What was the most memorable event of your school life? Probably, some seasonal fair, meeting with an outstanding speaker during Summer camp, or a field trip with learning purpose. Today, more and more activities for children are provided throughout the school year, but we would like to talk about field trips and reasons for joining them. If your child is in doubt on whether to participate in such an event, here are our thoughts on its benefits.
First of all, students who took part in field trips tend to get higher scores on standardized tests. This was proven by Emilyn R. Whitesell in her recent productivity study: she found out that field trips make old concepts more memorable and easy to understand if taught in hands-on learning conditions.
Also, field trips offer a chance to learn trivial ideas more traditionally, in the example of nature. This lets kids step away from the textbooks and the Internet, and see how things correlate with each other in real life. As a result, students feel more confident with the knowledge they gained on such trips, and that’s why they apply it more accurately on midterms and final exams.
The other positive side of field trips is the emotional intelligence development that takes place during them. With the need to help each other, Seattle Public School students become aware of other people’s reactions to obstacles, ability to perceive new information outside the classroom, and engage in unusual activities they are not used to. During the latest summer camp, they had a chance to boost their writing skills on the go, and help those who felt disorganized become a better essay writer. Thus, the main accomplishment of this trip was learning to be tolerant and attentive to others through common essay writing training.
Exploring new places cannot go unnoticed for an individual’s personality. Whatever distant is a field trip, each student has a chance to try out new dishes, get acquainted with language dialects, and communicate with people who are not either instructors or classmates. Magnuson Nature Educators do their best to engage with professionals who can tell students about local nature and traditions in an exciting way.
Instructors often wonder how to bring real-life events to the classroom, so that their students could learn to solve problems themselves. Over time, we at Magnuson Nature Programs understood that a field trip is a source of great real-life experience so we advise all teachers to turn to this activity for the good of their school communities.
Leaving a classroom for a field trip allows kids to understand the connection between school learning and real life. Be it a museum or a wood, a trip destination makes students think critically, build cause and effect links, ask the right questions, and answer them. Also, kids start to understand how to apply theory to life situations, and thus, they become more confident and certain about adult life.
One more benefit of the field trips that we cannot miss mentioning is building a strong relationship of trust between students and teachers. It is especially important during the teen age of students when every kid’s personality transforms from a child to a young adult. The educational process on the trip provides an opportunity to see the teacher as a role model, whose previous experience is useful for a younger generation. At the same time, such trips bring valuable insight for teachers as well: they can see how their students learn, what type of learners they are, and what methods of teaching work the best on them.
Our Scholarship program for middle school students is also intended to teach them the links between past, present, and future. During the Magnuson Nature trips, your child will understand how society develops and what economy and policy have to do with that. Once they participate in our events, their grades in Social Sciences classes are likely to increase drastically.
Finally, learning through going on trips will enhance your kid’s curiosity about the world. No person returns from the journey the same, so you will be surprised how your child has grown emotionally and intellectually after coming back home from the school trip with classmates.
It has been a great year, chock-full of field trips, camps, nature walks, and special events! The Scarecrow Festival on Saturday October 7th, which was also my retirement party, was such a wonderful way to end my time at Magnuson Nature Programs! And I hope to see you next year in the Childrens Garden! Peace and Love, Teacher Emily
