The World War I field trip is the most immersive event in the World History class. Every February, students go to the extraordinary World War I museum here in Kansas City. The information-packed field trip makes learning about World War I more interactive and gives students a break from sitting in the classroom.
“It gives you a solid overview and prerequisite to what we learned in class. Mrs. Guldin has perfected it, but I wish each group had a specific task to do, like to write something interesting at the very end,” said Haddie Schedler (‘25).
Mrs. Guldin does a great job bringing a human connection back to the lesson; it is easy to forget about the real people impacted by the war when learning about it through lectures. The trip to the museum helps students have a deeper understanding of the struggles everyone faced during the war.
“I really enjoyed the museum. I thought the exhibits were super cool, especially all the artifacts they had, there were all kinds of weapons. Cool tanks,” Jackson Williams (‘25) agreed.
The trip took up an entire day, and students completed a scavenger hunt-type activity where they had to find answers to a questionnaire in the museum’s exhibits. Students broke up into groups and collectively answered the questions given to them. This activity breaks up the monotony of lectures and lets students have an opportunity to learn outside the classroom.
But the activity can become too rigid and not let students explore the entirety of the museum. The field trip can highlight the key details but can also limit students because of the parameters set.
“It felt like we didn’t get to experience the museum because we were focused on looking for certain things in the exhibits which I understand why,” said Schedler. “It definitely helped point me to important things, but I still wish we got to focus on different things that interested us, make it more personalized.”
The Museum highlights all aspects of the war, not just the battles, but everyone and everything involved in it. A few of the newer exhibits discuss what prisoners of war went through, how prosthetics changed lives, and an immersive tour of the trenches. There are also a few online exhibits such as the War Fare one, which explores the food situation in the war and even provides images from a cookbook from the time.
These exhibits are refreshing since whenever students learn about wars, especially World War I, it always seems to be focused on the battles and can overlook how wars affected the entire population in all aspects of everyday life. World War I was seen as the first ‘total’ war, where combat affected both civilians and soldiers. Thus, discussing the damage civilians faced is also important when studying World War I. The museum certainly accomplishes this important learning objective.
