Monday:
In Quest humanities on Monday we watched a short film called Warrior Queen and discussed the connection between identity and culture. The film was about a woman from the Ashanti tribe, in West Africa, who did not want to give up to British Colonizers, and who was willing to fight for her freedom. Mr. Gornto helped produce this film, and it was shown at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Each one of us worked on an analysis 
of a book about Christopher Columbus that were aimed towards children. In the analysis, that we wrote, we discussed what could be left out in a children’s book about Columbus, how he was portrayed, and how the book made us feel about him.
In Quest science we finished a lab where we determined density. In this lab we compared the densities of four different materials: wax, aluminum, white plastic, and clear plastic. After the lab we decided that no matter how much of the material, the density will stay constant. Even though history, english, and science seemed more separated on Monday compared to other days, everything we did worked towards developing our skills in writing, and analyzing, which is part of the goals of Quest. – James
Tuesday:
In Quest Science today we did a lab on density with three liquids which were water, vegetable oil, rubbing alcohol. We let the experiments settle and saw which of the three were the densest. In Quest Humanities with Mr. Gornto today we had a self-directed work period. Some of this work consists of grammar, studying for a test the next period, and or read and annotate 20 pages in the book, “Brown Girl Dreaming”. In Quest Humanities with Mr. Greenberg gave us a geography quiz on of Central America and the Caribbean. After the quiz was completed we finished an assignment on analyzing information with a critical eye. – Nick
Wednesday:
In Quest Science today we took a quiz on density. Density is the mass of an object divided by the volume of that same object. We had been working with the property of density for the past week in science. After the quiz was finished, we talked about important African American inventors in a group of two, then shared important information to the whole class.
In Quest Humanities with Mr. Gornto today we reviewed over a 20-page grammar assignment in our grammar book. In addition, we checked and talked about logbook question 10, “Using the film Warrior Queen as a reference, please analyze how identity and tradition connect to culture. Then – what are some values you consider important to your personal, cultural narrative?” The Film “Warrior queen” was a film that Mr. Gornto helped produce and was going to be shown on Thursday at a Film Festival in Washington D.C. In Quest Humanities with Mr. Greenberg, we were given a 1,200 to 2,000-word essay which will be done right before Thanksgiving. We also talked about what we were going to do in Washington D.C. the following day. – Nick
Thursday:
Once we arrived in D.C., we went to the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. We saw three of the theaters, as well as many rooms filled with gifts from other countries. We also saw the president’s box and went up to the balcony and looked at the skyline of D.C. Then, we went to the National Mall and ate lunch outside.
After eating, we went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. We went through all the floors, from slavery, where we learned about how the slaves were treated, and about the transportation of slaves from one place to another, and the Civil War all the way to the top floors where we found celebration of famous people and amazing accomplishments throughout African American history. 
We also saw things like the lynchings and the funeral of Emmett Till, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement, where we saw everything from the peaceful protests of MLK to the black power ways of Malcolm X. We finished the visit with a brief reflection in the contemplation court and even went to the gift shop. We also each searched for people or events that would serve as topics for our upcoming research project.
We then took the buses to look at the White House, and were able to take photos. After, we went to eat dinner at Bolt Burgers. Once we finished eating, we went on a moonlight tour of the Vietnam War memorial, Korean War memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. At the Lincoln memorial, we saw a passage engraved in the wall where the carver had messed up a letter in the word future, and then tried to fix it. 
At the Korean War Memorial, we saw the German Shepherd carved on the wall, and the wall that says, “Freedom is not Free.” This quote is very meaningful, and really captures the essence of the conflict. At the Vietnam War memorial, we learned that the diamonds mean that the person was confirmed dead, the crosses mean missing in action (MIA), and the crosses that were drilled into means the person was missing, but was then found, dead or alive. Then we finally hopped back on the bus, and headed to the hotel, where we were told our rooms, given our key cards, and went to bed. – Maggie
Friday:
Friday morning we woke up, packed up our stuff, ate breakfast, got our bags, and hopped on the buses. From there we went to the Jefferson Memorial. At the memorial, we got to look around by ourselves, enjoy the beautiful view of the river, and some of us chased a seagull. Next stop was the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial. This memorial was separated into his four terms of office. We started at his fourth term, and walked through it backwards. In each room there were statues and gorgeous waterfalls. After the FDR memorial we walked to the Martin Luther King Junior Memorial. At this memorial, Martin Luther King was carved out of the stone of hope, and was looking out over the river in the direction of the Jefferson Memorial. Fourteen of his most famous quotes were carved on two walls behind the statue. We each memorized one. When we finished at the MLK memorial we got on the buses and ate lunch on the National Mall’s lawn. After eating we walked up Capital Hill. In the Capitol Building we saw the rotunda, and the spectacular carvings on the inside of the building. We learned that each state gets two statues in the capitol building, and once they choose them, they can replace them. Once our tour of the Capitol Building was over we visited the gift shop. Then we got on the buses to go home. It was a great trip!- James
