De Anza Field Trip

~Marcie Rodriguez, Education Coordinator

Field trips are an integral part of life at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum. Today, we hosted a field trip that was a little different from our norm - with both 1^st and 3^rd graders. The students came from De Anza Magnet School, which is an elementary school in El Centro, California, which focuses heavily on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). We divided them up into 4 groups, and had them do rotations of history, art, and two science sections.

The history section, “Masters of the Desert,” takes students into a specific part of the museum, to talk about artifacts and exhibits that match what students are learning. For 3^rd graders, they looked at the resources that exist within the Imperial Valley, and how humans adapted to use those resources. 1^st graders on the other hand, use this time to compare the way people live in the Imperial Valley today versus a 1,000 years ago.

During the science sections, 3^rd graders were able to explore how plants adapted to live in our environment through the propagation of ocotillos in our cactus gardens. At the same time, 1^st graders were able to learn which plants grow here in the Valley. They also, planted a couple cacti in the garden!