Throughout our school careers, school trips have always been a part of our memories. Many students went to local zoos and science centers for trips. This year, the STEM club made their dreams come true by going to Iceland. The trip was in the making for two years but was finally accomplished in early April.

The STEM club is led by Mr. Amen, a 9th-grade science teacher, and Brooke Alsante and Emily Parker, both juniors at Quakertown High School. The club is all about bringing together science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. For the past two years, we have been fundraising for our trip using bake sales and selling t-shirts/ hoodies. For the Iceland trip, we had 5 adults and 13 kids. We were accompanied by a very sweet Icelandic woman, Guony, as our tour guide for the entire trip. Our itinerary was packed with activities every day learning about the Icelandic culture and science that powers Iceland as a whole.

We traveled to the Capital of Iceland, Reykjavík. While at the capital we explored the Wonders of Iceland at the Perlan. Followed by breathtaking waterfalls, geysers, craters, black sand beaches, and underground lava caves. As well as going into the Blue Lagoon, one of the 25 wonders of the world. The lagoon is filled with silica—the lagoon’s iconic and most abundant element— and reflects visible light when suspended in water, giving it a murky blue color. The lagoon is heated by natural geothermal heat. On the last night, we stayed up from 9 pm to 2 am watching the Northern Lights. They are caused by collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun’s atmosphere. They often give off a greenish-yellow color but have been seen as light pink and purple. They are hard to see with your eyes but thankfully we brought professional cameras to capture the natural beauty.

The most memorable part of the trip was hiking Sólheimajökulll, one of Iceland’s many glaciers. Sólheimajökulll is located in the Southern region of Iceland and is eight kilometers long and two kilometers wide. Glaciers are large, perennial accumulations of crystalline ice, snow, rock, sediment, and water. Because of how large they are, they constantly move and leave beautiful formations behind. The hike was 2 hours long but the scenery was unforgettable.

Overall field trips are very beneficial to students. Field trips offer hands-on experiences, and new learning environments, and encourage independence while working with groups.