Outside the Box – Honey Nixon
Panama City Renaissance School students traveled back in time during a field trip to the nation’s oldest city, St. Augustine, Florida. Ms. Estes, the PCRS history teacher who coordinates the excursion every year, guided children and their parents to the various forts and museums that make St. Augustine famous. The first stop was the Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in North America. Participants enjoyed a reenactment of Spanish soldiers firing cannons, explored the many rooms within the fort and learned about the fort’s use throughout history. Next the students toured two hands-on museums, St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum and St. Augustine’s Colonial Spanish Quarter Museum, where the kids fired a cannon, touched a 400-year-old treasure chest, and watched a “Spanish soldier” load and fire a musket. This educational field trip was an opportunity for students to see first hand that history is more than pages in a book. Though this field trip is tailored to the second-grade history students, the entire school was encouraged to attend. We thank Ms. Estes and PCRS parents for making this trip a success!
