Friends School of Minnesota 5th and 6th grades went on their Big River Journey, spending the day with the National Park Service aboard a paddleboat on the Mississippi River. The field trip was filled with hands-on river activities including topics such as aquatic insects and river quality, river geology, river ecosystems, river birds, watershed stewardship, riverboats and piloting, archaeology, floodplain forests, and more. We boarded our boat at Fort Snelling State Park and concluded our journey at Harriet Island in St Paul. Other partners aboard the boat included the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Audubon Society, and the Department of Natural Resources.