field trips

When Nina Corley, a high school history teacher in Galveston, Texas, prepares her students for a field trip, more often than not these days she sets up a large monitor in the front of her classroom and dials in to a live broadcast that is brought directly to the screen.

For Bob Carson, professor of geology and environmental studies at Whitman College, the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 was a chance to teach and learn from witnessing an active volcano in the backyard of his own state. Carson shared that knowledge Wednesday at the Walla Walla Public Library, where the children's section became a virtual classroom.