Field trips here a serious science

The class field trip, a cornerstone of hands-on learning, may be going extinct.

As teachers struggle to stretch fewer dollars for more students in their classrooms, and time and resources dwindle, the field trip is a luxury some teachers can't afford.

But Cambridge public schools and the Harvard Museum of Natural History are finding a way. By developing a partnership tailoring museum field trips to schools' science curriculum, they have nearly doubled the number of Cambridge students visiting the museum in the past three years.

"We don't want to be just a field trip," said Peter Money, education director for the museum. "We are a part of the science curriculum, and you can have a great time and learn in the process."

Director Money and Cambridge public school administrators created workshops for teachers and their students to make the museum's 21 million specimens an integral part of Cambridge's science classes.

Each workshop is specific to the grade level of the students and whatever science unit they are studying, from rocks and minerals to biodiversity.

"There's really been a partnership and the sense that Pete is a colleague," said Melanie Barron, K-12 science coordinator for Cambridge public schools. "He's not telling us what to do. The care and the depth that he's worked with us on and the responsiveness to our needs is rare."

And this responsiveness is part of why more elementary and middle school teachers are making the museum field trip a must for their science classes.

"Every teacher who has gone over there and I've spoken with can't say enough about it," said Peg LeGendre, K-6 science mentor-teacher for Cambridge public schools and an administrator for the program. "It's come a long way from where it used to be -- the self guided tours. Now it's much more alive."

The museum field trip starts long before the students arrive in the museum's classroom. Preparation is everything, and every teacher gets an idea packet specific to their science unit -- like rocks and minerals -- full of activities and important words to share with students before and after their visit. The students spend one to two hours in a museum class. There they learn hands-on techniques like measuring the shells of raptor eggs, bringing them up close and personal with things they would never encounter in their regular science class.

"We have these amazing things in our nooks and crannies that would usually stay there," said Harvard's Money. Only about 12,000 specimens are on display at the museum, but behind closed doors wait millions more. The museum's famous glass flower collection, for example, "represents only the barest fraction of our collections," said Josh Basseches, the museum's executive director.

Up until the mid-1990s, the museum was mainly a scientific institution, housing and studying its vast collections of bones, rocks, and plant life. But according to Basseches, around that time the museum re-committed itself to education and the surrounding community. About 1,200 students participated in the museum's program in its first year. Now this number has doubled, and Money expects the trend to continue.

"We believe that science is part of your day-to-day life," said Money. "Too many kids think there's science and then there's my life. We try to inject that science is a part of your life from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed."