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Field Trips: Fun, Learning, or Both?

Kyle Hamstra

Ahhh… The Field Trip. One of the best learning opportunities of all time. Nothing beats the real thing. Nothing beats being there. Nothing beats learning by doing… the real thing. As far as teaching and learning go, it doesn’t get any better than this.

But even when packed with all that potential, the field trip risks the real possibility of no learning experienced whatsoever. It’s possible to just have fun, or have a day off of school, and all the structure that school has become. On the bus ride home, it’s possible to reflect upon no new learning at all–except maybe about your social life.

As an educator, I’ve wrestled with The Field Trip. Of course, I love them. But I also want to take advantage of the learning opportunities beyond campus–even if just for the sake of the opportunity alone. After all, we may never be here again! Don’t let these moments slip away without taking some new learning home with you. #HamstraHighlights readers know that I don’t settle for fluff OR learning; standards OR fun; acting, reacting, OR interacting. Why can’t we have both?

In the 2012-2013 school year, I leaned in to field trip learning with gazelle-like intensity. Especially with my state’s newly-released North Carolina Science Essential Standards, I was on a mission to find examples of those standards in the world around us, capture them, and bring them back to class by any means necessary. As a fifth grade math/science teacher, I wanted extra, supplemental resources for my learners. And I wanted them bad. And nothing was going to stop me.

The Standards-Based Scavenger Hunt

Therefore, it wasn’t enough for our fifth graders to simply attend the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. They needed to experience it. They needed to take advantage of its resources. They needed to learn a ton of information on this field trip. And I was going to provide them this opportunity by aligning these museum resources with our fifth grade science standards… in the form of a scavenger hunt.

On about 15 separate occasions, I found myself racing to the science museum. I couldn’t wait to create this. I absolutely loved the process. Selecting which tools would best fit the format–even that was a blast. Which would be the most efficient for my stakeout? I took pictures and videos. I used voice recorders for audio only. I took laptops (that’s plural), my cell phone, and even a printed map from the help desk. This was 2012.

Deeply reading, processing, and absorbing every word, picture, diagram, and exhibit, I carefully aligned the resources to the standards, all the while sequencing questions in the order of the exhibits themselves. In other words, scavenger hunters could find all 106 (modified from the original 151) answers on seven different floors without repeating a step. This learning experience was going to flow. Or, so I thought…

What Really Happened

What I Would Change Next Time

Looking back, I wish I would have made the entire experience theirs. Here’s how I may have gone about that:

Full Circle

Have it. Share it. Make it better. Help me fix a few margins. Help me enhance it with Google. Give me feedback.

And please–Have some fun.

And if anyone can figure out how to monetize it, perhaps my family and I can meet you for dinner.

Here it is… Enjoy.

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