By: Silvana Wilson, Montclair State University
Did you know that field trips also make a student more likely to succeed academically? The daily rehearsal of going to school every day can get boring for a young student. Sometimes it’s smart to switch it up and take them on a trip!
Whether it’s going to a historical museum or a national park, students can experience learning outside of the classroom. These trips can spark curiosity for a certain subject that a student didn’t know they had a passion for before.
A study conducted by Emilyn Ruble Whitesell, sought to find the correlation between science-based school trips and student testing scores on standardized science tests showing that field trips can help to increase student testing scores and help close achievement gaps between students in the same grade.
Field Trips Boost Vital Skills
One of the biggest skills that field trips can help students develop is critical thinking. Cultivating these important life lessons can have a huge impact on students in a positive way:
- Work through issues whether in the classroom or outside of school
- Students will have an authentic learning experience while enhancing their academic performance
- Seeing things firsthand through field trips as information comes to life visually
- Motivate students to learn new things – appreciating history, art, science
- Experience a new culture while giving them a new perspective
Field Trips: Going Beyond The Classroom
Experiences outside of the classroom allow for more creativity in their writing as it broadens their horizons and perspectives. Studies have shown that students who go on field trips are more engaged academically. They are also more likely to graduate.
Field Trips Inspire Writing
After a field trip, teachers often follow up on what the students have learned by giving them a writing assignment on what they found the most intriguing on their trip.
Writing is such an important asset to have. Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association says, “When I was growing up, my parents said the 3 Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic) were important.” He goes on to explain how he teaches the same mindset to his kids. Writing doesn’t have to be a chore – it can be enjoyable! Field trips open not only students, but everyone’s eyes, to new experiences beyond the classroom.
We don’t always realize the lasting impact that field trips can have on their students. Elena Aguilar, who is a teacher herself, said that one of her students told her, “You changed our lives with that trip,” the student wrote. “It’s what made me want to be a teacher, to be able to give that same gift to other kids.” Field trips are so much more than a day out of the classroom – they can inspire children to appreciate and want to consume more knowledge. Schools are not only designed to teach students, but to guide their journey into adulthood.
Summer Camp Field Trips: Some of the Best Hands-On Learning
Field trips can enrich learning for students and create a more memorable experience when remembering information. Instead of looking for information on a board or in a book, they can see it right before them.
Write on Sports (WoS) is a non-profit literacy organization that helps middle school students develop writing and reading skills. The program uses project-based learning, empowering students to self-select a topic of interest and authentic learning experiences which include a field trip, to strengthen writing skills. Write on Sports offers after-school writing programs and workshops in addition to summer writing camps. During the summer of 2024, Write on Sports will be hosting summer camps in multiple New Jersey counties in addition to camps in California, Colorado, Indiana, and Rhode Island. To register for the Write on Sports summer program, click here. To register for the Write on Arts summer program, click here.
