More than a dozen fifth-graders from Dubois public school got to go on a four-day field trip this year with the Teton Science Schools in Jackson.
It’s the second time Fremont County School District 2 has organized the expedition with support from TSS, fifth-grade teacher Melissa Harris told the FCSD 2 Board of Trustees during a meeting last week.
“It’s a three-night, four-day adventure,” Harris said, describing a schedule packed with team-building activities, evening classes, and outdoor excursions, including skiing and “snowshoeing at night through the park.”
“That’s really fun,” Harris said of the latter activity.
A lot of the students on this year’s trip had never been skiing or snowshoeing before, Harris said – noting that she is “not very stable on skis” either – so the outdoor exercises gave them the opportunity to learn “a lot about their strengths.”
“(We) fall down quite a bit,” she laughed. “But it’s pretty amazing how they persevere and keep going and work together (and) start to really be there for each other.”
Harris showed the trustees a handful of photographs from the trip during last week’s meeting, including depictions of some of the research projects the students completed during their time at TSS.
Each research team identified a “measurable” question to answer, Harris explained: For example, they might measure the depth of snow in certain areas and describe the varying layers of snow and ice they observe.
“(It was a) really amazing opportunity to bond,” Harris said.
The bonding continued during the students’ “down time” in the evenings, she added, when the group would “play some games and laugh” together.
One of the students even read books to his “bunk mates” before bed, Harris said.
“I did not expect that,” she said. “But we had five boys in there, (with) four boys silent and one reading to the rest of them. That was pretty amazing.”
For several of the students, it was the first time they had been away from home, she explained, so it was heartening to see “others supporting them and encouraging them” throughout the process.
After hearing from Harris, trustees expressed support for the field trip and said they would like it to take place on a recurring basis, and Harris agreed.
For more information call FCSD 2 at 455-5545.