Recently, the junior class had the opportunity to enjoy a different kind of learning environment with a visit to the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, on Oct. 3. The trip has been consistently taking place for the last four years.

“The reason we go is because the museum here in Kansas City is the National WWI museum, and it’s like the Smithsonian level museum for the whole country,” explained U.S history teacher Lynn Hoffman, who organized the entire event. “It’s unique because after WWI, the citizens of Kansas City donated all of their own money and time to build this great monument to all the people that were lost in the Great War, as it was known to them.”

The museum also gains attraction from being notorious for having nearly all of its artifacts been used in the actual war.

“It’s also different because it is a really high level museum that has actual things that were used in the war, and it [WWI] was a war that occurred far away, so it’s unique that it’s all the way here in the middle of the country,” Hoffman said.

While just seeing the museum is an experience in and of itself, it also has major educational values for the visiting students.

“As far as its educational relevance, it’s being able to put a face with a name and understand how big the crater actually would be, which we saw in the museum, some of the different machinery and even some things as brutal as the gas masks, knives and the harsh realities of war,” Hoffman said. “We can say it all day in class, but until you see maybe you might appreciate the intensity of it.”

For junior Corinne Daise, seeing in person what she has heard about in class was the most interesting part of the visit.

“The best part was seeing all of the artifacts and knowing that the stuff they had was all real and had been used by a real person in the war. Normally a lot of the stuff in museums are recreated, so knowing it was all real and getting to see it in person was really cool,” Daise said.

Seeing all of these real artifacts also helped advance her understanding of the war from what she had previously learned.

“I definitely learned more than I knew before, and I got to learn it from a different perspective than I thought I would. It was a really different and more hands-on way of learning because I got to witness what actually happened,” Daise said.

According to Hoffman, many students feel the same as Daise when reflecting on their trip to the memorial.

“Every year there are a lot of students that vocalize their enjoyment of the museum and I know some students that appreciate it and don’t maybe say it, or they don’t realize it until a little bit later,” Hoffman said. “If nothing else, I think they just appreciate getting out of school and getting a chance to see something different and getting to go out with their friends and experience something as a whole junior class.”