The purpose of this field trip is to connect the curriculum of 6th grade with the outdoors of this wonderful and amazingly diverse country we live in.  By doing hands-on activities and listening to expert guides, students will gain a better understanding of the following:

• Native flora and fauna. 
• The water cycle of Oyacachi
• Native history/living
• Significance of the Andes
• Altitude vs. Temperature
• Percents, decimals, fractions
• How to use a compass and map
• Where the water separates.  One way to the orient, the other to ocean.

 

On the way to Oyacachi students will visit the Paramo and enjoy its low growing flora.  Once in Oyacachi they will be able to enjoy this unique area which is located in between Cayambe and the Oriente Oyacachi receives just the right amount of water to produce an amazing diversity of both flora and fauna.

In seventh grade, we study “Ecology” and “Living Things”.  The following science benchmark and standards are directly related to the lesson objectives of our academic trip to Tena:

• Respect the diversity and fragility of the natural world.
• Recognize the interconnectedness of all things and that each item in the natural world depends on the existence (and well-being) of many other things.
• Knows the richness of earth’s diversity is of inestimable value, and that human activity can damage (and already has damaged) this rich diversity irreversibly.

Another objective of our academic trip to Tena is to provide students with “hands on” learning opportunities that directly relate to what we are studying in the classroom.  Students who travel to Tena have the opportunity to directly observe and interact with the components we learned about in the classroom.  Therefore, reinforcing the value and importance of learning.

The Eighth Grade Field Trip Academic Program offers students the opportunity to better understand and appreciate the evolution of life forms and the internal processes of the Earth through geologic time in the Galapagos Hot Spot. Galapagos is a living lab where students also witness the rapidly growing problems, including tourism and a human population explosion.

Students work on individual projects which they choose from four broad topics: 

• Fauna and Flora of the Galapagos Islands
• The Galapagos Geology
• Impact of the ENSO Phenomenon on the Galapagos Islands
• Human and introduced species impact on the Galapagos

After the rip, students share their findings, experiential and through research, with the Colegio Menor Community.