Trustees Approve Overnight Trip to Frost Valley

Huntington School Board members approved a multi-day overnight field trip to Frost Valley YMCA environmental education center in Claryville for Woodhull Intermediate School and Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School sixth graders in March.

Located about 2.5 hours north of New York City in the heart of the Catskill Mountains, Frost Valley consists of 5,500 acres where more than 35,000 school children and others visit annually for camps, retreats and educational programs.

Woodhull teacher Keith Meyers is coordinating the trip. “Educational school field trips bring science lessons to life in the most natural of learning environments; the great outdoors,” states the Frost Valley YMCA website.

The field trip was endorsed by the building principals and Superintendent Beth McCoy before it was presented to the Huntington School Board for its approval.

According to a field trip plan provided to trustees, the Huntington students and their chaperones will depart on Tuesday, March 4 at 9:30 a.m. and return on Friday, March 7 at 2:30 p.m. The trip will culminate a six week science unit on ecology.

“Students will participate in classes that include pond, stream and field ecology, geology, orienteering, survival skills, wildlife observations and an add day interpretative hike,” Mr. Meyers said.

Huntington sixth graders have participated in an outdoor education overnight field trip for decades. “Students will be able to write about outdoor education and how in nature everything is dependent on everything else as in the web of life,” Mr. Meyers said. “Students will also learn about other topics, including how animals adapt to their environment and learning how to cooperate as a team.”