Target Helps Send Sixth-Graders to Mitchell Park Domes

Sixth-grade teacher Cindy Reetz and about 100 students from will visit the the Mitchell Park Conservatory in Milwaukee on Friday with the help of the Target Field Trip Grant.

The grant is a program Reetz has applied for and won before, but the end result is still something new.

"We're excited," she said. "We've never gone to the (Mitchell Park) domes for a field trip."

Target launched its grant program in September 2006, and this year has given out 5,000 grants worth more than $4 million, according to a press release.

"With the nation's schools facing increasing budget shortages each year, field trips are often one of the first elements eliminated from the curriculum," the release said. "The Target Field Trip Grants Program ... (helps) fill this gap, so that teachers may continue using the valuable experiential learning gained from field trips to enhance students' classroom studies."

The school has already received the $700 grant won by Reetz, she said, and each student paid $4 for the bus trip as well as entrance into the domes.

The field trip fits well with the students' current science lessons, covering the six major biomes — tropical rainforest, desert, deciduous forest, taiga or boreal forest, tundra and grasslands.