Archive: Around Town

A record number of children in Tompkins County -- 4,400 -- participated in Kids Discover the Trail! (KDT!) program, a series of annual field studies that bring learning to life at eight Discovery Trail organizations. This year, 80 percent of public elementary students from all six school districts in Tompkins County participated in the program.

This spring, hundreds of elementary school students experienced a 19th century classroom in the Eight Square Schoolhouse, dug for fossils at the Museum of the Earth and identified wildflowers in the Cornell Botanic Garden.

KDT! has been expanded throughout the county over the past two years after a feasibility study showed there was enough interest to add the program to all the county's elementary schools. The newest grades to take field trips this spring were the third grade in Newfield, which visited the Johnson Museum of Art, and the fifth grade in Dryden, which will visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in June.

Diane Tripodi, a first-grade teacher who is the program's liaison in Newfield, said that many children wouldn't have the opportunity to visit museums in Tompkins County if they didn't participate in the KDT! program. When her first-grade class went to the Museum of the Earth in early May, she said it was the first time many of them had been inside the museum.

"I think that cost is a deterrent for a lot of families, because it's not just one child going -- it's a full family," Tripodi said. "For families that are working hard to make ends meet, that would just be an extravagance they just couldn't afford."

Payton Daley, a student in Tripodi's class, visited the Museum of the Earth for the first time during the field study and was so excited to learn about fossils that she went back with her sister and her parents the following weekend. The museum gives each student a family pass offering free admission.

"She was really just excited to show her dad the fossils," said Dorinda Daley, Payton's mother. "She thought it was really cool."

Before students travel to any of the eight sites, an educator from one of the organizations visits their classroom or their teacher conducts a pre-trip activity to prepare them for the field study. The KDT! program also provides a book to keep that reinforces the visit, such as bird or wildflower guides, for each student.

Kids Discover the Trail! was founded in 2004 in collaboration with the Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI), the Discovery Trail and the Ithaca City School District. In 2009, Trumansburg students joined the program, and in 2011, a feasibility study determined how the curriculum-based program could be expanded into the other district elementary schools.  Community Foundation of Tompkins County, Legacy Foundation, Park Foundation and Triad Foundation funded the feasibility study.

"The feasibility study was critical in documenting both the need as well as outlining the required logistics," said Charlie Trautman, a member of the Discover Trail Board of Directors and former executive director of the Sciencenter. "Each site had its own challenges and opportunities. Once we had the study, it was possible for the Discovery Trail board to outline a way forward."

Star Bressler, executive director of the Discovery Trail, said the program will continue to add classrooms from the six school districts each year. "Our goal is to provide equal access to education and resources for all elementary children in Tompkins County," she said. "We're growing a couple grades at a time so it may take several years to reach all of the county. But I think it's more important to grow the program in a sustainable way, both financially and educationally."

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