Four Corners Upper School introduced the Cambridge Travel Tourism class to their academic catalog, giving students opportunities to put the class to use and plan an actual field trip out themselves.
As this is the first year the class is being offered most did not know the contents of the class would include activities like planning a field trip, but junior Madeline Seaman had an idea in mind.
“I joined this class because my mom is a travel agent and I figured it would be fun to get to learn a bit more about what exactly she does,” Seaman said.
Before starting to plan the trip or even coming up with ideas for a destination the students within the class needed to get into groups.
“This group came together because we knew each other from past classes and so we all just paired up with each other. Having a bond with these people though has made it so much more comfortable and it makes it easier for yourself and your group,” junior Clara Made stated.
Once everyone throughout the class had gotten into groups, they were able to begin the task of assigning roles to everyone participating.
“We all have select roles in the group and I am the leader. We have leader, that’s me, assistant manager, that’s Lilly who’s awesome. We have the financial manager Kim, the marketing manager Katelyn, the communications manager Elizabeth and the secretary Gwen,” Seaman explained.
One of the biggest responsibilities that comes with taking this class is planning out the field trip and going through the process of making the trip a reality. Senior and leader of her group Ashley Becke got the idea for the trip’s destination from her partner, senior Kate Stout.
“The idea for the Behind the Seeds tour at Epcot was actually Kate Stout’s idea because she heard about it and she’s always wanted to go on it [the tour] and offered that idea up, but it was actually a really good idea that we all liked and that’s how that happened,” Becke.
When planning the field trips, the Walt Disney World parks were a crowd favorite for the groups, but the groups faced the challenge of incorporating educational aspects into the Disney parks, in order to get the grant money that will cover the cost of the trip.
“We knew we wanted to do something really fun, and when we think about fun, we all think about Disney. So, we thought ‘Ok we know we wanted to go to Disney, but where in Disney will be covered by a grant?’ Well, a standard of yearbook and journalism is photography, and at Animal Kingdom we can practice live photography with the animals, and from there it all came together,” Seaman said.
One group, however, decided to differ away from going to Disney and take the sixth-grade classes to the Kennedy Space Center in Merrit Island, Florida where they have the opportunity to explore the space center’s visitor complex.
“Our group is going to the Kennedy Space Center with the sixth graders. It all came about as we had the 6th grade teacher Mrs. Muniz who was planning on doing it prior, but she came to our class one day and asked if anyone was interested in helping her out. Because our group hadn’t come up with what we wanted to do at the moment, so we decided to go for it and help them out,” junior Clara Made stated.
With every group moving at a different pace the students are all in separate places throughout the planning process as the group’s experiences booking the trip have all been unlike one another’s.
“So far, our group has decided where we are going, we decided the max number of people were taking, the group we are taking, and how much it will be. We also decided on a shirt were gonna do, we contacted Disney to book everything and at the moment we’re just finalizing payments,” Becke said.
Groups such as Mades have made it pretty far into the process but came to a hold up as the parent chaperones for the field trips had to go through the Oasis process taking up more time in the trip planning process.
“For the chaperoning it was a little bit harder because obviously we can’t take all the teachers, considering how large the sixth-grade class is, so we had to take parents and get them Oasis approved which took awhile,” Made stated.
Some groups such as Seaman’s have already finished the process of setting up the trip and are beginning to work on the end of year paper which is half of the Cambridge end of year exam.
“We’ve started writing our end of year paper, and we pretty much have already planned our entire trip out. Because I’m taking my group, yearbook and journalism, to Animal Kingdom it’s a super cheap trip but my group has figured it out and now were basically done,” Seaman explained.
To earn the Cambridge credit that is awarded with taking this class you must pass the test about what has been taught this year. The other half of the test includes the summary of how the trip planning and the actual trip went. Some students like Made are already thinking about the summary they are hoping to write.
“The trip is mainly for them [the sixth-graders] but since we have to write a summary on about everything, we do we of course have to pay attention to what they’re learning and we need to be attentive. Just because we have a summary exam at the end which we have to write about everything that went on during and while planning the trip,” Made mentioned.
A requirement for planning the trip was that the groups needed to be able to take a grade level or certain class that the trip can match the standards of. Becke’s group took the Cambridge Marine and Environmental science classes that are taught by Mrs. Tripp.
“We choose to take Ms. Tripp’s class with us because we’re doing Behind the Seeds Tour where it has more to do with environmental management, and marine science, so we thought those would be the best classes to take,” Becke said.
While most groups are coming toward the end of the planning process, none have gone on the actual trip yet, but they are excited to see how their hard work will come to life.
“I wouldn’t say that it’s [booking the trip] the easiest thing ever, but it wasn’t too difficult either. Of course, it took time, but it’s been running smoother than expected. Thankfully I have good people on my team. So, we’ve all been on top of everything and I’m excited to see how the trip turns out,” Made stated.
