On March 24 and 27, AP Environmental Science (APES) students went on the annual field trip to Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, one of Texas’ best known botanical gardens. There, students not only walked through the two hundred acres of native and foreign plants, but also learned new facts, both through watching and hands-on experience, about different species.

“I was actually really excited to go because I’ve never been there even though I’ve been living here for a really long time,” Ady Chi ‘18 said. “The best part of the field trip was probably learning the different names; I’ve never known there is such a variety of flowers and plants. It was really cool seeing how they have these displays from different areas of the world.”

The students met up early in Ms. Christine Mihealsick’s classroom, where they traveled as a group to the center. Once they arrived, the students were given a scavenger hunt assignment that expanded their studies on the various types of plant species. Ranging from counting the number of stairs in the observation tower, to finding the nearest restroom, the scavenger hunt had the students constantly moving in search for the next item on the paper.

“I think the field trip went well, but it did rain and [the center] was outside so that sucked,” Josh Duff ‘17 said. “But we didn’t have to go to the scavenger hunt because it started pouring, so we sat in the cafe and that was fun.”

Although the assignment kept the students busy, most took the time to explore areas and things not mentioned in the scavenger hunt. One particular area away from the main area was the Luci and Ian Family Garden, where a 4.5 acre garden was filled with unique sites, such as giant birds’ nests and tree stumps to climb on and around. A grotto with caves and a waterfall allowed students to admire a different viewpoint of nature, and the native shrub maze challenged students to think ahead before taking action.

“We all determined that the stumps were kind of hazardous, because they were hard to climb and there were a lot of splinters you could get really easily. We did go behind the waterfall, which was kind of interesting, but it was more geared to very little kids,” Jugal Amodwala ‘18 said. “I think my favorite part about the garden was that since it was during spring, all of the different pretty flowers were out.”