KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

The leadership at Tullahoma City Schools received a surprise Monday morning thanks to Hands-On Science Center.

Prior to its meeting, TCS leadership met at the Hands-On Science Center Monday, Dec. 11, to hear a presentation from Executive Director Sean Amidon.

He said when he first join the science center he noticed that they received a lot of field trip visits from various schools, however saw little to no field trips from any schools in the Tullahoma school district.

“Dr. Stephens and I had a couple of meetings and we’re trying to figure that out together,” Amidon said. “I know she talked to a lot of you and the major feedback was, ‘Why would we come to the Hands-On Science Center? We can go on a field trip where we can go somewhere far away or the kids have already been.”

He added another reason the science center doesn’t see many field trips was due to the majority of the trips take place at the end of the school year and the schools want to take students somewhere else as an award for all of their work. Amidon said while he wants the science center to be a field trip resource his vision is for the field trips to be tied in with the schools’ curriculum, and have every student come to the science center as part of their lessons.

“Something we’re doing wrong is not being a good resource for you all, so I am trying to correct that and figure that out.”

Amidon then went over the steps that are currently being worked on, including designing a new website. He informed attendees that a misconception he’s noticed is the science center’s business hours. He clarified that HOSC’s business hours for Friday through Sunday is for general admission, as Monday through Thursday is reserved for field trips. He then presented the different tiers of field trips and a sample of subjects that the schools could tie in to their curriculum.

Amidon shared his second vision is to be able to create and provide lesson plans for every exhibit at the science center. He noted that teachers are already busy with their normal schedules and coming up with plans, but the idea would be to have a database of resources curated locally.

Amidon then presented three surprises to the TCS leadership. The first surprise was for the rest of the current school year and all of the 2024-2025 school year the science center will be offering 95 cent basic field trip packages for all of Tullahoma City Schools. Amidon said the price of 95 cents comes from the year 1995 when the science center was built in Tullahoma. He stated that the exception was for this upcoming April and May due to being packed by outside school districts.

“The point of this is try to encourage you guys not to have an award based field trip. We want a curriculum based field trip, so it won’t be valid for summer, April and May,” Amidon said. “Beyond that, we want to work with you guys.”

He then asked the leadership to have their teachers to come by the science center for a day to go around and look at the exhibits, and give feedback on what the science center needs to have for that class’ curriculum.

“We need you guys to tell us what you need,” he said.

Amidon continued and said while the 95 cent field trips help, with over 3,500 TCS students the cost will still add up, so he presented his second surprise. He said the science center recently held its holiday cocktail party fundraising event, where HOSC was selling certificates for free field trips for children. He said he was originally hoping to sell a couple, but ended up selling out on the certificates, which amounted to 2,500 children being able to receive a free field trip to the science center.

“Thanks to the people who attended the cocktail party I believe that should cover all elementary and middle school for their first field trip 100% free,” Amidon said.

He asked for the certificates he wants to get every single student at the science center, as they want to have grades K through 5 and middle school students. He added they are working on other ways to try to get high school students to come to the science center as well.

The final surprise Amidon presented was HOSC will be hosting a reception on May 7 for National Teacher Appreciation Day, and all TCS teacher will have free admission as well as raising funds for expenses for TCS teachers and staff. 

After the presentation, Amidon addressed questions from leadership with topics ranging the science center’s capacity, details on the new Director Education and Operations position, details on the field trip tiers and limitations on live animals, which Amidon said they had to make the decision to rehome all of their remaining animals except for their aquatic section due to the size of the current staff.

After questions, TCS Director of Schools Dr. Catherine Stephens asked the leadership to walk around and to give feedback.

“I cannot thank the Hands-On-Science Center for the recent gift provided to TCS during today’s meeting at HOSC,” Stephens said in a statement. “Free and discounted admission for the basic field trip package will allow our students to take a local field trip to explore exhibits connected to classroom lessons and academic standards. We value our local partners who help enhance learning opportunities for our students. Thanks to Executive Director Sean Amidon, HOSC staff and the Tullahoma community for this amazing gift.”