Seattle Trip 2007
 | | The group before leaving for Seattle. |
On Thursday, April 26, 2007 twenty-six fifth grade students set out on
a journey to Seattle, Washington. They were accompanied by Dr.
Vincent, Ms. Skildum, and four parent chaperones.
Upon arrival in Seattle, students journeyed to the Seattle
Aquarium. While wandering around the aquarium, students had the
opportunity to see marine life that is found in the Puget Sound and nearby ocean.
They saw jellyfish, starfish, octopus, sharks, seals, and much
more. They even had the chance to touch some of the marine
life. An instructor taught them about the marine
invertebrates found  | | The group looks at Q and Barney, two Harbor Seals. |
in the Puget Sound. Students learned many interesting facts about the
creatures they saw and touched, such as how a sea cucumber shoots out
their guts to ward off predators.
On Friday, April 27, 2007 students jumped aboard the bus and headed
off to the Museum of Flight. In the morning, students attended
Apollo Moon School. They were divided up into two groups.
Half of the students learned about launching and landing to prepare for future trips to the moon. They
designed and launched small paper rockets with a straw.
Using a limited supply of materials they needed to create  | | Chue Yee and Tam work to build a parachute to land their cargo. |
a rocket that
would land in specific locations. They also had the chance to
launch a bottle rocket. They needed to determine how many pumps
would be needed for their rocket to reach a specific spot, without
crashing into the model of the moon. To practice landing
students had to design a parachute that would land their cargo as
slowly as possible. To make it even more of a challenge their cargo needed to land
upright.
The other half of the group was involved with the exploration of the
moon. Students were given a bag of materials and had to create a
movable model of a moon rover.  | | Gabriella M., Jasmine and Karina work together to build a Moon Rover. |
Students had to work in a team
of four to accomplish their goal. Once students
constructed their rover, they had to design and adapt their rover to
move obstacles out of the way as the rover moved
throughout a square area. Students later used a remote control
rover to explore the inside of a planetarium that was set up to appear
as the moon's surface. A camera attached to the rover allowed
students to see the surface of the moon from a television camera as
they attempted to move the rover around the obstacles found on the moon.
In the afternoon, students had the opportunity to explore the Museum of
 | | Dr. Vincent shares information aboard the former Air Force One. |
Flight. They needed to complete a scavenger hunt by walking
around the museum to find the answers to a booklet of questions.
In addition, they had the opportunity to see a variety of military
planes from World
War I and World War II. Several students attempted to take
off and land a World War I plane.
The group then moved to the Airpark, which is the outside part of the
Museum and home to the larger airplanes in the museum's
collection. Students had the opportunity to walk through
two planes. First,
students walked through the Concorde and then they walked through the
 | | Students look out at Seattle during a ferry ride. |
former Air Force One. While aboard Air Force One, Dr. Vincent
spoke about the history of the plane, such as how former Presidents
Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon had all flown in that very same
plane.
After leaving the museum, the group took a ferry ride from the Seattle
harbor to Bainbridge Island. Students enjoyed looking at Seattle from a
distance and they especially enjoyed standing in the
wind at the front of the ferry. On the return ride back, students had the chance to
meet two Marines that visited with the group.
On Saturday, April 28, 2007 students again returned to the  | | The three astronauts students had the chance to meet. |
Museum of
Flight to learn some more information. In the morning, they had the chance
to listen to three former astronauts. Students listened to Scott
Carpenter, Tom Stafford, and Gene Cernan. They heard many stories of accomplishments and saw several pictures of the
astronauts from their pasts.
After lunch, students had class at the museum. They went to the
Aviation Learning Center. They were broken up into groups as
they completed different tasks. One of the tasks students worked
on included using computers. They had to answer questions
about aviation and complete simple scientific  | | Students working in the Aviation Learning Center. |
experiments to help them
answer some of the questions.
The second task students worked on was preparing to take off in a
plane. Students had to write up a flight plan. They studied
maps and used dry-erase markers to determine their flight plan. They also had to inspect the plane. While
walking around the plane, students discovered some problems, such as a
bird nest next to the propeller. They also climbed into the plane
to make sure all the parts moved as they were supposed to move.
In the third task, students used their flight plan to fly in a flight simulator. Several students  | | QocTavia, Katlyn, Bea, and Christina fly in a flight simulator. |
struggled with
flying over the unknown Washington area and soon found themselves
lost. Other students had trouble landing on the correct landing
strip. They took turns being the pilot and copilot.
Later in the afternoon, students completed a second museum class in the
Challenger Center. This
time they experienced an exploration to Mars to replace the crew of
astronauts that had been living on a base for two years.
Students were
divided into two groups. Half of the students started out in
Mission
Control and the other half went aboard the Mars spacecraft. Each
student was  | | Students aboard the Mars spacecraft watching to see if they will successfully land on Mars. |
responsible for completing the tasks of the job they had
chosen. Students in Mission Control were responsible for
communicating with and helping their team member with the same job in
the Mars spacecraft. For example, when the oxygen levels started
to lower on the spacecraft, the Life Support team worked together to
restore the oxygen levels just in the knick of time. The
Navigation team successfully landed and launched the Mars spacecraft
with the correct locations. The probe
team successfully put together and launched two Mars probes sent to the
moons of Mars.
After the Museum  | | Mayra, Ebony, and Indira stand atop the Seattle Space Needle. |
of Flight, the group journeyed to the Space
Needle. They crowded into the elevators and soon found
themselves high above Seattle. They enjoyed walking around and
looking at all the sites they could see. Several students used
telescopes to look at the Seattle sites.
On Sunday, April 29, 2007 students woke up and soon were aboard the plane back
to Minnesota. The trip was coming to an end, but many memories
would remain. Click below to read about students favorite memories of the Seattle trip!
Submitted by Ms. Skildum
Students_Version_Seattle_Trip.pdf
Students describe their trip to Seattle.
Memories_of_Seattle.pdf
Students favorite memory of the Seattle trip!
Image Gallery:
Seattle Trip 2007
More pictures of students on the Seattle Trip!
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