Chagrin Falls High School Field Trip
The Chagrin Falls High School strives to encourage its students not only to perform well academically but to also apply their creativity to the school's large variety of art classes. Of the more popular art classes, digital photography and film photography both include a final exam field trip at the end of each semester in order to give the students the opportunity to showcase their mastery of the techniques taught to them through the duration of the class. This year, on April 30th, the students traveled to the Lake Metroparks Farmpark and Mentor Headlands Beach State Park to complete their final exam requirement and to learn about the history of the locations. After originally opening in 1953, the Mentor Headlands became an enormous tourist attraction, and due to its popularity, the park experienced numerous improvement projects over the years. At first glance, the park seemed quite dull and unappealing; however, as the students ventured farther away from the entrance, they realized that there was more to the park than they had originally expected. After visiting the park, one student declared, "At first, I thought we were just going to be taking pictures of waves and sticks, but it turned out to be one of the most exciting field trip locations I have ever been to. I would definitely go back!" In conclusion to the students' time at Mentor Headlands, the students had a brief picnic under the shade of the trees. Then, the class took the bus to the second location, Lake Farmpark, and after departing the bus, students were immediately greeted with the sights and sounds of a barnyard. Currently, the entire Farmpark is celebrating its 25th year of educating the younger generations on the origins of their food and on the differences involved in living on a farm compared to city-life. The Farmpark challenged the students to think of ways to differ their pictures from everyone else's. Overall, the students thoroughly enjoyed the experiences associated with both locations and will consider journeying back to them for future photography endeavors.