“It was a blast!” says Campion Academy sophomore Janeline Kindangen after returning from a 5-day trip to Moab, Utah. She and the rest of the sophomore class traveled with biology teacher Cindy Santana on a field trip they’ll never forget.

The annual Moab trip brings all of Mrs. Santana’s classes together: earth science, biology, and world history. Students review the flora and fauna of the Moab desert during the long bus ride. Once there, they chart various plants for identification and then mount, identify, and describe one flowering plant of their choice for the Campion Herbarium, a collection of plants from the area. “We got to learn about plants, but we got to experience Moab, too,” adds Janeline.

Students view geological formations and learn about the development of arches in Arches National Park, and they see the history of the Ancestral Puebloans as they tour cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park.

Cindy Santana sees this trip as a chance to “connect the classroom learning with the real world. The textbook learning shouldn’t happen in a vacuum,” she says. In Moab, students achieved exactly that as they experienced God’s creation first hand.
 
After several days of camping, hiking, river rafting, and cliff jumping, the sophomores bonded with their class and had an unforgettable learning experience. Sophomore Damarys Nieto says cliff jumping in Mill Creek was her favorite part of the trip. She also liked hiking in Arches National Park. “It was a hard hike to see Delicate Arch, but it was worth it because the arch was really pretty,” she says.
 
Students from previous Moab trips still come back to Mrs. Santana and tell her they can never look at rocks and flowers the same way again. That’s what real-world learning does!
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photos: Alex Fazio and Cindy Santana

Mountain Church began several years ago when Cindy Santana, our biology teacher, decided Campion needed to make sure every student had the opportunity to see the grand vistas in the Rocky Mountains. Since then, we've used an outdoor amphitheater in the national park to have church and lunch, and then provided guided hikes and a bus trip to the Alpine Visitor Center on Trail Ridge Road at an elevation of over 12,000 ft.