Classrooms provide structure and authority for students, but getting students out of the classroom to experience another form of learning is one of the best things we can do for our students. While field trips can cause some headaches for teachers in charge, well-planned and thought out field trips can provide students with an educational experience they can not achieve will in a classroom.
Experiences
Field trips expose students to different experiences while they are out of the classroom. This allows students to take concepts they learned in the classroom and have the lesson reinforced through activities set up by the people in charge at the location of the field trip. This also allows students who might not ever experience these types of opportunities the ability to engage with individuals outside of their everyday life and expand their views.
Learning is reinforced
On an educational field trip, students are learning and processing information through different activities that engage different types of learning styles. Field trips allow students the ability to learn instead of just sitting and listening to a teacher to feed them the information. Concepts are then reinforced and seeing the information presented to them in different ways allows them to comprehend it differently.
Forms new relationships
Getting students out of a classroom setting allows them to interact with each other differently. Not only does this help increase communication between both students and teachers, but it also allows students who do not speak up in the classroom the opportunity to interact in different ways with their peers and educators. Often students are broken into groups and are put into a new social setting allowing them the chance to interact with classmates they may not talk to every day and can foster new relationships between the students.
Parental Involvement
Involving parent chaperones allows the students’ parents the chance to feel more connected to what is going on within the classroom on a day-to-day basis. Parents might also feel more connected to their student’s teacher and allow for open dialogue between each other. Chaperoning a field trip will also allow the parent to be actively engaged in their child’s educational experience.
While a field trip is not right for every situation, planning a well-chosen field trip is often worth the extra hassle. Whether it is a day at a science museum or a trip to a local park, students will remember the experience of leaving the classroom and will be able to recall what they learned because they were actively learning through hands-on experiences all day.