Lights, K'Nexs, and Tornados
CJH Takes a Field Trip to Don Harrington Discovery Center
Mr. Taylor rewarded students with a trip to the Discovery Center in Amarillo. Students who were not on the ICU list were offered the opportunity to attend the field trip.
“For this particular six-weeks students were given a deadline of February 27 to have all their assignments turned in. They were also notified that if they had any discipline referrals they would not be invited to go on the trip,” Mr. Taylor said.
Students worked diligently to get off the ICU list. The reward trip is to intended to encourage students to stay focused on their assignments and to stay caught up in their classes.
According to Mattee J, “Most kids in junior high really try harder when they are working for a purpose, so the trip was a great way to show the junior high students that doing your best and working hard is always the right thing to do.”
The ICU program rewarded sixty-five students an opportunity to attend the trip. The trip included three forty-five minute guided sessions from the Discovery Center Staff and a sack lunch prepared by the Clarendon CISD cafeteria staff.
One guided session was the K’nex lab. The students chose instructions for various objects they could build out of K’nex. Students built dump trucks, water wheels and bridges.
“It was very difficult and challenging,” said Trenton S.
There was also another science session where students were able to use Christmas lights and a flashlight to learn about the properties of light. A director taught students the importance of light and did experiments on how light reflects and refracts.
The last guided session was a space theatre. The space theatre visually illustrated the history of the Tornado Alley. The students saw the inside and outside of some of the largest tornadoes that took place in the United States.
Overall, the Clarendon Junior High enjoyed the trip. They learned lots of interesting things they didn’t know about and hope to go back there again.
