What are good field trips to take your science students on?
Taking students on field trips is a great way to engage your students, as well as bring what they are currently learning about to life. Of course when taking students on field trips it is important that they correlate with what the students are currently learning about. Although, field trips are fun, it is important that your students are learning from the field trip. As an educator you may need to help some students make the connection to what you doing in the classroom to the field trip.
With knowing all that, I wanted to find out some great educational places to take students on science field trips? To start my search I went to http://www.lessonplansplus.com/Field%20trip%20ideas.html and found some wonderful ideas. All of the trips this website listed were educational and most were able to make more than one connection to science. In addition this website also listed some great field trips that would be fairly cheap or even free to you and your students. Therefore, if your school is on a tight budget your students will still be able to go on a field trip.
These are some of the many field trip ideas from the website…
Green house
· Fish hatchery
· Farm
· Bird Sanctuary
· Nature Center
· Planetarium
· Pond
· Park
· Zoo
· Apple Orchard
· Pumpkin Patch
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI commented earlier this semester on a different blog about this same subject. Field trips can be a great learning tool, and a great way to get the kids out of school and excited about learning something new. It's too bad so many schools are forced to do away with field trips due to budget constraints. As future teachers, we'll have to do our best to justify the expense of field trips, and convince administration that there really is value to the trip. Will you require the students to do a report or summary of the trip? Will the field trip tie into the material your teaching in the classroom? Can you demonstrate the kids actually learned something from the experience? Is there a way the kids could experience the learning without leaving the classroom? Can the parents pay their childs portion of the cost of the trip? All of these are questions we'll be asked by administration. I'm a firm believer in meaningful field trips, and I'll do my best to justify them.
Field trips are a great way to experience science outside of the classroom. Students can have experiences that they would not be able to have in the classroom, but can connect their field trip back to what they learn in the classroom. You gave some valuable for field trips- what a variety.
ReplyDeleteI would also explore further maybe any classroom management strategies, especially because they will be in a new environment. Sometimes it could be a struggle to keep classroom rules in place when students are on a field trip for the day. It is important for teachers to not only lay the groundwork for classroom management actually in the classroom but to ensure that students still behave on field trips.
I like the idea of inexpensive field trips! My only question is how do you get there inexpensively? I checked out the website and there are a lot of good ideas there and definitely work into the science curriculum. The experiences of field trips definitely outweigh what can be learned in the classroom. Thanks for the ideas!
ReplyDeleteField trips are an important way for student's to have fun while in elementary school. Field trips teach students a lot about purposeful content and how to be social and how to behave in another enviroment that is not school or home. I hope that school's will see the postive impact field trips have on their students to provide funding for the trip.
ReplyDeleteI think this is awesome Michelle. Students must be provided great opportunities such as field trips. It gives them a chance to relate what they are learning in the classroom to real life. Field trips are also a break from a normal school environment, but are still educational. I like the ideas that you found and the fact that you brought up the importance of field trips!
ReplyDeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteI think that getting students out of the classroom and into the real world is very useful. Students love the adventure and giving them a "hands on" experience can really help reinforce concepts. Even if it is just taking a class outside on campus, it gives the students an opportunity to get some fresh air and clear the cobwebs.
I think another way to get some of the same experiences without having to relocate yourself and pay for transportation would be to have someone from that place come into your classroom. I remember in elementary school we had an Owl trainer come into our classroom, we had a girls parent come in who worked at the zoo, and so on. One great thing about having an expert come into the classroom is that: it is cheap, students can easily make the connection to what they are doing in the classroom, and students love having visitors and speakers come into their classroom. Thank you for the field trip ideas and the wonderful website, just think too, you don't always have to go on a field trip!
ReplyDelete