Off to an amazing start!!

Seabury Middle School is in full swing and we started off at a full gallop this year! The focus this year is on Washington State and Tacoma City history, with projects and inquiry driving the learning. Students visited Wright Park and practicing orienteering, visiting specific trees and monuments, gathering facts from historical plaques, and then using them in math problems. The answers helped them get to the next step in the journey until we all (thankfully!) reached the right ending point!

We also had the chance to visit Tacoma's historical conservatory and took a tour of the Champion Trees. Using the City as our Classroom is an integral part of inquiry based learning, where students ask questions first and research to answer them. Field Study Trips at Seabury are not meant to be a final "celebration" of a unit that has been finished, but the starting point to stimulate curiosity and the desire to know more. Rather than making a visit to a site and listening to a presentation, Seabury students come armed with questions they want answered!

Our visit to Wright Park and the Conservatory was just the first of many such amazing opportunities to learn by doing in the giant classroom called Tacoma. It's going to be an amazing year!!