Special needs teacher Angela Guidry took her students to the Tellus Science Museum on Monday, March 7. The students explored three main exhibits: fossil digging, gem panning, and the backyard playground. They also got to see the planetarium movie Big Bird and the Stars. When asked what the students enjoyed the most, they responded with “RAWR,” referring to seeing the dinosaurs and proclaiming the T-Rex as their favorite.

“It’s making them exposed to things they might not be otherwise exposed to,” Guidry said. “Exposure to anything helps their cognitive ability. They have to have hands on stuff to understand.”

The museum trip allowed the students to learn and still stick to their educational path.

“We do have the science curriculum, we have to study many of the same things that other students study. This experience was a good way to study it,” special needs teacher Beverly Gaitlin said.

Taking the trip to the Tellus Museum related to their current science curriculum and exposed the students to understand and map out their cognitive abilities with activities requiring kinesthetic learning.

“The children don’t get to go on these kinds of trips all the time, they definitely learned some things they wouldn’t have learned in the classroom, the interaction was really important,” Gatlin said.

Since the students learn under Guidry for the next four years, she plans on doing another trip. “This was an amazing experience for the students and they loved it. I hope to take them on another trip soon,” Guidry said.