Teacher’s Pet: 7 field trips in Colorado that don’t suck!
26th August 2015
Hey there, kids! Do you know what time it is? Thaaaaaat’s right! It’s back to school time! Don’t worry if you feel like this kid. We all do, even if it’s just a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, we all know that school is no walk in the park. With the routines, the homework, the not-so-healthy school lunches (I don’t care what Congress says, pizza is NOT a vegetable), and the general feeling of being at school. But, as we’ve all come to learn over the course of our education experiences, sometimes school can be pretty awesome; a place where you create memories and hey, even learn a thing or two. Especially when you go to school only to leave school to go somewhere else. You know: field trips.
Ah, yes, the field trip. There may be no other school activity that excites kids more. Everything about it exudes joy: the permission slips, the buddy system, the school bus ride, the impending excitement that comes with exploration, the notion that tonight there will be no homework. There isn’t a single thing about a field trip that sucks. Well, unless the destination itself is kind of geeky (looking at you, Colonial Williamsburg).
Fortunately, Colorado has a plethora of field trip destinations that will excite the mind and engage the student, teachers and everyone involved, even if it is just for the day. Here are our top picks in the area:
The Adams County Libraries were some of the poorest funded libraries in Colorado until the community voted to increase library spending. The result was the Anythink Libraries. Their goal was to create an institution that was of the modern age, and provided modern tools. So Anythink did away with the Dewey Decimal System and added The Studio at the Wright Farms and Brighton locations. The Studio includes a digital lab, a 3D printer and other sweet tech options that your school library probably doesn’t provide. I mean, this is a library that collaborated with a local brewery to create a library beer. This isn’t your mom’s library; it’s a cool library. // 327 E. Bridge St., Brighton.
2. Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Natural history exhibitions, IMAX and planetarium shows, engaging activities and lectures that explore the wonders of science, Colorado, Earth and the universe. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to visit? Denver Museum of Nature and Science is a spectacular interactive museum featuring fossils, Egyptian mummies, riddles of the human body and dozens more hands-on activities. One of their newer, popular exhibits is Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns and Mermaids. Yes, I know they’re not real, but since when has imagination hindered the young mind? // 2001 Colorado Blvd., Denver.
No, this isn’t like taking a trip to Barnes and Noble. The Tattered Cover Bookstore is arguably one of the top independent booksellers in America. They host hundreds of free children’s events throughout the year, including lectures, release parties and author appearances. They’ve been open since 1971 and have gotten creative with their business model, even offering book catering for events. If you take a trip to this bookstore, you’ll enter a world where printed books still reign king and the owners are savvy enough to keep it that way. // 2526 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.
One of the largest museums between the West Coast and Chicago, the Denver Art Museum provides a collection of art so captivating, so all-consuming, that it very well may be a crime to not go there on a field trip. And if it’s not a crime, well, at the very least it should carry a fine. With hundreds of thousands of works from artists all over the world, surely it will inspire a few budding artists. // 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, Denver.
Seriously, what kid doesn’t love the crap out of dinosaurs? They’re big, they’re dead and there was a hit movie out in theatres about them earlier this summer — Jurassic… something or other. While you can’t take your kids to see any live dinosaurs (not yet, anyway), you can visit the burying ground for these long-gone Colorado residents. At Dinosaur Ridge, you can touch the bones of Allosaurus and Stegosaurus and see the footprints at the site where some of the world’s most important dinosaur discoveries were made in the late 1880s. This place can make even the dorkiest of them all feel like Indiana Jones, even if it’s just for the day. // 16831 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison.
6. Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum
If you want to be excited about engineering, you go to Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. There, more than 40 planes and stunning space-oriented displays cover the vast museum space. It’s simply an aviation wonderland that allows you to get face-to-face with bombers, fighter jets, antique planes and a search-and-rescue helicopter. Plus, if you do a special second-Saturday-of-the-month field trip, you can have the chance to sit in a plane cockpit and see just how awesome it is to be an ace pilot. // 7711 E. Academy Blvd. #1, Denver.
Kids love bugs. Well, some kids love bugs. Other kids (and adults) freak out when they see a bug. But maybe that’s because they don’t really know them that well. At The Butterfly Pavilion, located in Westminster, you can interact with live invertebrates fluttering around in a lush rainforest (it’s not actually a rainforest, it’s just a simulated rainforest, relax). This space is home to more than 1,200 butterflies, moths and skippers. If you’re brave enough, you can even hold Rose, a Chilean Rose Hair tarantula, in the palm of your hand. Yeah, I dare you to do that. // 6552 W. 104th Ave., Westminster.
The school year is just beginning, children. But so is Field Trip Season. All you have to do is make sure those permission slips are signed and you’re off! Have a great school year, everyone.
