By: Kai Payne

Everyone wants to say “I’ve travelled the world”, or if you have exquisite music taste, its one of your favorite song lines, (moving along…). One educator at Innovation Academy can almost say he’s travelled almost all seven continents and almost all seven seas.

Mr. Weigand, our only Earth Systems instructor, and a physics teacher has been around the whole world except Antarctica and, boy, does he have a story to tell about his adventures. Mr. Weigand takes all of his adventures from around the world collecting samples, and taking pictures to bring into the classroom to use in hands on education. Teaching at Centennial High and Innovation for around 30 total years, he has hundreds of hands on material to bring to his classroom and samples.

One step into Mr Weigand’s classroom and you’re hit with the smell of dirt, sand, and rock. As Weigand probably has the biggest rock collection in the whole building, beating Mr. Denato’s collection ten fold. We asked Mr. Weigand some questions on his journey, and his travel habits and we think YOU should take a look.

Q1:

Why do you love travelling so much?

“I just love experiencing something different than what I live.  I want to see what the rest of the world is like and explore situations that I cannot have where I live.  I very much enjoy meeting people and experiencing cultures different than my daily life.“

Q2:

What difficulties do you have travelling?

“I wouldn’t say I have many difficulties – I pretty much get to travel as much as I want.  The only constraint is money and time.  So I have to be very frugal with my spending in order to have the wealth of travel experiences that I have.  The time – I am only able to travel during school holidays, which is when most everyone else travels, so I don’t get to take advantage of great deals or events or weather of seasons when school is in session.“

Q3:

How does travelling impact your classroom?

“I teach from travel (you know this).  I bring evidence of the world back into my earth systems classroom to support my students’ learning experience.  I take pictures, make video lectures, and bring rock and sand samples back for my students.“

Q4:

Whats one thing about travelling you want people to know?

“Find a travel deal and just go – there is a reason to visit anywhere.  I will book something that is a good price on the spur of the  moment and then look for what I want to see/do there – because there is always something to make any destination worthwhile.“

IA Students will look forward to see where Mr. Weigand is going this Summer break in 2026, until then students will glamor over his past adventures and all hope to inspire to see if students have the same travel ambitions he does this year and in the past!