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Principia School

Educational Travel

Purposeful travel is a powerful teaching tool. It broadens connections, deepens understanding, and develops inspired, global learners. That’s why we ensure Principia students travel beyond the campus borders through a variety of extended journeys and regular field trips.

Principia students don’t just engage in history, art, politics, language, culture, and nature in the classroom . . . they experience these subjects firsthand and take away invaluable skills and cherished memories that stick with them forever. Through travel, students put learning into practice. They experience transformative growth and create strong bonds with classmates while overcoming personal challenges, learning to appreciate cultural differences, and becoming effective leaders and team members.

Where We Learn

Trips at Principia School

What Intentional and Experiential Travel Looks Like at Each Level

LS Travel

Lower School

Lower School students are introduced to a world of opportunity through local and national field trips with their classmates. Local trips can include a visit to the Saint Louis Zoo to see the animals they’re learning about up close, an excursion to the National Great Rivers Museum and Melvin Price Locks and Dam to better understand our impact on the planet, and other day trips around St. Louis that deepen their learning and mastery of important class lessons and topics. 

As a culmination of their Lower School experience, fifth-graders embark on an all-class field trip to Jamestown and Williamsburg, Virginia, and Washington, DC. This exciting trip provides an immersive and relevant way to bring U.S. history to life.

Middle School

The Middle School offers abundant opportunities to integrate the curriculum beyond our campus borders. Middle schoolers discover and grow to understand the wider world through exciting travel experiences related to history, culture, language, and science. Fostering global citizenship and inspiring curiosity and adventure, all Middle School students participate in grade level, curriculum-based trips. From diving into science and outdoor skills in Illinois in partnership with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to visiting the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to learning about biology and language in Puerto Rico, students in the Middle School are always expanding their horizons.

Upper School Israel Trip 2022

Upper School

An Upper School education knows no borders. With travel opportunities throughout the year, students grow by leaps and bounds—from stepping out into the local community to venturing abroad. 

Each year, Upper School students kick off the school year with a week of outdoor expeditions designed to develop teamwork, cooperation, leadership, and character. The trips serve as a “culture setter” for the year, creating strong relationships among students through collaboration, and encouraging students to overcome any self-imposed limits. Freshmen, sophomores, and juniors participate in programs like canoeing in Minnesota, diving into history and outdoor education/team-building in Boston, or sailing in Maine; seniors combine outdoor challenges with leadership sessions during the Senior Retreat in Michigan. 

Optional Curriculum and Service Trips

We offer a selection of optional trips for Upper School students focused on specific courses, global service, or language learning. (The fee for participating in these trips is not included in tuition.)

These include: 

  • Advanced Bible seminar class trips to Israel, the Holy Land, and Greece  

  • Advanced language study trips to Spain (Spanish) and Taiwan (Chinese)

  • Field and Natural History fieldwork and research with Yellowstone Forever in Wyoming

  • Service-focused trip to South Africa

  • Service-focused trip to The Dominican Republic

US Service