Kids Discover the Trail! Ithaca (KDT! Ithaca) provides all ICSD elementary students the opportunity to enhance their learning through curriculum-based field experiences along the Discovery Trail in Tompkins County.
Kids Discover the Trail! Ithaca began in 2004 through a collaboration between the Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI), the Discovery Trail, and the ICSD to enhance student learning through experience-based programs and help students find connections between art, history, literature, science, and the natural world.
Every spring, each elementary grade level is linked to one of the eight organizations on the Discovery Trail:
- Pre-K: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell
- K: Tompkins County Public Library
- 1st grade: Museum of the Earth at PRI
- 2nd grade: Sciencenter
- 3rd grade: Cornell Botanic Gardens
- 4th grade: The History Center in Tompkins County (Eight Square Schoolhouse)
- 5th grade: Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Cayuga Nature Center
Educators at the Discovery Trail organizations work with teachers to develop pre- and post-trip classroom activities to help connect student learning to the resources and experiences at the sites. Students also receive a content-specific book to take home, along with a pass so they can return to the site with their families free of charge.
In addition to the educational programming, Kids Discover the Trail! Ithaca also offers a social component. To promote understanding and respect among elementary students from different neighborhoods, pairs of classrooms from different elementary schools are linked, and most visit their Discovery Trail sites together.
Joseph Volpe, Belle Sherman Elementary educator and Kids Discover the Trail Liaison, emphasized the importance of the peer and community connections KDT! Ithaca offers.
“Providing all pre-K-5th grade students in our district with the opportunity to take their learning into our community and alongside a peer from a different neighborhood is not only inspiring,” Volpe said, “but, given the past few years, perhaps more important now than ever.”
To learn more about KDT! Ithaca, visit ipei.org/kdt-ithaca.
2023 Trip Photos
Pre-K Trip to the Johnson Museum of Art
Kindergarten Trip to the Tompkins County Public Library
1st-Grade Trip to the Museum of the Earth
2nd-Grade Trip to the Sciencenter
3rd-Grade Trip to the Cornell Botanic Gardens
4th-Grade Trip to the Eight Square Schoolhouse
5th-Grade Trip to the Cayuga Nature Center
5th-Grade Trip to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology