Overnight at the Museum of Science

Very different experience than last year.  I had a very small group of four girls to watch over during the trip, and they stuck together throughout the two days.  I never lost touch with where they were, they always came to me to share their whereabouts and what they wanted to do next, and they always agreed on what exhibits they wanted to go see.

View from the Charles River

We slept under the awesome and incredible dinosaur exhibit, and I slept right through all the girls talking and fussing about not being able to go to sleep.  I don't know if it was because we were being watched over by the dinosaurs, or because I was so exhausted by the experiences we had, but I was out like a light! 

It was a blast to be looking up and seeing these dinosaur models and seeing the real bones of these prehistoric creatures! 

We enjoyed a wonderful supper overlooking the Charles River and we witnessed a beautiful sunset!  I would have forgotten about it, but it was my group of girls who said, let's move our table and sit by the view!  They are so mature to appreciate a view of water and sunset, I never got that until I was an adult!  What fun to work with these girls!  

The lightning show was pretty amazing too, as always, lots of loud noises, music, and lightning of course!  There were several schools there that night, and they were not listening as well as I would want us all to listen to the presenter.  I want to say it was the other schools that were less well-behaved, but I will never be sure.  I try to teach them the skills of listening to presenters, as we do a great number of presentations in both music and creative drama class, but sometimes after a long day of presentations and a long ride on the train, there is little discipline left to be drawn from a twelve year old exhausted person.  

Our group experienced a wonderful math presentation and we learned about mobiuses.  I have always wanted to make a mobius scarf, so now I really know how to do it, learning about all of the attributes of the mobius.  We also learned about studying patterns in situations, in numbers, and in games.  We looked at some probability questions as well, and the students were focused and engaged the entire time.  I loved being a part of this larger group as well, because it was all girls and they were really into math and science and physics and the history of math and science and all the scientists that were involved in discovering all these properties and so forth..not my bailiwick, but still learning!! 

The next morning we had wonderful planetarium presentations just for us, because the students are learning about astronomy in science class this fall.  We had an amazing IMAX movie about the Humpback whales, which made us all really emotional, thinking we almost lost this species because of all the whaling that went on.  Here's hoping the whales continue to share their music and their beauty with us for many generations to come.  What a trip!!!  Every year it is a blast and every year I learn something new!!  Here's to another great group of sixth grade teachers who organized the entire EXPERIENCE!!!