The Zoo Museum District


St. Louis might just be the nation’s best city for field trips. More than 40 years ago, the citizens of the City and County of St. Louis, Missouri unanimously voted to create the Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum


District. As the nation’s first and most successful regional cultural district, collected taxes enable entirely free admission at five of the nation’s best-in-class destinations, all of which encircle scenic Forest Park:


The Saint Louis Zoo, Art Museum, Science Center, The Missouri History Museum, and The Missouri Botanical Garden.


It didn’t take long at all for St. Louis Public School District Superintendent Dr. Kelvin Adams to recognize the immense value of this initiative when he assumed the title in 2008. Amongst many other innovative programs, Dr. Adams initiated a required field trip initiative for St. Louis students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, ensuring all students visited each of the five institutions, plus Te Magic House (St. Louis’s children’s museum), by the time they enter middle school. Each destination tailors its program appropriately for the visiting grade level: pre-K visits the Magic House; kindergartners and first graders study botany at the Garden; second graders learn about biology at the Zoo; third graders explore STEM at the Science Center; fourth graders learn about regional history at the History Museum; and fifth graders study art history and technique at the Art Museum. Dr. Adams, his team, and the partnering destinations all recognize the importance of cultural experiences in the academic lives of students, and many of the individual schools launched programs to help underwrite the remaining costs of field trip transportation.


While these six destinations have banded together to help better the educational experiences of the city’s students, there are still numerous additional field trip destinations throughout the region. St. Louis is home to the Fabulous Fox Teater,


Museum of Transportation, Powell Symphony


Hall, the World Bird Sanctuary, Endangered Wolf Center, the Old Courthouse, and of course the iconic Gateway Arch. But the city doesn’t stop there; it continues to develop new educational institutions seemingly every year. Spring 2014 welcomed the new Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum, while the Inside the Economy Museum, another free St. Louis museum, just opened this fall. As economics are typically not a mandatory high school subject, the museum provides a fantastic, easy- access supplement to classroom lessons, and teaches students about their individual role in, and impact on, the economy. “And yes,” cites Economy Museum director Tom Shepherd, “each student leaves with a bag of real shredded money.”


St. Louis is a model program and region for the powerful effect strategic partnerships between destinations can have on the growing, curious, creative minds of its students.


St.Louis Zoo


Art Museum


Science Center


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