Experience Learning

Department	Electives
Teacher	Jeffery Donaldson
Sessions	1
GR Code	EL
Offered	Previously
Open to	Sophomores Juniors Seniors

Exploring Oklahoma, Missouri, and Cahokia, Illinois to encounter up close lessons in history, literature, and culture. This TSAS elective immerses students in off-site field trip adventures!

Students will gain enriched insights exploring destinations in the tri-state area after reading and researching several topics: Native Mounds Culture, Jazz Culture/Harlem Renaissance, and the pioneers who explored regions west of the Mississippi River after the Louisiana Purchase. In the classroom, students will prepare by reading Native American stories passed down through oral tradition as well as literary classics by Langston Hughes, Mark Twain, and Kate Chopin. We will begin exploring with a daytrip to the Spiro Mounds, and the course will culminate with an excursion along I-44/Route 66 to St. Louis and Hannibal, MO, and Cahokia, IL. From St. Louis we will make day trips to Hannibal, home of Mark Twain, and Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.

This elective is for 10th through 12th grade; it requires student planning and initiative! It may require a fundraising drive, but the following costs will be covered for every student in good standing: travel, museum admissions, breakfast/dinner, lodging. Planned trips are part of the course and are mandatory. Treat the travel dates as sacred to successfully complete this course. (Parent chaperones are welcome but must cover their costs.)