Every two years, CVA raises funds and takes a group of students to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama! This amazing experience includes shuttle simulations, astronaut simulators, and rocket building. This "Pathfinder" program is open to students in Grades 4-8. Next launch date: Spring 2020!

   

Every year, our Grade 8 students have the opportunity to go to Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center. Students participate in a ropes course, team building activities and environmental education in a beautiful wooded setting in southern Minnesota. The always-popular Spaghetti Dinner and Silent Auction in January helps pay for the experience, and our parent and teacher chaperones are always as excited as the kids when the event finally arrives!

   

Sure, the Minnesota Zoo holds a math day, but CVA has its own special version! We go as a group on a different day (to avoid the crowds) but still spend the day enjoying the animals, the environments, and the math education. In addition to the change of scenery and approach to learning, a visit to the IMAX Theater is often cited as a highlight. 

Even if you've never been there, the sites are already familiar! The Capitol Building, the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Library of Congress, and many more landmarks and museums house the workings of our federal government, artifacts of history, and tributes to the U.S., its peoples, its freedoms and its challenges. See true pieces of history, like the top hat Lincoln wore to Ford's Theater the night he was assassinated, an actual Mercury space capsule, even Dorothy's ruby slippers. There is definitely something for everyone on this trip! This trip is offered every two years, alternating with the Space Camp trip. Next trip: Spring 2019!