8th Grade Fall Trips Summary: Social Studies and Science Trips

Hi all,

 I just wanted to post a brief summary and some pictures from our Social Studies and Science Fall trips for everybody to see how we bring these two subject areas outside the classroom for some authentic learning experiences for the students.



SOCIAL STUDIES TRIP TO THE EDWARD M. KENNEDY INSTITUTE

At the EMK Institute students were sworn in as mock Senators representing each state and different parties. Each student senator worked to pass legislation, appoint nominees and vote on the USA Patriot Act while keeping in mind their parties interests along with their respective state's interests.

At the start of the day students were sworn in as senators and completed their profiles. They then went over the agenda for the senate for the day before meeting with other senators to debate various parts of legislation associated with the USA Patriot Act and also to appoint nominees. At the end of this session several students drafted speeches to give to the senate to push forward their agendas and interests to their co-senators.

After speeches were given on the senate floor a final vote was taken on the USA Patriot Act given the amendments that were drafted earlier in the day.

NEW YORK GEOLOGY TRIP TO WESTERN MA AND UPSTATE NY

The Science portion of the 8th grade fall trips to the students into the field to explore the geologic history of Massachusetts and New York. Despite the cool and sometimes wet conditions we were able to see all the sites, luckily being underground in the caves during the worst of the weather on Thursday and outside during the nicer parts of the day.

We started our day along the banks of the Connecticut River in Holyoke, MA. Here we looked at dinosaur tracks left behind 200 million years ago along with evidence for the rifting of Pangea in the rocks and formations near the river.

On our way out to New York we looked at various rivers along the way, including the Connecticut, Westfield, and Hudson Rivers. We also looked at the metamorphic rock along the Mass. Pike which is evidence of tectonic collisions going back nearly 500 million years ago.

In New York we went underground at Howe Caverns, looking at various types of cave formations including flowstone, stalactites and stalagmites 150 feet below the surface of the Earth. Here we also learned how millions of years of erosion have carved and shaped the passageways in the limestone at Howe Caverns.

We also went to John Boyd Thacher to look at various layers of limestone which were deposited from a inland tropical sea which covered much of eastern North America 400-480 million years ago. Each layer was deposited on top of each other from different parts of this inland sea from all of the corals and shelled creatures which inhabited the sea.

While in New York students stopped at various sites to collect fossils of the marine creatures that lived in these ancient tropical seas. Fossils included such things as corals, brachiopods, gastropods, and crinoid stems.