Grade 4 - Soya, Antarctic Research Ship Field Trip

Today, Grade 4 took a field trip to visit the Soya, Japan's first Antarctic research ship, at the Museum of Maritime Science in Odaiba.  The students had an exciting time exploring the rooms and hallways of the ship and getting an idea about what it would be like to live and do research on a ship going to Antarctica in the 1950's.  The students also made connections between what they have been researching about exploration and navigation, such as in the entranceway to the museum was a giant compass rose and a large mural on the ceiling with different constellations that were used to help navigate in the maritime past.  After exploring and finding all the stamps for the "stamp rally", they got a great surprise prize, a Soya clear file, that they can use to help organize their papers in our class. On top of that, the students had fun making origami boats and sending them on as many journeys down the "river" in the park as possible before they were capsized and destroyed.  It was a great day seeing some real life tools used to explore our world!