On Monday, April 19, 2010, the Southwest Career and Technical Academy Biology I Honors students in the design academy went on a field trip to the Las Vegas Springs Preserve.

The Springs Preserve is “an 180-acre cultural Institution designed to commemorate Las Vegas’ dynamic history” according to the official Springs Preserve website. It has many attractions, such as: museums, galleries, gardens, life exhibits, and lots of other fun interactive games and activities that anyone at any age will enjoy.

The field trip was many students first time ever visiting the Springs Preserve, and many were very anxious to get going at the beginning of the trip.

“I’ve never been there before, it sounds really cool from what Mr. Goode has said about it,” Freshman Jason Sullins replied when asked if he’d been there before, “I really want to just get there.”

Mr. Dennis Goode was anxious to start the trip as well. When asked what he was looking forward to on the field trip, Goode answered, “I’m excited for the students to see everything the Springs Preserve has to offer. I hope all students listen very carefully and pay close attention, because it will definitely help in their Project Based Learning projects.”

The purpose of the field trip was to identify and observe how all of the plants were labeled. The Biology students have a Project Based Learning project where they have to observe and research all the plants in their designated area of the quad. After they find all the information, they are to create signage to label each of the different plants.

After a long day, the students were ready to return to school. Many of them felt that they learned a lot and now have a better understanding of the project.

“At the beginning of the project, when Mr.Goode said signage, I didn’t know what he was talking about. Now, after the field trip, I totally get it!” Freshman Reegan Gunter exclaimed.