Biology Sheds Its Classroom for Sea Lions, Dolphins, and Whales

As people were getting warm and cozy by the fire around Christmas, Mrs. Herche’s Biology 2 class was outside, braving the cold to travel to Chicago to visit the world-famous Shedd Aquarium, the third largest aquarium in the western hemisphere. Here, Biology 2 students had the chance to see more than 1,500 species of animals in 5 million gallons of water. Students saw, and learned in person about, sharks and shark rays, clownfish and jellyfish, seahorses and sea lions, penguins and otters, dolphins and beluga whales.

It all started with an idea — an idea for a field trip for the Spanish 3 class. Maestra wanted to take the juniors on a trip to the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. To have an ally in the whole process, she enlisted the help of biology teacher Mrs. Herche. Mrs. Herche said, “Maestra gave me the courage to try a field trip. I chose Shedd Aquarium because it would work well with what we were studying. I knew that we would be studying fish and that fish would be something we dissected in class.”

The students were the opposite of uninterested. They were happy to hear about the learning trip. “I was really excited and really interested in what that would mean for our class,” junior Liza Carder said. Fellow junior Jack Dalbey was especially intrigued by the idea of putting his Spanish and biology class together. He said, “I like biology, and I like Spanish, and I was excited to see those classes have a trip together. Just to have the whole grade come together, I knew that would be a lot of fun.”

On the day of the trip, students were up bright and early to arrive at Judah at 6:15 am. Some were ready to go and some were ready to go back to bed, but all were set to embark on their first field trip in a while. Liza said, “I really hadn’t ever had the opportunity to leave school to learn with my entire class. I thought it was just a really cool and interesting opportunity to learn in a real-world setting.” The excitement built on the bus ride there. Jack said, “It was a pretty chill drive. We had fun conversations all the way there, and we got to sing Christmas carols.” Jack, while saying this, could hardly hide his smile.

The traveling juniors arrived at the aquarium in the afternoon, after the Spanish visit to the art museum. A bingo sheet offered by Mrs. Herche helped to keep engagement during the aquarium learning time, as students answered the questions asked on the tanks in every section of the water wonderland. The trip ended with a stop at the gift shop, where people bought a decent amount of aquarium-themed plushies and other aquatic apparel. 

When asked which aquatic creatures they most enjoyed seeing and learning about, juniors gave various answers. Kisandra Fazio said, “I would say the beluga whale, because it is an animal you can easily see only at the aquarium. Seeing it up close was interesting.” Ali McGuffin, supporting Team Beluga, said, “My favorite animals were either the sea lions or the beluga whales. They were the most active.”

Everyone had fun, but the main part of this trip was not the interesting sights at either the art museum or the Shedd Aquarium, nor the whopping four food stops — what Mrs. Herche called “eating all day long.” It was the unification of the junior class.

Jack said, “I liked the aspect of getting up early and just spending the day together. I love trips like that, where we’re able to bond and get closer as a class.” Liza, reminiscing on the break from frantic school life, said, “Instead of having to worry about tests and homework, it was a casual and bonding way for us to hang out with each other.”

For her part, Mrs. Herche said, “I would love to do it annually.” So look for Judah’s biology students to be back on the road again, learning about animals, plants, and everything in between. With Judah classes going mobile, the sky’s the limit (learning about birds?) for Biology 2.

—Michael Oshimokun, class of ’26