Ute Perkins Students Take Field Trip To Shark Reef

By MAGGIE MCMURRAY

Moapa Valley Progress

Perkins students (seated l to r) Priseis Ryder, Brylin Eastman and Seth Leavitt get their picture with a diver during a field trip at the Shark Reef aquarium at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

It is not often you can interact with sharks in the desert. But that is exactly what happened recently to one local school group.
The Ute Perkins Elementary School kindergarten and first grade classes got to experience sharks up close and personal on Wednesday, October 23, when they took a field trip to Mandalay Bay Shark Reef Aquarium.

This was an expensive field trip and normally out of the range of most classrooms, especially for younger kids. But Perkins kindergarten teacher Cheryl Sobrio really wanted her students to have this experience. So in August she entered them in a Mandalay Bay drawing for a free field trip. The date for the announcement of the winners came and went and Sobrio was disappointed because she didn’t get a call.

“I contacted Mandalay Bay in August and gave them all of our school information, but then I never heard from them so I assumed we did not win,” Sobrio said. “Then, about three weeks ago I got a call from the aquarium asking me if I was still interested!”
There had been a cancellation. So they offered the spot to Sobrio’s class.

But there was a catch. She still needed to raise $400 to pay for the bus to transport the students.
“I sent out a text to all the parents,” Sobrio said. “Within 20 minutes I had the money.”

That money came from generous donations from Nevada politicians. Someone had contacted Assemblyman James Oscarson who was more than happy to donate $200 towards the buses. A few minutes later Senator Pete Goicoechea also donated the other $200. And, just like that, the group was ready to go.

Sobrio explained that the kindergarten and first grade classes won’t actually study their unit on ocean life until March. But she was excited because of the huge opportunity this trip gave her kids.
“When we get to our ocean unit the kids will be able to reflect back on this trip and remember the hands on activities that they got to do,” she said.

The field trip had the kids engrossed in marine life from the moment they stepped off the bus., Sobrio said.

The aquarium staff started off the tour with a bang: immersing the kids in a rainforest setting complete with alligators, piranhas, and giant fish. The kids also got lessons about all the marine life they were viewing along the way.

The staff taught in an interactive way that included the students in the lessons. For example, when they were looking at the lizard exhibit, the staff had the kids help them locate the lizards by having a lizard hunt.

After the rainforest, the kids went to the ocean touch room where they got to actually touch rays, horseshoe crabs and other marine life.
From there they went on to what everyone was waiting for: the sharks. At first the kids looked at the sharks and sea turtles swimming over their heads and all around them in the shark tunnel and were thrilled. But then several divers entered the pool and began interacting with kids, making them laugh, showing them neat things, and posing for pictures with them.
“I loved the sharks!” said kindergartner Aidyn McClean, 5.

His classmate, Anthony Salvato, also 5, had a different favorite, though. “It was so awesome because I got to touch a stingray for the first time!” he said.
“I just really want to thank Assemblyman Oscarson and Senator Goicoechea and the staff of Mandalay Bay for being so kind,” Sobrio said. “I don’t know how many schools get to go in this program, but we were so lucky to be chosen.”

Ute Perkins Students Take Field Trip To Shark Reef