9th grade Learning Expedition to West Texas and New Mexico
Trip Dates: May 8-12, 2019
Parent Meeting: February 11, 2019, AHS Library 6:00pm
Scholarship Application Deadline: March 1
Parent Meeting: February 11, 2019, AHS Library 6:00pm
Scholarship Application Deadline: March 1
Trip Overview
May 8: Travel Day
Depart Austin High in the morning with a sack lunch to eat on the bus. Students will arrive at Prude Ranch in time for supper and activities.
May 9
Students will spend the day exploring the sites of Ft. Davis, Texas. While plans are still being finalized, the following locations and activities are being considered:
After supper, the group will depart Prude Ranch and head to a hotel in Artesia, NM.
May 10
Meet your Destination Southwest tour guide first thing in the morning and continue south for a visit to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. This national treasure is unsurpassed in both the immensity of its subterranean chambers and beauty of its limestone formations. In the foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains this seventy-three-square-mile national park protects a series of spectacular underground rooms created by groundwater eating through a limestone reef formed some 250 million years ago, when this part of New Mexico was submerged under the sea. Descend 750 feet in a high-speed elevator to the famous Big Room. Its ceiling is as high as a twenty-five story building and its floor space the size of fourteen football fields! Marvel at the ever-changing colors and singular shapes of the stalagmites and stalactites, which were formed more than sixty million years ago. Depart Carlsbad Caverns and continue to Las Cruces, NM.
May 11
This morning students will make a fun and informative visit to Spaceport America. After arriving to the secure Spaceport America site and a short walk up the Astronaut Walk, visitors enter the Gateway Gallery where their journey through commercial space continues with numerous interactive exhibits and kiosks.
Some visitors choose to experience the G-Shock simulator that subjects the would-be astronaut to rapid acceleration comparable to what an actual astronaut might feel in flight. Later, visitors venture into the Spaceport Operations Center (SOC) and interact with Spaceport America crewmembers and the state-of-the-art fire station before stopping in front of the iconic URS/ Foster + Partners structure, Gateway to Space terminal/hangar for a photo opportunity.
After lunch the group will take leave of the Destination Southwest guides and continue to Fort Davis, TX for an evening Star Party at the McDonald Observatory. The group will stay overnight at Prude Ranch.
May 12: Travel Day
Students and chaperones will debrief their experiences in the morning, then pick up a sack lunch for the ride back to Austin, TX.
Depart Austin High in the morning with a sack lunch to eat on the bus. Students will arrive at Prude Ranch in time for supper and activities.
May 9
Students will spend the day exploring the sites of Ft. Davis, Texas. While plans are still being finalized, the following locations and activities are being considered:
- Hiking in the Davis Mountains
- Visiting the Ft. Davis National Historic Site
- Birdwatching in the “best little bird blind in Texas”
- Finding and observing the local biology
After supper, the group will depart Prude Ranch and head to a hotel in Artesia, NM.
May 10
Meet your Destination Southwest tour guide first thing in the morning and continue south for a visit to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. This national treasure is unsurpassed in both the immensity of its subterranean chambers and beauty of its limestone formations. In the foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains this seventy-three-square-mile national park protects a series of spectacular underground rooms created by groundwater eating through a limestone reef formed some 250 million years ago, when this part of New Mexico was submerged under the sea. Descend 750 feet in a high-speed elevator to the famous Big Room. Its ceiling is as high as a twenty-five story building and its floor space the size of fourteen football fields! Marvel at the ever-changing colors and singular shapes of the stalagmites and stalactites, which were formed more than sixty million years ago. Depart Carlsbad Caverns and continue to Las Cruces, NM.
May 11
This morning students will make a fun and informative visit to Spaceport America. After arriving to the secure Spaceport America site and a short walk up the Astronaut Walk, visitors enter the Gateway Gallery where their journey through commercial space continues with numerous interactive exhibits and kiosks.
Some visitors choose to experience the G-Shock simulator that subjects the would-be astronaut to rapid acceleration comparable to what an actual astronaut might feel in flight. Later, visitors venture into the Spaceport Operations Center (SOC) and interact with Spaceport America crewmembers and the state-of-the-art fire station before stopping in front of the iconic URS/ Foster + Partners structure, Gateway to Space terminal/hangar for a photo opportunity.
After lunch the group will take leave of the Destination Southwest guides and continue to Fort Davis, TX for an evening Star Party at the McDonald Observatory. The group will stay overnight at Prude Ranch.
May 12: Travel Day
Students and chaperones will debrief their experiences in the morning, then pick up a sack lunch for the ride back to Austin, TX.
