Wyoming Area’s Maureen Pikas and her ninth-grade classroom recently visited the Gettysburg Battlefield.
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Wyoming Area ninth-grade students pose in front of a monument.
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Wyoming Area ninth-grade students gather around a historic cannon.
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Wyoming Area ninth-grade students listen to a tour guide.
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Wyoming Area’s Maureen Pikas and her ninth-grade classroom recently visited the Gettysburg Battlefield. This trip provided students with a hands-on history learning opportunity, including a guided battlefield tour and exploring the Gettysburg Visitor Center.
Pikas received a $1,000 grant from the American Battlefield Trust’s History Field Trip Grant Program to use toward the trip. Grants are awarded through a competitive national application process that demonstrates Pikas’s commitment to excellence in the classroom.
“We stepped out of the classroom and took our history lesson to the battlefield,” Pikas said. “The students got to experience the reality of what happened on this historic ground firsthand. Wyoming Area students are very lucky to live so close to such a monumental event in Civil War history.”
The American Battlefield Trust is the largest battlefield land preservation organization in the country, having saved more than 60,000 acres of hallowed ground across 25 states.
Through visiting preserved battlefields and walking in the footsteps of the citizen soldiers who fought there, the trust aims to provide a foundation of good citizenship for the leaders of tomorrow. It strives to produce excellent educational resources in a variety of formats for both educators and the public alike, ensuring that Americans never forget how their country was forged.
Every year, the trust receives applications from classrooms across the country to participate in the History Field Trip Grant Program, which offers funding and assistance to K-12 teachers planning field trips to Civil War, War of 1812, or Revolutionary War battlefields and related historic sites. During the 2024-2025 school year, more than 12,000 students from 35 states took part.
“How wonderful for these children to get a chance to go to where history was made, where our country was created and defined,” said Trust President David Duncan of the History Field Trip Grant Program recipients. “Battlefields and other historic sites exemplify the power of place. They are outdoor classrooms that will teach future Americans about our democratic republic.”
