Forest Students Travel South over Spring Break

Students and teachers at the Forest Area School District have been working all year on a special program called the Coastal North Carolina Immersive Experience. The program was designed to combat learning loss that many students had during the pandemic years. It was open to any student grades 9-12 and it was funded entirely by a grant, with no cost to the District or the families. Throughout the entire school year, the students who chose to participate had to complete three projects, including a 5 page research paper about the Roanoke colony, a slideshow highlighting 9 historical sites, and a craft project featuring a physical model from one of the topics. They also had to attend three after-school learning sessions, complete some additional writing assignments, and participate in discussion groups and work sessions.

The trip took place from Monday, April 10 until Friday, April 14. Some of the highlights were: The Wright Brothers Museum, the Lost Colony at Roanoke, the lighthouses at Currituck, Cape Hatteras and Bodie Island, the North Carolina Aquarium, Fort Raleigh, the state park at Jockey’s Ridge and Jennette’s Pier. In between all the learning experiences, they managed to fit in some lighter activities like mini-golf, ice cream, time at the beach, and fishing off the pier. Many of the students had first-time experiences with seafood, a hibachi grill lunch, watching the dawn break over the ocean, flying kites, and searching for shells and other creatures in the sand.

The students are shown here at the site of the original Roanoke Colony at modern day Fort Raleigh: (from left) Macalie Hoffmann, Izzy Flick, Christian Steigerwald, Esther Forker, Logan Niederriter, Jonah Glass, Leah Wagner, Colter Bayle, Nautica Sharp, Ryah McWilliams, Nate Dietrich, Jeffrey Bayle, Colton Kuntz, Olivia Thompson, Jessica Culver, Jordon Kostenbauder, Katie Salsgiver, Megan Clow and Ayla Reese. They were accompanied by their teachers: Mrs. Lisa Banner, Mr. John Wortman, Mr. Ernie Hartwig and Ms. Julie Aaron.