FAQ – Curiosity Expeditions

GENERAL LEARNING EXPERIENCES MISSIONS FAQS

Curiosity Learning Experiences has more than 15 years of experience in providing unique & engaging education, intellectual growth, and skill development worldwide programs. Our key objective is to let every student have a remarkable and fulfilling learning experience in a reliable and entertaining atmosphere. Concurrently, we ensure a continuous feedback and support to parents/legal guardians during the preparation, implementation, and post-mission moments of our journey. We understand that is a number 1 priority for parents to allow their kids to join an international learning experience mission.

Before you engage with us in any of our programs, several questions about our learning experience missions may hit you. As such, we have prepared a concise Q&A concerning typical issues related to program operations that most schools/parents ask us.

This is not an exhaustive list, thus, if you have anything else you would like to know, feel free to reach us at any of our contact points listed at the end of this Q&A.

Enjoy the reading and we hope you may already start envisioning your kid´s journey into a new learning experience from imagination to reality!

PROGRAM COSTS

What is included in the learning experience mission fee?

International learning missions include ground transportation at places where activities will be occurring, lodging (dorms or hotel), activities and meals stated in the program plan (breakfast, lunch and dinner); unless otherwise stated in your plan information. Program fees usually do not include travel tickets, travel insurance, and pocket money for personal expenses. But don´t worry, we will guide you all the way to make sure you have 100% clarity on the whole process.

What could be considered as personal expenses during the learning mission?

From our experience, personal expenses include, but are not limited, to snacks and beverages outside the meal plan (yes, they will want to buy a bag of carrots and just maybe, some chocolate), personal shopping items (e.g., souvenirs, clothing, gifts, a cool NASA space travel mug, Disney Learning hats, a beautiful Orlando magnet for dad and a loving t-shirt for mom, etc.), and tips from service providers. We will always advise on tips for missions beforehand.

LOGISTICS

Should a student bring electronic devices to a learning mission?

Let´s be honest, it is the 21^st century. Separating a student from an electronic device is as hard as finding a new subatomic particle or reaching cold fusion!

Thus, there are no restrictions on carrying personal electronic gadgets to a learning experience mission. However, we do remind that the responsibility of safe keeping of such devices will always be with the students. We recommend that “less is more”, thus we always advise parents/students to avoid bringing too much stuff, especially expensive items (this is not one of those moments where kids DO NOT need to show-off their new, cool, and expensive super high-tech gadget!).

A mobile phone is highly recommended, since students will be engaged in interactive online activities involving filming, surveys, planning, etc., which can be easily accessed via mobile phone (no need for a notebook/laptop).

Will there be other school students/teams travelling along with our school group?

Travelling is all about opening your mind to new ideas, places, and people. Unless the school has booked a private program, participants will travel with students from other schools, cities and even countries.

This offers an affordable mechanism for small groups to travel together. An open approach allows participants to learn from each other and make new friends. We know of cases where students from different countries meet till today, and sometimes, have even gone to same universities abroad!

Will Curiosity School help me in the application of a tourist visa to travel on a learning experience mission?

Of course! We’re there for you!

We do remind that Learning Experience Missions´ participants require valid travel documents with appropriate visa(s) to visit each country on a chosen program.

And, as much as we would love to give you the greenlight directly, the decision of approval or rejection of a visa is always at the discretion of the issuing authority.

Once you have been granted a visa, please verify the details on the visa as per the details on your passport – Name spellings, Gender, Duration, Passport #. This will be validated with program preparation.

In addition, we always work with nationwide recognized travel agents, and they can also provide further material to support you with this issue.

On international learning experience missions, will the flights be direct/non-stop, or we hop like bunnies all over the place?

Don´t you love when flights are straight to the final destination? We do!

On our international learning experience missions, we strive to book flights on major international airlines that offer the shortest connection to the program with the best flight routes.

However, the period of travel or availability of seats may determine what course the captain will take! But don´t worry, you won´t need to go to Transylvania and sleep on a haunted castle prior to arriving to the final destination!

That been said, our teams operate on both scheduled and low-cost airlines.

COMMUNICATION

How does a parent get in touch with his kid on a learning experience mission?

Some parents take this moment as a “vacation breaktime” from their kids … but we know that you will be worried about your kid 99.99% of the time! As we said, we are also parents!

Parents and legal guardians may get in touch with their kids directly or through group leadership 24 hours a day through calls and messaging. However, students are on a tight schedule on their learning experience missions, and we would recommend parents not to call at odd hours unless it is very urgent.

Usually, the best time to call and chat with students (and learn about all the amazing stuff they did during their day) would be from 08:00 p.m. to 09:00 p.m. local time as the day’s schedule would have come to an end.

Other types of direct messaging (e.g., WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.) are always allowed, although as we always advise, it is important to let students focus on their learning experience mission activities, not breaking the flow of the program.

MEALS

What will my kid eat during his super awesome learning experience mission?

All programs include local and international meal alternatives with vegetarian and non-vegetarian options.

My kid has a special dietary requirement. Can this be adjusted?

Absolutely! Part of an awesome experience is to make sure that nothing goes wrong, even meals.

We do kindly request that if a student has any specific dietary needs, the same should be communicated to us at least 20 days prior to the mission, in the Student Booking Form. While we will make every effort to adapt to the student´s dietary requirements. It is important to inform that non-standard dietary needs may be difficult to cater on certain programs.

We also advise that you inform us about any allergies to specific foods that a student might have.

FEAR NOT! We have specific forms that will be requested to be filled during the mission’s preparation so we can get to know all about your kid´s health conditions prior to the mission. We take this matter very seriously.

