Traveling to different educational locations in Philadelphia, AP Literature and Honors Genetics students got the opportunity to enhance their learning experience by visiting museums in the city.
The AP Literature class visited the Rosenbach Museum and Library for the first time on April 8. English teacher Hannah Wood organized the trip.
After touring the museum students also went to Reading Terminal Market for lunch.
“The museum holds literary artifacts including original manuscripts and books,” senior Emily Rychlak said.
Museum employees showed them artifacts from texts that students had read to research what they saw on the pages.
“At the museum we analyzed original manuscripts of works of literature that we studied in class,” senior Khushi Thacker said. This “unique” experience was one of Thacker’s favorite parts of the trip.
“My favorite part of the trip was actually handling the manuscripts that the authors had actually written,” Thacker said. “It was cool to see the differences between the original documents and the books we used in class.”
For Rychlak, she enjoyed venturing through the museum as well as the city itself.
“My favorite part of the trip was having time to explore the city, but I also thought it was interesting to be able to see and touch an original page from ‘The Canterbury Tales’ at the museum,” Rychlak said.
According to Thacker, she feels that the trip helped to bring her learning beyond the classroom.
“I do think it was a good learning experience to kind of create that connection between the past and present,” Thacker said. “I got a better understanding of the meaning and value the authors carried toward each piece of literature that they write.”
Rychlak found the field trip to be very insightful, giving her a deeper understanding of what she learned in class.
“It was beneficial to hear about the author’s thought processes from the manuscripts and the curator’s point of view,” Rychlak said.
Science teacher Nicholas Chiarolanza also brought his Honors Genetics class to the Mütter Museum on March 25.
“[The museum] is an interesting place for medical anomalies and the early studies of medicine,” Chiarolanza said.