Field Trips Offer Many Middle School Firsts

two middle schoolers sitting on a bus

The buses are packed and their engines running. The students run back and forth filling water bottles and grabbing forgotten items as staff go over the last minute details of their itinerary. Finally everyone climbs aboard. The doors shut and they are on their way. You can hear the excitement bursting through the windows as […]

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Making the Most of Field Trips

middle schoolers on a field trip looking out at on a bridge

Every spring the middle schoolers of Arthur Morgan School embark on 18 day long field trips.  The trips are the culmination of a five week academic unit in which the students have learned about a specific topic. Sometimes these topics are science based. Other times they are social studies or art based.  This year we are […]

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Addressing Climate Change Through Education

Two middle schoolers laying in the sun.

Two years ago while on an 18 days field trip to Florida, a group of our students visited a city council meeting . On the agenda was addressing the disappearing coastline. To some, a city council meeting might seem boring, but our students were fascinated. They watched the adults in the room talk about how […]

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When Will It Snow?

two middleschoolers looking out sadly at rain

Going to boarding school occasionally has its disadvantages. For example, the middle schoolers at Arthur Morgan School almost never have a snow day. Since most of the students live right on campus and can walk from their boarding houses to the academic buildings, there is never a reason to cancel school. Even when 2009’s infamous […]

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Teaching about Forced Migrations

teacher showing a middle schooler an artifact from a archaeological dig

The theme of one our three 18 day field trips this year is teaching about forced migrations. In the course preparing for the trip, we will focus on the push/pull factors that have driven three important mass movements of people: the Trail of Tears; the post-Reconstruction “Great Migration” of Black Americans and today’s humanitarian crisis […]

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Teaching Scientific Literacy this Field Trip Unit

It’s crucial that adolescents feel safe in testing these “what ifs.” And it’s equally crucial for them to experience the scientific method. Ideally both in and out of the classroom. At Arthur Morgan School, this is a priority.

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Learning through Storytelling

middle schoolers in a van on a field trip

Every year when our 18 Day Field Trips return home, students share their experiences with their peers, parents, teachers, and community members.  Trip sharing is a community event to which all of Celo is invited. It is an opportunity for students to proudly present what they learned while traveling.  It also gives them the opportunity […]

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Why Experiential Learning is Effective

middle schoolers participating in Selma to Montgomery march reenactment

When most educators talk about experiential learning, they typically apply the concept to higher education or work training. They think of experiential learning as a way to prepare college graduates or new hires for employment.  Unfortunately when the term is applied to middle school classrooms, experiential learning usually has a more watered down connotation.  Websites […]

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Why Service Learning is Important

middle schoolers doing service learning beach cleanup

Service learning has always been a part of Arthur Morgan School’s 18 day field trips. Even in the school’s earliest trips, staff and students found communities that needed helping hands. The tradition continues today with the school’s current field trips. Through hard work and new relationships, our middle schoolers are gaining an understanding of why […]

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Getting Hands On with Climate Change

middle school student building a structure with sticks

In most situations if you start talking about the weather it means your have run out of things to say.  For Arthur Morgan School’s Coastal Ecology and Climate Change field trip, however, weather is just the beginning of the conversation. Every spring, AMS sends its middle schoolers out on 18 day field trips.  The trips […]

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