Programs and Activities

8th Grade East Coast Expedition
7th Grade Yosemite Trip
6th Grade Camp

East Coast Expedition

The East Coast Expedition has a track record of over twenty years of successful trips. World Expeditions is Muirlands Middle School's partner in arranging the week-long expedition and its owner, Steve Ewalt, has helped make the trip possible for many years. The trip is open on a space available basis to all eighth grade students who meet the academic and citizenship requirements and fulfill all pre-departure obligations. We have been proud to offer a successful scholarship program while at the same time holding the cost of the trip to a reasonable level. This is an academic expedition with a strong emphasis on the integration of the United States history curriculum. Students visit many of the sites that they have studied in their history and English classes and will be taught by Muirlands teachers and experienced guides along the way. Accommodations, transportation, entrance fees, and most meals are included in the tour. The Expedition is considered by most students to be the highlight of their eighth grade year, if not their entire experience at Muirlands Middle School.

2006 Expedition

TBA

Get Acrobat Reader

Back to Top

Yosemite Trip: A Natural Outdoor Laboratory and Classroom

Educational Goals: To learn about the...

  1. geography of Yosemite Valley
  2. plants and animals of Yosemite Valley
  3. early to modern time inhabitants of Yosemite Valley
  4. environmental impacts of Yosemite

Students will participate in three hikes in and around Yosemite Valley and another day of hiking outside the valley in the forest area know as Crane Flat, which will take them to a grove of Giant Sequoias. All students will hike between four to eleven miles a day, depending on their destination, so one requirement for the trip is that the student be in good physical condition. All hikes take place no matter what the weather is. Some hikes will be on the valley floor while others will have an elevation gain between one thousand and three thousand two hundred feet.

Our students spend four nights in Yosemite Valley at Curry Village and one night at Crane Flat. Breakfast and dinner are served in the cafeteria at the campsite. Lunch is eaten on the trail. All students stay in a vinyl-covered and wood-framed tent cabins during their stay in Curry Village. At Crane Flat the students are housed for one night in two large wood cabins.

Typical Day Program:

6:00Wake Up
7:00Breakfast
8:30Meet in hiking groups and begin hikes
4:00Return to Curry Village
5:30Dinner
8:00Meet for night program
9:00Get ready for bed
9:30In tent cabins/lights out
10:00Quiet Time

Day Hikes:

Monday:
Hike along valley floor to Mirror Lake, visitor center, pioneer cemetery, or lower Yosemite Falls, and crawl through Spider Caves.
Tuesday:
Hike to the top of Vernal and Nevada Falls.
Wednesday:
Hike to the top of either Yosemite Falls or Glacier Point.
Thursday:
Hike to a sequoia grove near Crane Flat.

Back to Top

Sixth Grade Camp

Sixth Grade Camp is the first taste of real middle school advantages. The students in Sixth Grade take off for a week at Julian. There they get in touch with nature and also meet students from other schools that attend camp there the same week. The students stay in six different cabins, three for the boys, three for the girls. They go on hikes, take courses which teach them about different plants and animals that inhabit the camp at which they are staying.

More information at Camp Palomar Website.

Back to Top
Go To Top
San Diego City Schools
2006 Muirlands Middle School