A lot of material can be learned in a classroom. However, I have been fortunate to be in a position to lead students on academic trips outside the class room that have allowed students to augment, apply and extend their learning. This is not an exhaustive list but here are some of the trips that I have had an opportunity to lead:

Silk Road 2012

Ms. Whitehead and I had the pleasure of leading 19 students down the Silk Road in western Gansu province. As the Silk Road is quite long, we visited entirely different locations than the 2005 Silk Road trip that I lead. In this trip, we retraced the steps of Marco Polo visiting historic places that he visited. We got a snails eye view of what it must of have been like for Marco Polo. Highlights include: camping in the desert, having tents blown down in the middle of the night by a wind storm. camel trekking though the desert, sledding down sand dunes, visiting the 1,000 Budda Grottos, visiting the Crescent Moon Lake Oasis, planting trees to help reclaim the desert, and taking in a local show that told the history/traditions of the area that incorporated lots of acrobatic feats.

Spain and France 2011

On this trip we took students who were learning Spanish or French in Shanghai to a variety of cities in Spain and France to learn the language and culture of these areas first hand. We visited: Paris, Versailles, Barcelona, Grenada, Cordoba and Madrid. Some of the high lights included visiting the Palace of Versailles, The Louvre, The Eiffel Tower, The Cathedral of Notre Dame, The Sagrada Familia en Barcelona, the Alhambra, The Mesquite in Cordoba and the Royal Palace in Spain. Of course students loved the cuisine and had a great time.

Dinosaur Dig 2010

I had an opportunity to team up with the top paleontologist in China as well as science teacher Pat Frerking to and lead students on a week long trip to find and excavate Dinosaur bones. We dug up a large Sauropod Dinosaur (the family of Brontosaurus) and we able to show students all the steps in excavation including searching, digging, plastering removal to a lab, detailed work in a lab and display in a museum. This was a treat for me to work with Dr. Wu a noted paleontologist. I learned as much or more than the students on this trip.

Spain 2009

On this trip Mrs. Whitehead and I took about 20 Spanish students to Spain to learn about the language and culture as well as sample the cuisine. We visited many places including Salamanca, La Mancha, Grenada, Cordoba, Madrid, Toledo. Highlights included watching a Real Madrid Soccer game, visiting the breath taking Alhambra and walking around in some really cool castles.

Egypt 2009

This was a trip of a lifetime. We took students to Egypt to study history. We visited so many iconic monuments is impossible to name all of them. I asked students what the most memorable thing that they saw here are some of the answers: The King Tut exhibit in the museum of Cairo, the Pyramids, camel riding the desert, climbing Mount Sinai, The Luxor temple, the valley of the Kings, fossil hunting and the Mohammad Ali Mosque. There were a lot of very memorable moments including getting delayed due to a Snow storm in Shanghai, traveling with a group of 80 people, and relaxing along the Red Sea. This trip packed in a lot.

Japan 2008

Mr. Mark Johnson and I lead a group of students to Hiroshima Japan and Nanjing China to study World War II as a watershed moment in the histories of these two countries. Highlights including listening to an atomic bomb survivor tell her story, visiting a Battleship museum and taking in a Japanese baseball game.

Trekking in the Himalayas 2006

I had the opportunity to lead students along with good friend David Gertz trekking in the Himalayas in China’s Yunnan province, (along the Tibetan border). It was a great experience to be surrounded by natural beauty. Highlights of the trip including visiting the Chinese town of Shangri La and hiking up to a glacier. For two nights we stayed in a guest house high in the mountains that did not have a road to get to it nor electricity. We told our students that instead of staying in a 4 or 5 star hotel as most of them are used to we stayed in a million star hotel as the stars are more vivid and bright in that location that I have seen any where else due to the lack of street lights, the high elevation and lack of air pollution.

Silk Road 2005

David Gertz and I had the opportunity to take a group of students along the historic Silk Road in China. We studied the history of the area as a cultural cross roads. We we able to discuss and learn religion from Islamic scholar, Tibetan Buddhist monks as well as share our own Christian faith.

Rock Climbing in in Yangshou with China Climb 2004

In 2004, I had the opportunity team up with Joel Klammer and Jody Barr to lead students to the a picturesque area in Southern China famous for oddly shaped hills (formed by Karst Topography). The students expienced a week of Rock climbing, Kayaking, hiking, Mountain biking, and cave exploring. Highlights included getting very muddy during cave explorations and jumping off a bridge into a River.

Backpacking along the Li River 2003

In 2003, I teamed up with teaching veteran Bill Rusch to take students on an academic backpacking trip along the Li River. We studied the life cycle of tea plants, Bamboo and rice plants, We studied Karst Topography which created unusual land formations. We visited many minority villages and learned about their cultures as well as exploring caves and learning about how the river had shaped the landscape.