And talking about health…

HEALTH & SAFETY

Your kids´ safety and security are top priorities for us. We know that your children are your biggest treasures (as we said, we are parents ourselves!). Considering this, we have several safety and security protocols and procedures in place for every learning experience mission program. These include:

Travel insurance
Guardian chaperones (e.g., teachers)
First-aid trained program leaders
Safety guidelines for students
Incident response and contingency plans
Risk assessed activities

Can you elaborate a little more on these safety protocols in place for your programs?

Of course!

Each learning experience mission goes through a careful safety checks, with relevant risk mitigation procedures in place. WOW!

Every learning experience mission is managed by a seasoned leader/mentor. S(he) is the key support for students in learning experience missions and will communicate with our teams on the ground during the mission on the kids behavior, communication and other issues.

Once registration period is closed for the mission, we will organize all the data and inform you on the specific chaperones, leaders, and who can be reached before, during and after the mission. As we said, transparency and communication are key factors that we consider for a successful mission.

Does my kid need to carry medicines during the learning experience mission?

Our Team Leaders/Mentors carry a first aid kit which include, but is not limited to, over-the-counter medication such as analgesics, anti-allergens, pain relieving sprays, mosquito repellents, bandages, nausea medicine, and band-aids.

If the participant has pre-existing medical conditions, such as blood pressure, diabetes, and asthma, and so on.; we advise that the student brings the relevant medication WITH a medical prescription. Please ensure that you make a note of all medical conditions during the preparation phase in the Student Booking Form.

But don´t worry, we will communicate a lot prior to the mission, and we will remind you several times of this.

IMPORTANT: to ensure dosage requirements are followed, we require the students to take any medication only in the presence of the chaperone/mission leader.

How many students belong to each group, and how many adults will participate with them?

We follow the golden rule of most international students´ programs: a chaperone ratio of 1:10.

This means that, for every 10 students attending a learning experience mission, a chaperone will be responsible for leading them. In some specific cases, this policy may vary up to 1:15, based on the nature of the program, but we will usually keep the previous ratio.

Chaperones include teachers from schools and our own team on the ground. We will also provide more information to you during sessions in schools.

How about insurance, how does that work?

All students and chaperones participating in a Curiosity Learning Experience Mission are provided with a travel insurance for the duration of the program.

The insurance policy includes coverage for personal and medical emergencies. For applicable terms, we request you to go through the details insurance policy assigned to you after registration.

Do not worry, we will go with you in much more detail during the information sessions in schools. This is an important topic that we cover in all sessions.

What happens if a participant falls sick or needs emergency medical assistance?

The Curiosity Learning Experience Missions´ team always identifies hospitals and medical facilities near the places where students will lodge during the mission. And this information will be provided to parents as well before the mission.

In case a student requires medical assistance, one of the chaperones will accompany the student to the medical facility.

We request you to highlight any pre-existing medical conditions in the Student booking form, to avoid any foreseeable emergencies. Again, this will be highly covered during all our meetings prior to the mission.

We take this very seriously.

I know a cousin/uncle in the city of the learning experience mission. My best friend lives in the place of the mission. Can relatives or friends of a student visit them while on the program?

For safety purposes, students are not allowed to travel or move around anywhere unaccompanied. We always ask for parents to support us with this issue. We realize that it might be convenient to meet this relative during the mission, but we always remind that students are traveling on an educational program, not leisure.

This includes visiting relatives and friends during the program, who are strangers to the rest of the group.

We always advise that students remain within the team. Again folks, this is an education/learning program, and as such, we abide by program´s rules and regulations.

We can´t emphasize enough on how much safety and security means to us during missions.

We don´t play around with our students´ security… and for us, during any mission, we will treat your kids as our own!

LODGING

What kind of lodging is offered on a learning experience mission? Where will my kid stay?

Several lodging options are available during learning experience missions.

The procedure we take is that we shortlist places after detailed audit of international standards that include guidelines about location, safety, food & hospitality.

At the end of this evaluation, we include places that are typically multi-bedded dorms (such as university programs or space camp), or high-end 3-star & 4-star hotels. It will depend on the groups size, age, and a few other factors.

Will (s)he share a room?

Yes! (to the point!). If not already learned, your kid will learn to share.

Each learning experience mission has particular rooms, where typically 2 to 3 students will remain together. In some cases, such as our junior space camp, student will remain at large 6-students’ rooms in space camp.

Students will share a room with additional participants of the same gender. This is a great opportunity to make new friends and have some fun!

We always request for rooms on the same floor for the entire group, although due to group size, this condition can´t always be guaranteed. In this case, we will try to minimize as much as possible the number of floors per group.

In addition, chaperones will continuously monitor corridors and rooms.

More on this on information sessions in schools.

How is the whole water issue on missions? Do students drink plenty of water?

Absolutely! Water makes up nearly 70% of our body weight, and it is the most important essential nutrient that we cannot live without for more than a few days. Thus, we make sure students drink plenty of it (even though MOST people do not drink enough of it!). Sounds like a weird question, but we do get it a lot! Again, we are parents, we understand you!

Thus, YES, drinking water is provided on all of our experience learning missions. In cities where tap water is safe for drinking, the same is offered to the students and the chaperones, so don’t worry… if there is something your kid will learn for sure is… drink water!

Dear parents, we do hope this Q&A may have clarified some of your doubts.

We realize that sending your kid to an international mission may be a large decision, and we are honored to be part of your choices.

We cannot emphasize enough that if you have ANY further doubts regarding our learning experience missions, please do contact us.

It will be our pleasure to serve you.