Journalism and astronomy classes explored some of the Smithsonian museums on a field trip to Wash., DC, on April 11, last day before spring break. 

Students who signed up for the field trip departed Ocean Lakes early on a luxury, coach bus at 5:45 a.m. and arrived at the Smithsonian lawn area at 9:45 a.m.

Upon arrival journalism branched off to explore the Newseum while astronomy students started with a docent guided tour at the National Air and Space Museum.

“Seeing all the telescopes and planes in the air and space museum showed me how hard certain individuals worked just to get a better of the world we live in,” said astronomy student Mackenzie James.

All students regrouped at lunch to end the day exploring the National Museum of Natural History.

“Going into the National Museum of Natural History was so mind blowing. Walking through through the ocean exhibit was so cool because that’s only a fraction of what we know…we [also] got to see bones of several animals like bones of a gigantic turtle to a lion even onto a hummingbird. There were so many exhibits, hard to get through it all in just a couple of hours,” said Mackenzie.

With very little traffic, students and chaperones headed back to Virginia Beach at 5:30 p.m. with a short dinner stop in Fredericksburg.

“We had 27 students from both astronomy and magnet astronomy. I feel that learning outside the classroom is just as important as what the students learn inside the classroom,” said astronomy teacher Michelle Bailey-Hennessey. “No matter how much I talk about these things, it will never give them the ‘ah’ of experiencing it for themselves.”