By Tyler Dahlgren

There’s a handful of premium Omaha field trip destinations within a couple miles of the city’s downtown skyline, and the Nebraska Center for the Education of Children who are Blind or Visually Impaired’s Camp Sense-ational hit for a trifecta in late May.

The Omaha Children’s Museum, where the campers spent the first day of camp, and The Henry Doorly Zoo, where they spent the final, have been hosting curious students for the better part of a century. In between, they visited the Kiewit Luminarium, the newest of the bunch, and, given the facility’s ability to drop jaws with the endless interactive experiences it has to offer, it too is on the fast-track to staple status.

“They’re all about accessibility, which is what we’re all about as well,” NCECBVI superintendent Dr. Tanya Armstrong said about the camp’s three hosts. “They’re each very accommodating to the needs of our students, and it’s just kid-friendly. These are staples for kid-friendly activities in the metro.”

The 16 Sense-ational campers, from all across the state, convened on the Missouri River waterfront Thursday morning. They were greeted at the front door by the Luminarium’s supervisor of field trips Dan Sitzman and the always ready-to-help Luminators.

“The NCECBVI school kids took a field trip here last year, and they just loved it, so we knew we had to come back with our campers,” said instructional coordinator Shana Kinnison. “There’s so many things here other than seeing it. You can feel it, you can hear it, you can experience it. It was so neat for the kids to be able to do that. The Luminarium does a really good job of making sure that the Luminators are with our kids, guiding them throughout the day so that they get the most out of the experience. They really cater to us.”

Sitzman, a longtime educator with Omaha Public Schools, said the Luminarium was eager for the day. Since opening in April of 2023, the Luminarium has hosted schools from all over Nebraska.

“The NCECBVI having their camp here is fabulous,” he said. “They just brought a whole energy to the building. When you have school-aged children in here get excited, and then the adults with them get excited too, because they’ve never been here before either, and they have that curiosity and get to explore and discover together, that’s awesome.”

For six hours, the campers explored the museum’s 82,000 square feet and more than 125 exhibits.

“We want everyone to be able to feel like they are connecting with STEM concepts and learning how they apply those concepts in their everyday lives,” said Sitzman. “They’re able to have those hands-on experiences and play with things without having to worry about being wrong or right.”

The camp is always planned with The Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC), a specialized curriculum designed for students who are blind or visually impaired, as its central focus. And while the campers are having some of the most fun Omaha has to offer, they’re also having a rich educational experience.

“Of course we love the educational piece, that’s who we are,” said Armstrong. “We really focus on those skills that maybe you and I, as sighted individuals, are able to naturally pick up because we can see things in the environment. We can walk into a room and immediately see our surroundings and know where we’re at, where we have to purposely teach those skills to students who have a visual impairment.”

Armstrong credits Kinnison and outreach specialist (and The Braille Institute’s 2025 Teacher of the Year) Audrey Graves for a majority of the coordinating that goes on behind the scenes in the months leading up to the camp. They work with teams of professionals from districts across the state too, a true collaborative effort, added Armstrong.

“We put this camp together to give these students the experiences of all the things that they can go and do that they likely wouldn’t normally get to,” said Kinnison. “What we’re also doing is connecting them with students from other places going through the same things that they’re going through. We really like to make those connections, get the families connected as well, so that they can have people to talk to and hang out with from across the state. That’s a big thing.”

Friendships tend to blossom in the middle of all the fun and all the discovery, and for Armstrong and Kinnison, that’s the greatest reward of all.

“It makes my heart happy,” Armstrong said. “This is what we do. We educate students, and, particularly for this group of students with low-incidence disabilities, it’s just very heartwarming to see the opportunities that we’re able to provide for them.”

Educators live for those light bulb moments, they’ll tell you, and this year’s group of Sense-ational campers illuminated Omaha’s newest field trip destination with one after another.

“It just makes your heart feel full,” said Kinnison. “It’s what we’re looking for.”