The fourth grade classes at Center Street School in El Segundo took a field trip to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Ron volunteered to be one of the chaperones, and he met Morgan’s class at the museum. There were enough parent chaperones to break the class up into small groups, so, in addition to Morgan, Ron had Kailey and Reilly to watch.

There were dozens of classes from other schools at the museum. I don’t know it this was the norm, but it sure seemed like an incredibly busy day at the museum for school kids.

Morgan’s class spent the first hour in the museum’s Discovery Center, where the students were able to have a hands-on experience with many artifacts. We rotated through three stations, taught by three different museum instructors. Frst, we learned how a tortise has adapted to the harsh environment of the desert. Next, we learned about minerals and fossils. Lastly, we received a lesson on the food chain. The Discovery Center was probably the most interesting part of the field trip.

After the Discover Center, our class went on a scavenger hunt. We had a packet of about seven or eight pages filled with items that we were to track down throughout the three floors of the museum, and we only had about an hour left to accomplish it. Some of the exhibit halls were fairly crowded with other kids, but we finished everything on our lists except the page on California history.