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Icemen offer thousands of students lessons outside the classroom

Regardless of age, we are never too old to learn and when we're young, it's important to get out of our comfort zone and try new things.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--Regardless of age, we are never too old to learn and when we’re young it’s important to get out of our comfort zone and try new things.

That’s the type of experience some 8,000 kids across four counties experienced inside Veteran’s Memorial Arena for their annual School Day event.

“About now we’d probably be doing geometry," said center academy teacher Carol Kuhnow.

Instead of imaging lines and shapes in their heads, ninth and tenth grade students in Carol Kuhnow's classroom are actually seeing geometry take shape and move in real time with the help of the Jacksonville Icemen.

“How should they hit the puck so it goes into the net, that’s actually one of our lessons from last month so maybe they’ll remember it," Kuhnow said.

Kuhnow’s classroom and others from Center Academy are among nearly eight thousand other students across St. John’s, Clay, Duval and Nassau counties for the Icemen’s second annual school day.

“They do need to get out of the classroom. It’s not always about teaching certain subjects, like math and science and English, they need other things to broaden their experiences.”

For starters introducing students like Angel Glover to the game of hockey.

“I didn’t know what to expect, but when I got here, it was cool because I’ve never been in the arena before," Glover said.

Experiencing new things to just being around people.

“This is a big thing for them, most of them don’t get out, they get nervous around people, so this is a good thing to let them know what the real outside world is like.”

It’s also a change of scenario for Kuhnow as well.

“I also work for the security team that does this building and normally I’m the one helping supervise, getting everybody in, but I get to relax.”

Rela and see her students and others around her learn the value of team work.

“I think the biggest thing is how the teams work together and able to score, you know offense, defense and if they don’t, they could end up losing, it's a life lesson."

A lesson thousands of students spent the day learning in a cool environment outside of the classroom.

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