Susan and Joseph Sappington, MD Grant: Mystic Seaport Sci/Ss Trip
- School Year: 2025-2026
- Applicants: Sarah Ayoub, Heather Barratt, Sharon Courneen
- School: Smith
- Subjects: Language Arts, STEAM, Science, Social Studies
5th-grade students at Smith STEM Elementary School will travel to Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut to experience a custom-made tour connecting their study of science, social studies, and English-language arts. In 5th grade, students learn about the history of maritime exploration and the era of colonial settlement in the Americas. Concurrently, they learn about visible patterns in the night sky and the way Earth's different spheres impact life and survival. Mystic Seaport offers a world-class opportunity for students to engage in hands-on learning that combines these topics in an authentic environment. Students experience a planetarium show demonstrating cross-cultural celestial navigation. They tour wooden ships and workshops that use the same technology they are researching in their classrooms. All of these experiences are led by highly trained museum educators who collaborate with our school to design programming specifically geared towards our classroom instruction.