What a Wonderful World! Exploring SWFL

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 200

Dear Florida Power and Light,

Thank you so very much for your assistance in helping our students explore Southwest Florida!

Even though we live in this beautiful area with many interesting places to visit, many of our students do not have the opportunity to get out of our small town.  For each field trip, we were able to take a different group of students who thoroughly enjoyed their experience and as a result become more interested in science and a possible career in science as well!  The trips included ELL/Migrant students, as well as SSA Focus students, Science Club, and other 8th graders since they do not have a scheduled Collier County field trip for 8th grade.

Due to the hurricane at the start of the year, we needed to modify our locations and push some of the trips into the second semester, but now that this year is drawing to a close, I am pleased to say we have had many fun adventures!

Our first trip in the fall was to the IMAG Museum in Fort Myers.  Students loved experiencing a touch tank full of sea creatures.  We also were able to view a small collection of fish and reptiles and a 3-D dinosaur movie.  The students were able to explore some hands-on exhibits with weather and Newton's laws of motion.  We were able to provide sandwiches for lunch along with some snacks that the students really appreciated.

Next, in January we took a group of students to the STEAM Conference in Naples.  On this trip, we took our Collier Regional Science and Engineering Fair participants along with our Science Club "STEAM Team" members.   This trip was special for two reasons.  First, at the end of the conference, Collier Regional Science and Engineering Fair presented awards to the winners.  Our school had 2 first place winners and one second place winner!  It was awesome for the students to go up and be on stage and be encouraged by their classmates who cheered for them.  Before the award ceremony, all the students were able to explore the plethora of hands-on science exhibits and meet a real-life astronaut who gave an engaging speech to everyone present.  The second reason the experience was special was that the Science Club "STEAM TEAM" ran their own booth.  The students helped families create LEGO balloon rockets.  It really was awesome to see them step up as leaders!  After an eventful day, we had lunch at Il Primos before getting the kids home.

In the Spring, we took another group of students to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.  Students enjoyed a boat ride and had plenty of time to explore the nature center where they learned about the native Florida eco-system and how to respect our natural environment and preserve it for future generations.  They learned about invasive species, native species, animal habitats, how the mangroves protect our coast-line, among many other topics. They got to learn about and touch some local animals and also visit the wildlife rehabilitation area.  Students were appreciative of sandwiches and chips this day as well!

At the beginning of May, we were able to take the Garden Club and Science Club to the Naples Botanical Gardens.  Students were able to experience and learn about many plants from around the world, including our own SWFL habitat.  Students also got to try out Sun Print Paper, by placing some fallen plant materials on the paper and expose it to the sunlight and make cool natural prints.  Another activity we worked on in the garden was our Science Journal.  Students have been learning about scientific journals and were able to work on some entries in the garden.  (Both the journal materials and the special paper were purchased with materials from our STEAM TEAM grant.) After we were done exploring, students had lunch at the Garden Cafe, which was a wonderful experience for them as many students are not exposed to different foods or restaurants.  It was neat for them to try new foods and see all the healthy options, many of which were made from plants in the garden itself.

We saved the best field trip for last!  The final field trip was to the FROST Science Museum in Miami!  I had been wanting to take students there for a while, but the cost (bus, tickets, number of chaperones needed, and two meals we had to provide) was a deterrent.  Because of your generous grant and because the Conservancy and Botanical Garden allowed our students to attend free on a scholarship (we only had to pay for the buses), we were able to take students to the FROST Museum.  The museum was 6 stories of SCIENCE! It included an Ocean Gallery, 4 story- aquarium, planetarium, extensive dinosaur exhibit, a handful of science exploration labs, history of flight, mammoths, "River of Grass", and other exhibits.  The students loved this experience.  We provided sandwiches for lunch and pizza for dinner.  It was a long trip but totally worth it!

The Immokalee Middle School students who attended these trips and myself would like to thank Florida Power and Light for the awesome experiences our children were able to embark on this year.  I hope we encouraged many future engineers, biologists, and scientists!  Thank you!