Ms. Fessenden's One Day Field Trip
Mid Michigan
Eaton and Ingham County
For our one day field
trip we will be going to two locations. The first location
is Fitzgerald Park in
Grand Ledge, MI. The name of the town gives away the reason that
we wish to make this
our first stop of the day. Fitzgerald Park is built on sedimentary
rocks from the Pennsylvanian
period that are 290 million years in age. The Grand River
has carved its way through
the rock to display beautiful ledges. I will provide all of the
information covered
at Fitzgerald park.
The second location we
will travel to is the Abrams Planetarium located
on the campus of Michigan
State University in East Lansing, MI. Abrams Planetarium
has a variety of educational
offerings, but for this trip I chose the live 1 hour program entitled
"The Night Sky".
This program focuses on recognizable stars and constellations
and can be adapted for
different grade levels. "The Night Sky" will be presented by
an employee of the planetarium.
Group reservations are required and the
cost is $1.50 per student.
The school will pick up the tab for us.
The ideal time of year
for me to take my students on this trip would be the spring.
It is a good way to
wrap up the school year by reviewing the major aspects of
an Earth Science class.
If you were focusing on geology and wanted to go to
Fitzgerald Park in the
fall it would be beautiful to see the changing colors of the mature
beech maple forest.
The planetarium would also be a nice place to visit in the
winter to get out of
the classroom yet avoid the harsh Michigan winter.
While at Fitzgerald Park,
we will examine the sedimentary features
of "the ledges" and
review Michigan's geologic history as well as the Grand River's role in
creating
"the ledges".
We will also discuss the hydrologic aspects of the Saginaw aquifer in mid
Michigan and the pollution of the Grand River. We will spend some
time discussing what influences the weather in
Michigan and we will
compare the climate of today with our glacial past. The planetarium
will
allow us to see the
seasonal constellations of the night
sky, during the school
day.
This trip was designed
for twenty of my 9th grade Earth Science students.
Due to the small
number of students, two to three additional chaperones would be adequate.
Our day starts at the
beginning of a regular school day and ends after school would
normally get out so
students need to plan for a ride home.
