Field Trip to the Waterfront

Mapping & Meeting
at the Waterfront 

We set out as two groups taking two different routes to arrive at a common destination: the Georgetown Waterfront.

But how do we get there? 

The Mapping Group:
Audrey, C.C., Reed, Sylvie

We began by discussing what we would be doing and how we would be doing on the walk to our destination. ​Where are we going? "The bridge," said Sylvie. "To Cedar in Kenya," said Reed, only to moments after exclaim, "Cedar's not in Kenya!" 

Before we left, we marked St. Johns on our map as the origin for our navigation route.

After we established a marker for St. John's, we decided we would take turns drawing our directional lines, which would eventually illustrate the way we went to reach the Waterfront. "Purple dog can go, then me, then Reed, then C.C., then Sylvie," Audrey said, suggesting an order for our turn taking. So we went with it, and with that we were ready to depart and embark on our journey!

Do you want to go that way (we point to Potomac heading south) or that way (we point to O Street heading west)?

Potomac Avenue or O street?

Purple Dog's line (Head west on O street)

---

​Audrey's line
(Her line mimics Purple Dog's line, to include our 1st  change in direction to  34th street.)

There was some disagreement about whether to turn left on 33rd St. or to continue in the same direction on O St. We eventually determined to stay the course on O Street, knowing we'd have to choose left sooner than later. 

Reed's line (Follow the ONE WAY arrow - turn left and head east)

Tension was building with which way to go. We saw the arrow and addressed it. It points that way and the words read: ONE WAY. Reed drew our line. However, not everyone agreed. Sylvie had thoughts and opinions about continuing in our same direction. "We can go from that and then we can turn. Then we can go from that and we can turn to that way. And then we can go and then we can kept and then we can go on the bridge," Sylvie said. C.C and Audrey shared some partial agreement with Sylvie, and while it was a reasonable direction to take, we decided it was best to honor Reed's directional line on our route map. But first we took a closer look at the direction Sylvie proposed and crossed over the alley path, before walking along it, and looked at our view by the bridge. "Maybe another day," Sylie said. This was a great resolution. 

Which way? Maybe the horses don't know which direction to go either. 

C.C.'s line (at the end of the alley, turn right and head south)

As followed our directional course according to the line C.C. had drawn we discovered it led to the same spot that we stopped to observe a canal bridge and have snack, on our previous field trip. Remember this bridge? 

Are we going up the hill or down the hill? As we continued to go "down the hill," walking on our toes, we saw people that we knew - the rest of our Brown Room friends! The other group was approaching the labyrinth just as we were but from a different direction. We had successfully charted our route and navigated our way to them. Hooray!

Sylvie's (yellow) line - (Sylvie's previously proposed way; beginning our departure route from the waterfront. Heading north at 34th St.)

Violet's line (Turn right and head east)

Making our way back to St. Johns as a whole group, some other children voiced interest in helping with our route map. With some concerted effort we finally determined which way to go, off of Sylvie's original line. Violet helped to redraw Sylvie's line for clarity and accuracy after our trial and error process. Which way?? Now we know!