Sometimes the biggest hurdle for any school do to field trips is the cost of getting there.
“It can be anywhere from a couple $100 to $1000 depending on the location," Travis Chappa with Arts Bus Xpress says.
For some students, that’s enough to keep the experience out of reach.
But this week, these students from Murray High School are diving into the world of marine science.
A partnership with Arts Bus Express covered the ride and the lesson was covered by Birch Aquarium.
In the classroom at the aquarium, that meant getting up close with a fish, learning about its anatomy and how marine animals survive in the Pacific. But that’s not all that students at Murray High School learn on their field trips.
"The animal career explorer program takes kids each week we interview people who are out in the field working in these careers and jobs that our kids are interested in," Murray High School Teacher Erik Conklin says.
Students approach people at the filed trips and ask them how they got there.
They even asked ABC10 News Reporter Olivia Gonzalez-Britt a few questions.
For senior Miliani Hernandez, those conversations can open up possibilities she might not have considered:
"We get to learn more about different people… and different people that we interview… we get to learn about their personal lives on how they made it to where they are now.”
She’s interested in animal care and construction or murals for places like zoos. And after her conversation with our 10News Reporter, even got interested in journalism.
She says her previous school didn’t offer the same kind of field trips.
"The number one thing teachers say is the barrier to going on a field trip is the cost of the bus," Chappa says.
Its why the nonprofit Arts Bus Xpress helps fund that ride. Since 2002, the nonprofit says it has helped 250-thousand students take field trips 90% of them from title one schools.
Birch Aquarium also uses donations to fully fund about half of its school group programs.
And for teachers, the biggest takeaway may be what happens when students step outside their comfort zone.
“This is what you do is, is teachers were like a springboard. You're supposed to jump on us and jump up to the next level of whatever it is. It's, it's phenomenal to watch," Conklin says.
Because sometimes, a field trip is more than a day out of the classroom.
It’s a chance to discover a career, ask a question, or see a future that didn’t feel possible before.
