Enhancing Educational Experience With Field Trips

Monday, November 5, 2012
Schools take students to different educational facilities that help them to get a hands-on learning experience and high interaction level than they usually get in school. Visiting aquariums for example, often have massive display tanks for children who can learn a lot from fishes than what they see in their regular textbooks.

According to a recent study by children's Health Education Center has observed that field trips break the general routine of education and give kids an opportunity to look forward for a trip, spend a day different from their classroom environment, and complete lesson on the subject after the trip is over. This varied learning style helps children to grasp better on a certain subject in the form of auditory, visual or kinetic learning.

Field trips help children develop a new perception about different profession, opportunities and ideas when they travel outside their community, and this brings in a desire to persuade their dreams and become successful. Field trips can also instigate job opportunities that can give them new interest and passion to work with in future.

Here Are Tips For Teachers To Decide The Right Educational Destination:

Curriculum Based Trip -sometimes you have so many choices out there that you often get confused what to choose and what might be the most interesting place for children to visit. However, teachers must remember to choose a place that is an integral part of their curriculum. Research, however, has shown that children tend to learn less when they are taken to field trips that are not linked to their curriculum, and this is exactly the reason why an education trip should be integrated with their textbook. The trip should be a broader demonstration program that makes it most efficient for their learning objectives.

• Demonstration unit - you can turn your field trip to a demonstration unit as each part is independent of the other which makes it as a great model of learning. You can prepare the trip into three parts – preparation of demonstration before you start the journey, the core learning when you are on the journey and lastly, the summary of the whole subject after finishing the trip. This way, children would get a better structure on your demonstration as well as grasp the subject matter with a hands-on learning experience.

• Active demonstration – While you are on your trip, teachers should make sure that children should interact more and engage themselves in activities rather than just absorbing information from guided tours. When children get an opportunity to explore their subject through engaging themselves in interaction or activities, chances are that they would be enjoying as well as learning better on their subject.

• Multiple exposures – field trips should always be an unconventional mode of learning and the best way is to expose your children into natural settings and multiple opportunities. A field trip necessarily does not restrict itself to a particular subject in their textbook, but can also include several other exposures like overcoming fear in public, learning routes and societal norms. The more comfortable a child becomes with its neighborhood locations, the more comfortable they are in concentrating on their core subject.

Sea life is a great experience when it comes to such field trips, as it not only incorporates the amusement of seeing several colorful fishes, but also instills in-depth knowledge on the marine world, its food chain, habitat and conservation. They also have great packages for school trips with exclusive peeks into their workroom areas where children would be able to learn more about sea creatures.