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How Travel Impacts Learning in Middle Years
Until five years ago, I didn’t really understand what the concept of “travel school” looked or felt like in real life. That is, until I arrived at High Meadows and discovered our long-standing week-long educational immersion experiences that are a hallmark of our Middle Years program. Each trip has its own unique focus and lens, influenced by the age of the students on the trip and deeply impacted by the location.
Sixth graders spend a week on Jekyll Island, Georgia, with a shared focus on the history and geography of the island’s the ocean, beaches, dunes, and salt marshes. Our seventh grade students just spent a week in Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, Newport News, and Norfolk with an emphasis on history, the inhabitants of the land (both initially and those who came later), and how it ties to our world today. The culminating experience for our eighth graders is a trip to Estes Park, Colorado. Students spend significant time surrounded by snowcapped mountains at Rocky Mountain National Park for hiking in some of the most pristine spaces in the United States.
The Class of 2025 at Rocky Mountain National Park.
What is the thread, you ask, that ties all these trips together? Well, it is precisely what I just did — asking questions. Our students are insatiably curious, and the one constant element we see when we take them out into the world beyond our campus is their desire, perhaps even their need, to ask questions as they seek to know and understand their world. They don’t want to just know what, they want to know why, and how, and how come. They want to hear conflicting stories, to parse perspectives and viewpoints, and to sit with seemingly contradictory details and stories so they can draw their own conclusions. They want to know all this so that they can go back into their own worlds, share their new knowledge and seek ways to better the world around them.
What is the thread, you ask, that ties all these trips together? Well, it is precisely what I just did — asking questions. Our students are insatiably curious, and the one constant element we see when we take them out into the world beyond our campus is their desire, perhaps even their need, to ask questions as they seek to know and understand their world. They don’t want to just know what, they want to know why, and how, and how come. They want to hear conflicting stories, to parse perspectives and viewpoints, and to sit with seemingly contradictory details and stories so they can draw their own conclusions. They want to know all this so that they can go back into their own worlds, share their new knowledge and seek ways to better the world around them.
As I reflect on my time with our seventh-grade group that just returned from Williamsburg last week, I am amazed by the inquisitiveness they displayed throughout the trip. They asked big questions, and they articulated them well. Just as I reflected, our students also take time to ponder the answers they receive. One of the primary reasons we travel with our students is because we use the opportunity that off-campus learning provides to understand better and to share that understanding with others, creating a cycle of knowledge and growth and learning that ripples out from each of them.
The High Meadows community celebrates and perpetuates each individual’s quest for knowledge and skill, sense of wonder, and connection to the natural environment. We empower each to be a compassionate, responsible, and active global citizen.
Age 3 through Grade 8 | Authorized IB PYP World School
1055 Willeo Road, Roswell, Georgia 30075 | (770) 993-2940 | info@highmeadows.org
1055 Willeo Road, Roswell, Georgia 30075 | (770) 993-2940 | info@highmeadows.org
