Kentucky's Cave Country
Traveling Classroom Experience
The experience of studying, teaching, and traveling abroad is enriching and exciting! For some of us, this will be our first trip away from home. For others, it will be an additional traveling experience. In any case, we will all learn much and enjoy the experience! We will also face new challenges as we find ourselves in unfamiliar situations and surroundings. Our greatest learning opportunities will come from those challenges! As students and faculty of Berkshire Middle School, we will be representatives of ourselves, our families, our school, the Birmingham Public Schools, and the State of Michigan. Our actions, thus, have implications beyond their impact on us as individuals.
(Adapted from Hope College trip introduction, Spring, 2002.)
Tuesday
8:15 am Normal School Day
4:00 pm Departure from Berkshire Middle School
Midnight Arrive in Cave City, Kentucky
Wednesday
7:00 am Rise and Shine
7:45 am Breakfast
8:30 am Traveling Classroom
Elective Classes
9:30 am Travel to Mammoth Cave
Prepare Science Probes
10:00 am Mammoth Cave National Park Visitor's Center
Orientation
View two short films
"Voices of the Cave"
"Water and Stone"
10:15 am Underground Classroom
Making of the Mammoth Cave Tour
1:00 pm Lunch-box lunch at Mammoth Cave
2:15 pm Karst Surface Field Excursion
Turnhole Bend Hike
3:30 pm Floating Classroom
"Green River Excursion
4:30 pm Outdoor Classroom
"Green River Ferry"
"Hike Echo River Spring Trail"
6:00 pm Dinner - Cave City, Kentucky
7:00 pm Echo groups- small group discussions
followed by reflective journal writing
8:00 pm Evening Program
"Dangers Underground"
9:00 pm Prepare for Hidden River Cave
Update Website
10:00 pm Room Check - Lights out!
10:15 pm Staff meeting
Thursday
6:30 am Rise and Shine
7:30 am Breakfast
8:30 am Travel to Horse Cave, Kentucky
9:00 am Hidden River Cave Adventure
12:15 pm Lunch - Main Street Cafe
2:00 pm Hart County Stone Quarry
3:00 pm Surface Karst Field Excursion
5:00 pm Free Time
6:00 pm Dinner
7:00 pm Kentucky Action Park
8:15 pm Echo groups - small group discussions
followed by reflective journal writing
9:15 pm Quiet time - Update Webpage
10:00 pm Room Check - Light out !
10:15 pm Staff Meeting
Friday
6:30 am Rise and Shine !
7:30 am Breakfast
8:30 am Departure from Cave City, Kentucky
11:30 am Big Bone Lick State Park
Discovery Trail and Bog Diorama
Hike Big Bone Creek Trail
Tour Museum - fossilized bones
View a short film
12:30 pm Lunch
1:30 pm On the road again
7:00 pm Arrive at Berkshire - Parents pickup students
8:30 am
