School News

As June has begun and the end of the school year is approaching, many clubs and classes are taking a day out of the school week to go on a field trip. This year, the social studies classes invited select students to attend a trip to Washington, D.C on June 17th.

The select students were chosen for a few reasons; some of them being that they had a good grade in that class and they participated regularly. Many students from classes including civics, economics, and world cultures received a letter from Mr. Shenkle or Mr. Conrad about being selected to go on the trip.

Mr. Shenkle, social studies teacher, said, “Primarily, the students were selected based on if they signed up for a history AP course. However, since there weren’t many in AP, we used a system called PVAAS, which takes students’ previous KeyStone and PSSA scores and projects who would do well in AP courses, so we took a combination of those two things to find the students.”

The social studies students will be visiting multiple things in D.C, including some of the infamous Smithsonian Institution National Mall Museums. The Mall consists of eleven museums, running between the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol.

The museums showcase everything history from the National Gallery of Art to the National Museum of Natural History, which, fun fact, is the most visited natural museum in the world.

The National Museum of Natural History includes many interesting sights. From dinosaur fossils, to the Hope Diamond, to ancient Egyptian mummies, you can find a lot of variety at this museum. Another popular museum in the National Mall is the National Air and Space Museum, which showcases the world’s largest collection of historic aircrafts and spacecrafts. This museum is also one of the most visited museum out of the eleven options.

A few more of the must-see museums in the Mall are the Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the U.S Botanical Garden, the National Museum of American History, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. This particular social studies trip will only be focusing on a few select museums and areas of Washington, D.C.

Shenkle said, “We will mainly be going to the Holocaust museum and then around to the monuments. Also, we will probably be going to the air and space museum.”

Washington, D.C. is the United States Capital and serves many purposes for our government. For instance, it houses the President of the United States, it displays many monuments, including the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, and it is the home of the Supreme Court. There is an endless amount of interesting and memorable things to do and see in D.C.

Shenkle mentioned, “I’m most excited for the students to see the holocaust museum because I know it will be very impactful on them.”

Even though there are many entertainment and photo opportunities in D.C, it’s also a place of remembrance and a place that is known to leave an impact on lives. It’s important that students take the opportunity to really take in their surroundings and realize why and how all of it got there, since the history of the monuments and landmarks reach back decades ago.

Shenkle mentioned, “For the most part, we are looking for students to think beyond the borders of Punxsutawney and be interested in taking part in our government and become an active US citizen.”

The social studies trip to Washington, D.C. has not yet taken place, but a lot of students are already really excited to go. D.C is a very impactful place that a lot of the students will hold memories from for the rest of their lives.