Month-Long Trips
Each year, the juniors and seniors are given the opportunity to participate in a month-long trip during Block 7. In the past these trips have included:
Bike Trip
In preparation for this month long self-contained bicycle tour students do physical conditioning five days a week for two months leading up to the trip. Students also gather equipment and learn basic bike maintenance skills.
During the trip we live on the road, biking long days and camping out at night, fair weather or foul. We use no support vehicles, which means that the students haul all of the gear for the month up and down every hill on their heavily loaded bicycles. When difficulties arise the students know that they must find their own solutions as no support van is going to roll by to pick them up. The students who participate in this trip take on a great many responsibilities including daily shopping and cooking, navigation and camp chores. The Natchez trip follows spring north up the Mississippi river valley, covering 1300 miles and six states in three and a half weeks. Starting in Natchez Mississippi among cypress swamps and southern mansions, we bike the length of the Natchez Trace Parkway north crossing into northern Alabama then encountering the steep rocky ridges and pine forests of Tennessee. We swing off the Trace just before Nashville and as we pedal through Kentucky and into southern Illinois the land continues to get hillier as we approach the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. Finally we roll across the wide-open farmland of central Illinois and Iowa, home to Scattergood.
East Coast Trip
Every other year juniors and seniors have the option of going on a trip to the East Coast. This trip has customarily gone to Washington DC, and visited elected representatives, toured historical sites and museums, and explored the city. Students may also visit other major cities such as New York, Boston and Philadelphia. The whole trip is an invaluable complement to the students' study of United States History and Government.
Latin America Trip
The Latin America Trip occurs every other year and is an exciting program for juniors and seniors wanting a Spanish language immersion experience. The group, along with staff, travels to a Latin American country for four weeks and studies the language and culture of the country by living and working among the people. Students stay with host families and work together towards a common community service project.
Academic credit is earned for this activity, and the community service fulfills the service project graduation requirement. Students also gain skills and insight into interacting with another culture. Recent trips have included building a health center in Costa Rica, working at an orphanage in Mexico City and helping with reforestation in Nicaragua.
Gulf Coast Trip
In response to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, students traveled throughout the Gulf Coast states, including southern Mississippi and New Orleans. The curriculum included a variety of civil rights museums and memorials as well as community service in hurricane affected areas. Students spent time volunteering with community and religious organizations doing clean-up and repairs inside and outside of residential houses, an elementary school, and in a distribution warehouse.
Wilderness Trips
Juniors and seniors have the opportunity to take part in an epic month long outdoor expedition. Participants are challenged physically and emotional and must meet demands for both responsibility and leadership. Through these wilderness trips students develop technical expertise, a sense of personal competence and confidence in their own ability to see a challenge through to its end. No technical skills are required that are not taught during the course. The trips are physically challenging, but within the abilities of a motivated person in average physical condition. Determination and enthusiasm are much more important to expedition success than outstanding athletic ability. Past Wilderness Trips have included:
Canoeing (Minnesota)
Paddle and portage deep into the northern wilderness on sparkling lakes once traveled by Native Americans and French fur traders following the Canadian border to Lake Superior.
Backpacking
Hike and camp amongst the spectacular rocky landscapes of southwestern national parks or trek along the Appalachian Trail. 
Cross-Country Skiing (Minnesota)
Ski with packs and sleds through the silent wilderness of northern Minnesota. Learn to travel and navigate through snowbound pine forests and camp comfortably on frozen lakes under bright winter stars.
Independent Trips
Independent trips that are designed by the individual student are restricted to seniors. The intent of these trips is to allow a student to design a trip that meets their individual area of interest that is not being met by a school-sponsored trip. Some examples of Independent Trips might be working in a homeless shelter in New York City, working at an orphanage in Nicaragua, and studying French in Paris.
