Setbacks, by Ayasia Hopkins. Click on the image for the full size.

On Thursday, October 27, 2005, students from the sixth-grade math classes at East Bronx Academy for the Future had the pleasure of taking a field trip to The Skyscraper Museum as part of their work with Salvador architect-educator Rafael Mejia and EBAFF teacher Mrs. Victoria Tsirkas and paraprofessional Mrs. Shaw.

For many of the students, going to the Museum was the first time they had left their neighborhood, and if nothing else, the bus trip opened up for them new vistas about the city in which they lived. All during the downtown journey, students had their faces pressed to the windows, the air punctuated with exclamations of “all right!” and “look! look!”. To hear it, one would have guessed the students thought they were on a cruise to some exotic locale rather than on an ordinary to the borough of Manhattan.

But whatever wonder and wow they felt on the way down easily got moved out of the way as they pulled up to the Museum and Mr. Matthew Pinto greeted them and led them inside for a tour.

Empire State Building, by Luis Barrientos. Click on the image for the full size.

One student thought the place was “cool”, and everyone appreciated the models of the skyscrapers, especially the one showing the new building going up at the site of the former World Trade Center.

And, being math students, they got to practice what they knew about measuring, observing detail, estimating, and shapes and structures. (To the right are some of the drawings created by the students of what they saw and thought about.)

King Kong, by Anthony Ruiz. Click on the image for the full size.

Afterwards, they went across the street to the Robert F. Wagner Park where they had a chance to soak some of the pleasant autumn afternoon as they ate their lunches. And then the bus pulled around, and off they went for the ride back uptown and the finish of a day of exploration and learning.

On their follow-up reports, the students all testified that they had had a great time and would recommend to their friends to go to the Museum, and many of them would even go back for a second look.

Students who attended: Luis Barrientos, Jismani Charmin, Margarie Cortéz, Tayron Dancey, Ayasia Hopkins, Daniel Luna, Chani Nelson, Aliya Onuoha, Adam Rivera, Junior Rodriguez, Anthony Ruiz, Kenneisha Watts, Daniel Williams,