Elcho students travel to Milwaukee
By: Feya Waddington
Edited by: Ella Hamilton
On Thursday, December 8 students from Elcho High School made a four hour long venture to Milwaukee to attend a performance of A Christmas Carol at the historic Pabst Theater and to browse the exhibits of the Milwaukee Public Museum.
The play was based on Charels Dickens’ famed novella from 1843. The special effects were well thought out and placed throughout the show, and the center stage piece on multiple moving platforms was a wonderful technical part of the play. The costumes were impressively made and time period accurate, and audience interaction was a highlight.
After A Christmas Carol, students bussed to the Milwaukee Public Museum. They started from the third floor; which housed exhibits of Latin America, Africa, the Arctic, Asia, the Oceans, Pacific Islands, Pre-Columbian America (Mezzanine), and the Crossroads of Civilization. The second floor consisted of the history of Native American culture across Wisconsin, as well as animals that call Wisconsin home. This includes: A Tribute to Survival (in which Mr. Bernhagen excitedly showed students a secret button that makes a snake in the exhibit rattle), Wisconsin Woodlands, North America, Wisconsin Archaeology: Pieces of the Puzzle, and Native Games.
The first floor has a large exhibit called Streets of Old Milwaukee, which allows you to walk through the town of Milwaukee in the 20th century. You can look inside buildings and listen to conversations by figures inside, and the Streets eventually melt into the next exhibit: the European Village. This quaint village has homes from all different cultures getting ready for the holidays. In the town square, there’s an upside-down Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling. It’s rumored to be a tradition began by a monk named Boniface in 7th century Poland. It’s said to represent the Holy Trinity, but some say it represents the crucifixion. On the first floor there are six other exhibits: A Sense of Wonder, Exploring Life on Earth, the Jack Puelicher Butterfly Garden, the Puelicher Butterfly Wing, Bugs Alive! Insects and Their Relatives, The Third Planet: Earth, and the Rainforest. The ground floor has a café and some places to eat, but there’s also the Daniel M. Soref Planetarium and Dome Theater, and a cast of the complete mammoth skeleton that was found less than thirty miles away from the Milwaukee Public Museum.
I spoke with some students that attended the field trip about their overall experience and opinion on it. Elcho senior Ella Hamilton said “I thought it was really cool. I thought the play was really well done and fun, and I thought the museum was interesting. I hope we can do it again.”
Elcho senior Emily Moore said “I had a very fun time, it was very educational, and it was very fun.”
Elcho senior Kailey Kupfer said “I thought it was a great field trip idea, I enjoyed myself a lot, and I think it should be an annual field trip the school should put on.”
Elcho freshman Ava Magee said “It was fun, and it was a great learning experience filled with friends.”
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