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“If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six …”
– Route 66, composed by Bobby Troup, 1946
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Seventy-one years after this famous tune was penned, Robberson Community School students got their kicks on Route 66 motoring west from Springfield to Carthage.
I-spy checklists in hand, the kids identified remnants of the past as they eagerly peered outside bus windows. Eventually ending at Red Oak II – the 100-year-old recreated town, brainchild of Missouri artist Lowell Davis – the kids got to experience what life was like at a simpler time in American history. This was just one of several learning encounters devoted to the Mother Road during two weeks of intensive unit study during a unique purpose-driven learning time called IExperience.
Formerly referred to as intersession, these two-week blocks of time that occur three times a year, have independent themes that allow a change in tempo and focus from the normal classroom schedule.
“It was a natural fit,” Dr. Kevin Huffman, Robberson’s principal said of the October IExpereince learning theme, “Our school sits right on Route 66, Springfield is its birthplace, and it offered many directions for our teachers to go with designing their lesson plans.”
Students gained an appreciation and understanding of Rt. 66 and the era of its heyday with multi-sensory activities both inside and outside of the classroom, including STEAM projects like designing period cars from makerspace materials propelled by inflated balloons and drafting maps of Route 66 with landmarks that were studied during class time.
In addition to the Red Oak II field trip, students also traveled to Springfield Skateland and the Discovery Center where America’s Road: The Journey of Route 66 was on exhibit.
The Springfield School District provided café style lunches served in baskets with checkered paper. Aaron Sachs & Associates, along with the Springfield Cardinals, provided T-shirts.