For the past two years, groups of students at East Lyme Middle School have collaborated on research projects, exploring the environment and energy as a global issue, with students from China.
The students used Skype and an online platform to communicate with their counterparts in time zones with a 12-hour difference.
This year, a group of East Lyme students will have the opportunity to meet the Chinese students face to face.
Fifteen East Lyme students, accompanied by parent chaperones, three teachers, and their principal, will visit their “sister school” in Guangzhou, China, and also tour Beijing during a trip from Oct. 27 to Nov. 4.
The field trip to China comes as East Lyme’s high school and middle school have been partnering over the last several years with Xiang Jiang Secondary School in Guangzhou under an agreement facilitated by SPIRAL International.
The students will first travel by plane to Beijing. They’re scheduled to visit the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Summer Palace. They’ll even hike part of the Great Wall.
“It’s an experience they will never forget — ever,” said East Lyme Middle School Principal Judy DeLeeuw.
After Beijing, the students will take a plane to Guangzhou in southeastern China, where they will spend time at Xiang Jiang Secondary School. They’ll take classes in Mandarin and writing Chinese characters, play badminton, and participate in morning exercises.
In addition, students from East Lyme and Guangzhou will together work on a research project on the stock market. The project, aligned with the Common Core State Standards, involves writing, reading, math, and information technology, said DeLeeuw.
DeLeeuw said the students will remember the experience for their entire lives, from the history and the culture to the food and the 13-hour plane ride to Beijing and the 16-hour plane ride back from Guangzhou to the United States.
Article published July 31, 2016 in The Day (see http://www.theday.com/article/20160731/NWS01/160739899 for complete version).