Classroom Teaching Comes Alive
From Dinos to Stars and More In Between

Some 30-plus world history students, along with teacher Marty Schmalenberg, traveled from Blair to the Big Apple on October 21 for a field trip to the American Museum of Natural History. To tie in with their current lessons on world history, the students took in the African exhibits and, of course, the amazing dinosaurs and fossils that the museum is known for. They were also able to check out the special exhibits on mammals and butterflies and the gift shop. The trip (as is the case with other opportunities like it) is largely possible as the result of generous funding from Blair supporters.

Marty, who was born and raised in New York City, noted that he and his childhood friend would often take the subway to the museum just to see the dinosaurs. “In the spirit of that boyhood experience and knowing how much I learned there in my youth, I wanted to allow my students the same opportunity. Visiting such a venue – one that is so close to Blair in proximity – will no doubt lead to some interesting classroom discussions this week.”

The students (many of whom had never before traveled to New York City nor been to a planetarium) also took in a show of Journey to the Stars, narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg. This presentation – which premiered in July in the museum’s Hayden Planetarium at the Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space – is an immersive theater experience created by the museum’s astrophysicists, scientific visualization, and media production experts with the cooperation of NASA and more than 40 leading scientists from the United States and abroad.

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Updated 10/22/09

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