Tuttle Students Get Interactive at Science Center

Recently, Tuttle Elementary School fifth-graders embarked on what would be a memorable field trip as they visited the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford.

“This special field trip took them on an interactive learning experience while they traveled through galleries throughout the center that coincided with the science strands they’ve been studying all year,” said Dana Nelson, a fifth-grade science teacher from Tuttle.

A hurricane simulator gave pairs of students the full impact of standing in a hurricane as they withstood winds of 75 mph. The kids were literally blown away by the field trip, joked Nelson.

On another highlight of the trip, students experienced the flow of water as it cuts through land in The River of Life. The kids made their own rivers with twists and turns meandering down a gentle grade, which started at the source and ended at the mouth of a simulated river.

“They all had fun getting wet and sandy while even getting the chance to dam up their rivers along the way,” said Nelson.

In the Sports Lab Gallery with teacher John Clifford, the students pitched balls to examine speed and velocity; they rode a downhill ski simulator and used their brain waves to move a ball along a path as they competed with a friend for a race to the finish.

Over at Planet Earth, the kids viewed rocks and minerals that were familiar to them from their own classrooms. They sat back with fifth-grade teacher Alice Cleto, and relaxed while navigating through the cosmos as they watched the universe expand. In this exhibit, the children also experienced stars exploding and a sense of what a black hole really is. As an extra treat, the kids watched the actual video of Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk.

The Invention Convention encourages the students to use their observational skills in predicting cause and effect in chain reaction ball machines. Forces and motion had them combine skills to launch whirligigs and race square-wheeled cars as they explored the motions of physics.

Last but not least, they watched The Legends of Flight in 3-D, a video about the Boeing Airbus that outlined the plane’s aviation history.

After a full day of fun and gaining knowledge at CT’s Science Center, the kids returned to school bursting with excitement to tell their parents about the awesome day they’d just spent together with teachers and classmates.