Written by
Logan Stockinger,
Braden Burggraf, and
maybe just a little help from
Mrs. Williams
and Mr. Krupa
Raise your hand if you have ever been to the Minnesota State Capitol. Raise your eyebrows if you have ever been to the Science Museum of Minnesota. Raise your voice if you have spent the entire night inside the Science Museum. Now imagine all the fourth graders at Pleasantview Elementary cheering and yelping that they were chosen by the Flint Hills Resource Group to be one of six schools across the state to sleep at the Minnesota Science Museum overnight! Even better, the trip included a visit to the State Capitol! Best of all, it was all provided free of cost!
We left Pleasantview on two buses and headed for the Minnesota State Capitol on Thursday, March 10th at 1:00 PM. All of our sleeping bags, clothes, toothbrushes, toothpastes, pillows, and stuff animals were packed into a large trailer behind one of the school buses. Once we arrived at the capitol, we spent an hour touring the elegant building. We saw the Court of Appeals room, beautiful murals and paintings, and several original battle flags. We heard stories that told about Minnesota's participation in the Civil War and we saw the Minnesota representatives in debate during a legislative session. We walked around the two ton crystal ball that was placed on the floor for cleaning and were told that only a handful of people have ever seen the inside of it. Finally, at the end of our tour, we peered up upon the quadriga, or golden horses, on the roof of the capitol.
Next, we drove to the Science Museum and dropped off all of our belongings. After we unpacked, the Science Museum staff had green neon T-shirts waiting for us to put on. These were given to us for free! It was at this time that we participated in a game to help us understand the rules and expectations of being a guest at the museum. The importance of respect and cooperation was encouraged and we were appreciative be attending this event, so we eagerly obliged.
At the museum we were served a pizza buffet dinner. We had time to explore the museum and buy souvenirs at the gift shop. Later, we divided into four different groups to attend four hands-on workshops. These workshops we entitled, “The Night Sky”, Physics and Force”, Catapults Away”, and “Cold Facts about Science”. The workshops were really fun! We had a snack break and got ready to go to bed. Lights out was at 11:00 PM! Needless to say, no one really went to bed until around 1:00 AM.
Getting up at 6:30 AM was tough for most of us. After our continental breakfast we saw a “Super Cool Science” presentation. We were treated to the Omni Theater presentation of “Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs.”
After the movie, we were able to do some more exploring of the museum. Then we collected all of our gear in the storage area on the fourth floor and loaded the busses for our return trip to Sauk Rapids. It was a quiet ride home, as people's eyes became heavy and began to close.
We gave the whole experience a three clap and an “A” and hope that someday you'll be able to go too!
