During the 2002-2003 school year, we successfully implemented "Signature Field Trips." The intent is to have one meaningful, longer, and memorable field trip for each grade, each year. The trip will hopefully become a "rally" or focal point for each grade and for each group of students. Though probably correlated to various aspects of the curriculum, the focus of the trips would not be solely academic, but instead would also serve to build the class and school community. We hope that these experiences will become a traditional part of the school year, and as such, successful trips would hopefully be run for many years.

Currently, the 8th grade has such an experience in the two-night Assateague trip, which occurs every year in October. The trip culminates the classroom work for the first month and a half of school in both science and English. The students present their research and experience in an evening performance, which typically occurs about two weeks after the trip. Each May, the 7th grade spends two nights and three days exploring the Gettysburg battlefield, culminating their study of the Civil War. The 6th grade is planning a spring overnight trip to southern Maryland as part of a Chesapeake Bay Project. They will study the environment and natural history of the Bay as well as the history of the Chesapeake Bay region both before and after European settlement.