Florida

Putting Education Reform To The Test

After FCAT Testing Comes Field Trips

Anthony Cave / WLRN-Miami herald

School buses line up outside of Marlins Park in Little Havana on April 30, 2012.

Editor’s note: This post was written by WLRN reporter Anthony Cave.

The FCAT testing season is over. And students say schools are rounding out the school year with a little fun.

Spencer Semon, an eighth-grader at North Miami Middle school says, “all we have is field trips left and that’s about it.”

Semon and almost 13,000 other students across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties participated in an educational field trip to a Miami Marlins baseball game.

The game against the Arizona Diamondbacks started at 12:40 p.m. yesterday, allowing schools time to watch the game and return before the bell. 

Students got to the stadium early to get a lesson on basic weather terms taught by CBS Miami’s weather team.

There was also a little show and tell.

Ft. Lauderdale’s Museum of Discovery and Science brought a tortoise, alligator and python (No, they didn’t race) for a discussion about the Everglades’ inhabitants.

The event known as Weather Day has been held since 2007 between CBS4, the Miami Marlins, the National Weather Service and the Museum of Discovery and Science.

Despite the fun, North Miami Middle school Spanish teacher Carina Torralba says she plans to create a lesson plan out of the sporting event.

“They can associate everything with sports,” Torralba said. “We can relate that to health and if it is good or not.”

Torralba said 90 of the school’s best students attended the event.

“It’s just the kids who deserved this according to behavior,” she said. “This is just a nice experience.”

Although school does not end until June 7, Semon said he has at least three upcoming field trips including an eighth-grade picnic and a trip to Tampa’s Busch Gardens.

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