A class with a title like “Adventures in Writing” is bound to be exciting, right?
This week, teaching artist Emily Sohn has led her students on three walking field trips. In nearby Gold Medal Park, she challenged her students to climb the hill in a way that no one ever had before. At Mill City Museum, they saw flour dust explode (in a controlled environment for safety, of course). And today, they visited the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory.
SAFL isn’t what you might expect of a lab. There were no lab coats, and hardly any beakers in sight. There were, however, huge pipes full of river water, big bags of sediment, and an elevator that’s condemned because it goes into the river.
In other words, it’s an interesting place, and the students got to science in action, such as a study on how tides affect the Mississippi River Delta.
To conduct their studies, they set up big simulations of how river processes work.
Outside, the researchers have set up an entire “mini Mississippi” for study.
Below, you can see the entire Mississippi.
And above, you can see all of Minneapolis.
Writing about science or adventure is a great excuse to see some amazing stuff. And come on, who doesn’t like a good adventure?
–EJ
Young Writers @ The Loft 