Lawrence High School teacher David Platt poses with students on a recent trip to Peru.

For David Platt, teaching students extends beyond his classroom at Lawrence High School — thousands of miles beyond, actually.

Over the past 20 years, Platt has taken students on more than 30 international trips. Despite the contrast in the two environments, Platt said he sees the goal of classroom teaching and student trips as parallel to one another.

“In each circumstance, you’re trying to get people to think about things, compare things, analyze things,” he said.

But, Platt added, traveling with students and being in another country with all those other sensory inputs can be pretty compelling.

“There is something to be said about being on the ground, being in the dirt, smelling, tasting,” Platt said. “Those kind of things can make that educational experience a little bit richer.”

Platt doesn’t have a running count of how many countries he’s visited with students, but past trips have included Kenya, Australia, Ecuador, Italy, and this summer, Peru.

“I know we’ve gone to every continent except for Antarctica,” he said.

LHS photography teacher Angelia Perkins has been participating in the student trips for about 10 years and also helps in coordinating them. Perkins said that after traveling abroad, the students often have a shift in perspective.

“It seems like teenagers get so caught up in Lawrence High and Lawrence, and their world is so small,” Perkins said. “And then when they travel, it just makes them such a different individual.”

Platt, who is from Roeland Park, graduated from Kansas University with a bachelor’s degree in education in 1988 and a master’s in 1991. With the exception of a couple of years at West Junior High School, he has spent all of his 23 years as a teacher at LHS, being named LHS teacher of the year multiple times, most recently in 2014.

Zach Spears, a 2014 LHS graduate and former student of Platt’s, said what makes Platt a great teacher is how involved he is in helping his students, making sure they graduate and also pursue their interests. For instance, Spears said, when Platt saw he was interested in film, he let him do a film project instead of an essay.

“He likes to embrace peoples’ talents and allow them to use that to enhance their learning,” Spears said.

Platt, who currently teaches East Asian studies and psychology at LHS, was a longtime geography teacher and continues to sponsor the LHS Geography Club. Although Platt said it’s interesting to hear students discuss, contrast and compare the societal and cultural differences they encounter around the world, what he finds refreshing is their realization of the similarities.

“I think at the heart of it all is noticing that students realize that people have more in common than they have differences,” Platt said.

Spears is one of the 24 students, teachers and recent graduates who went to Peru, returning last week from the nine-day visit. Now a student at Johnson County Community College and planning to study film, Spears is making a short documentary about the trip. The film, “Lions in Peru,” will be shown throughout the Lawrence district once complete.

“It’s documenting the students’ experience while abroad and how that kind of enhances the way they see their lives,” Spears said, noting that the film will include footage from the students’ point-of-view, as well as student interviews.

In addition to his personal love of traveling, Platt said, being able to witness the shifts in the students’ perspectives is a big part of what he enjoys about the trips. Seeing how the students react to traveling outside of their own country, culture and comfort zones is really fulfilling, he said.

“That is certainly the driving force: those little ah-ha moments that they have when they’re traveling.”

Perkins said Platt helps the trips go beyond merely entertainment by not only giving information to the students, but asking questions of them, too.

“He is an adult, but in many ways he also seems like a kid because he always has that natural curiosity for life,” Perkins said.

Platt would like even more students to be able to go on student trips. He has an outreach program, Explore, Learn, Teach, which shares some of his students’ experiences abroad and also organizes events to fund travel scholarships. Spears said such fundraising efforts helped him be able to go on the Peru trip.

“I’d never left the country before,” he said. “Now I just want to go everywhere.”