the first-hand injustices he experienced. He shared that the school forced him to cut his hair and washed his mouth out with soap in an effort to Europeanize Native Americans.
While at the museum, every student ate fry bread. Fry bread was created on reservations, through indigenous ingenuity, using government food rations. Seventh grader Jefferson F. said, “The fry bread had a lot of flavor and was really sweet. It was interesting to taste a new food from another culture.” In addition to fry bread, students had the opportunity to try other indigenous foods of their choice at the museum’s Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe.
Field trips not only deepen students’ learning about specific content areas and lessons, but also their social emotional skills. Whether students practice self-awareness and self-management in public museums that explore sensitive topics, learn responsible decision-making as they navigate unfamiliar settings with their classmates, or develop their sense of awareness by understanding the perspectives of others, field trips are critical socio-emotional learning experiences for students of all ages. For example, the NMAI scavenger hunt required students to work on their awareness, decision-making, and relationship-building skills outside of the school building. Seventh grade science teacher Ms. Hall remarked, “Field trips are great because they allow our students to bring academic learning into their own real-world and cultures.”
Written by Nicole Clark | Nicole teaches 7th grade Social Studies at E.L. Haynes.
Editorial Fellows are E.L. Haynes staff with a penchant for storytelling, writing, and the visual arts. Fellows develop and publish original stories that amplify the many voices and perspectives of the E.L. Haynes community.