by Binyomin Shtaynberger ('14)

This past Tuesday, following the Memorial Weekend break, the 11th grade took a trip to the American Museum of Natural History. Upon reaching the museum, the students were divided into groups with different chaperones from the faculty who led the students on their own personalized tours. Early in the visit, the students watched a presentation about the giants of the ocean-whales. The next presentation that the students saw was one about the Monarch Butterfly. The students were shown a fascinating documentary about the discovery of an oasis composed of millions of the butterflies, which a scientist had devoted his entire life to discover. The movie contained an interesting combination of biology, scientific processes, and an ultimate emotional revelation of self fulfillment, which comprised this scientist's romantic quest. The students then had spare time to walk through the museum and examine some of the exhibits for themselves. The dinosaur exhibit, containing a vast array of fossils from many different organisms, was especially intriguing to the AP Biology students who were able to see the study of Darwin and evolution manifest itself beyond the pages of a text book. As exciting as the beginning of the trip was, the highlight was certainly the planetarium display. The students sat in the famous large, spherical theater of the Hayden Planetarium, which features a massive "full-globe" television on the top of the inside of the planetarium. The students were taken on a virtual trip through space while the narrator explained what stars are, the way that the sun works, gravity, and about the configuration of the universe in general. The presentation was both awe inspiring and thought provoking. Overall, the trip was a huge success and the students gained a lot through their adventure to the American Museum of Natural History.