It is 8:30 a.m. and members of the junior class pile into buses. One bus following another pull out of the school parking lot, all in route to one destination for one specific purpose.

Physics students took a field trip to Palo Duro Canyon Nov. 13- 14. While on the trip, students participated in a variety of lab experiments and had the opportunity to zip line across the canyon. The zip line was a quarter of a mile long, 469 feet high and took one and a half minutes to reach the end.

After zip lining,  students participated in a variety of physics labs. The labs, located in a small area behind the zip shack, gave students the opportunity to practice measuring things such as speed, weight and the effects of gravity. In the dart gun lab, students shot dart guns and measured how fast the darts fell to the ground. The mini zip line lab, students measured the weight and acceleration at which a person a person speeds down the line. In the long gun/ short gun lab, students shot ping pong balls from different sized guns and measured how far and how fast the ball would go.

Students ate lunch in the canyon and returned to the school around 2:30 p.m.

“The field trip was a fun experience,” junior Jamie Birkenfeld said. “I liked learning how we could use what we learned in class and apply it to real life.”