Intrepid Sea/Air/Space Museum Workshops

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

Several years ago, I was lucky to win a grant to enable my 5th graders to participate in two workshops on the Intrepid Sea/Air/Space Museum. Only two students had been to the Intrepid before our first visit. It was an eye opening experience for the rest of them. I'm not allowed to receive the grant again, but would love to bring my new group of students there to really see history up close. I'd also like to try to make this a yearly trip for every new group of students I teach. I've been teaching nine years and teach all subjects to my students. I constantly look for ways to enrich them and liven up their interests. My school is in East Harlem and many students rarely have the opportunity to visit museums during their vacations. I try to do as much as possible with them during the school year. I have 32 students and almost every one qualifies for the free breakfast/lunch program. I would like for my students to come away from a trip to the Intrepid with more of a desire to explore, perhaps about airplane flight and human exploration, or something equally challenging. More importantly I'd like for them to have more respect and awe for what our men and women in the armed forces have done for us. For example, on one trip we met some of the docents at the museum (men that were actually on the Intrepid when it was in battle and bombed). Two of my boys were commenting to each other, "Wow, I can't believe that guy who spoke to us was blown overboard and survived! People really need to appreciate what they've done for us." They then had the opportunity to speak to that particular veteran, personally, and they brought tears to his eyes with their comments. When I hear my students say, "Oh my gosh", when they go up on the flight deck and view the aircraft, or when they see the cooperative effort that goes into living and working in a submarine, as they climb down into the Growler submarine docked next door, I know how important the experience is for them.