Have you ever taken a field trip that broadened your horizons, or taught you something that you would never have learned from a textbook? Perhaps you went to a planetarium, or a history museum or a play? Or maybe you just took a class trip that was really fun?
In “Field Trips Today: Museums, but Also Wastewater Plants,” an edition of the New York Today Newsletter, James Barron writes about how school trips have both changed and stayed the same:
The fifth-graders on a school field trip stepped into a large, noisy room. The girls held their noses. The boys were wowed.
They were in the stinkiest part of a wastewater treatment plant on Long Island.
That schoolchildren were in that room was an indication of how field trips have evolved as science curriculums have changed. The children, from Oceanside School 8 in Oceanside, N.Y., had been learning about water and what happens when dirty water at home goes down the drain or the toilet.
“This gives them the opportunity to see firsthand something that they are just reading about in class,” said Lauren Sternberg, the communications manager at the treatment plant, one of three in Nassau County operated by the conglomerate Veolia under a long-term contract.
The plant, in East Rockaway, N.Y., is a relatively new field trip destination. The American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan is not.
Field trips to the museum have been a ritual for generations of New York City schoolchildren — as many as 400,000 children visit the museum in school and camp groups every year. Lisa Gugenheim, the museum’s director, remembers her first trip to the museum — “I’m pretty sure it was in second grade,” she said.
But since the opening of a $465 million addition last year, the museum has broadened its offerings — not just what student groups can see, but how much time they can spend looking. Gugenheim called a pilot program that began last month “the evolution of the field trip.”
The traditional field trip lasts one day. The pilot program lets classes treat the entire museum like a classroom every day for a week.
“This is not just meeting a scientist,” Gugenheim said. “It’s having a program that connects the classroom to the museum to the science. That’s the work of being a museum today — wanting to influence the lives of young people not just on a day out of school but for their lifetimes.”
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
What was your most memorable school field trip? What did you like about it? What did you learn?
Do you think field trips are an important part of the learning experience? Why or why not?
What do you think about the idea of going on a field trip that lasts not just one day, but several, like the program at The American Museum of Natural History? Have you ever been on a class trip like that? Would you want to go on one?
Where would you like to go on a field trip someday? Why?
Would you like to have attended either of the field trips described in the article? What do you think you could learn from them?
How, if at all, do you think the field trips your school offers should be redesigned? What could make them more useful, enriching, interesting or fun? Did this article offer you any ideas?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
