The field trip of the year

In this particular school, they take one field trip per year. Yes I know it seems funny for all of us who were on the unlimited field trip plan, but that is just they way it goes sometimes. Anyway this morning bright and yearly at 6:30 am, the students were on the bus and we were on our way to the museum of Nature and Science. Our special tour was to start at 9:30 where we would see the dinosaur exhibit, and then following that we were going to see a planetarium show about black holes. I was excited, but then again I had never been to this museum before.

To recap the trip for all of you, making this a much shorter post, the students had all been to the museum before. I got to see almost all of the exhibits, and it didn't take much time at all. I also was not allowed to stop and read any of the signs, do any of the activities or ask questions of any of the members of museum staff. The 7 boys that were assigned to me, just wanted to see all their favorite things. So we took about 1/2 hour to see the dinosaurs, then we listened to a presentation on liquid nitrogen for about 15 minutes, we went through the space odyssey exhibit in about 10 minutes, then it was off to the gems and minerals. I took about 5.3 minutes to get through that exhibit because I was trying in vain to keep up (there were some of my students that went through twice in that time), and in the last 15 minutes of our time before the planetarium we went to find some illusive memory exhibit. Well turns out it was closed, but I was lucky enough to listen to an explanation of what the exhibit will look like next April (I was definitely abandoned for that), at which point they determined they wanted to see the mummies of Egypt. So off to the mummies we went. By the time I got into the exhibit, they were done, but I told them that they couldn't leave until I got to see at least one thing. It didn't take long because we had 5 minutes of time left, and we were done. So we went to the animals exhibit. Where they spent the next 3 minutes riding on non moving wooden llamas. I am still surprised at what will interest the students.

To let you know what I learned, it was actually a lot considering what time we spent in each exhibit.
1. I need some liquid nitrogen
2. Stegosaurus got embarrassed and his spikes probably turned red
3. The largest topaz stone is over 10,000 carats and was donated by Dali
4. The legend of Orsis
5. Some middle school boys do not do mummification well
6. I need to return to this museum on my own so that I can take my time
7. If I ever need a job, they offered me one
8. Sitting on a bus for 5 hours to be in a museum for 2.5 is not really worth it.

What a day. The planetarium was really cool. It was huge, a big plus, and I didn't have to sit next to the students, a relief, and the presentation was awesome. Even the students liked it. They were all talking to me about the movie after it was over. All in all this was I feel a success, and as a bonus, I now have a whole bag of plaster dinosaur teeth. Wanna know what you're getting for Christmas?