Mrs. Chollman Takes Science Students on Field Trip of a Lifetime.

Mrs. Chollman is a Carter High school science teacher who has been teaching for a total of 25 years. In late February, she took her Marine Ecology class, as well as the school’s science club on a once in a lifetime field trip to Pigeon Key, Florida. On this trip, students snorkeled at Sombrero Reef, Tidepooled in the natural calcified coral shores, learned marine biology in hands-on classes, and interacted with native Tropical wildlife on an island exclusive for the class, as well as visited conservation centers/wildlife hospitals. Pigeon Key is an island in southern Florida, the island acts as an overnight educational facility, teaching marine botany and zoology through fun, hands-on learning such as the exploration of a coral reef, the dissection of a shark, or vertebrate identification during low-tide. Pigeon Key is open to summer camps, field trips, daily tours, and even limited internships!This trip was not easy to pull off. Mrs. Chollman and the school started planning the trip early in June 2022, visiting the facilities of Pigeon Key and beginning to think about scheduling prior to even informing students. When asked about the amount of thought that went into this trip she replied simply: “A lot, we’ve been planning this trip for quite some time.” The school didn’t do it alone however, along the development of the field trip, there were multiple donors, assisting with the large expenses of the trip. One such donor, who wished to remain anonymous, donated a significant amount, shaving over a hundred dollars off of each student’s overall cost, as well as providing meals for students on certain days. In the end, all of this hard work paid off. On the trip, students arrived in Florida after around a 2 hour plane ride, then hopped on a bus to take them across the 7 mile bridge into the Florida Keys. Students were then welcomed by Pigeon key staff onto a 5 acre island, fit with two student dorms, a kitchen, a research pool, beautiful shorelines, a scenic pier, and a large outdoor classroom fitted with buoys of numerous shapes and sizes. The trip was a hit with the students, with many happy but sunburnt faces returning to Tennessee on the final day of the trip. When asked about her favorite part of the trip, junior Rylie Tarver explained, “My favorite part was definitely the tidepooling, the whole trip was great, but I liked the self-guided discovery aspect of the invertebrate identification.” And with such a successful field trip, Mrs Chollman has already begun planning a second trip to Florida soon, focused around the CDC classroom, and possibly giving them an opportunity to visit the Dolphin Research center in Grass Key Fl in the near future.