Sure, field trips are fun. You get out of the classroom for the day to explore the world around you with classmates and teachers. But field trips offer so many more benefits aside from fun, from real-world learning to socio-emotional growth.
Today we’re explore the many significant benefits posed by field trips as part of our summer camp offerings.
Real-World Learning
Field trips are excellent tools for providing real-world experiences, whether that’s a trip to a water park, museum, zoo, theater, or a community garden. These experiences enrich the students’ understanding of the world in a variety of ways. A field trip is a bridge from the classroom to the real world, where students can witness in action what they have been learning from books in class. They learn to connect those concepts with how to solve problems they encounter on a daily basis.
Access to Other Environments
Students can use field trips as gateways to tools and environments they otherwise wouldn’t have access to in school. There are many rich learning laboratories to be found out in the community, bringing to life anything from an underwater ecosystem at an aquarium to historical artifacts in a museum that can be seen and touched. Each experience takes a student’s learning to new heights while supporting important academic concepts.
Socio-Emotional Growth
There is an incredible educational value inherent in field trips. One study shows that students who participate in field trips to places like museums display more tolerance, empathy, and critical thinking skills. Studying art in particular gives kids an opportunity to think critically about a certain theme while approaching it from a different perspective.
Academic Impact
Field-based learning boosts test scores. One study revealed that middle school students who went on science field trips scored higher on state science tests. Why? Hands-on learning opportunities provided by field trips can make concepts more memorable and therefore allow students to retain that information more readily. They also help students engage with content in a multitude of ways. Thus, students who typically struggle with traditional learning can learn more holistically in a multisensory learning environment.
Cultural Growth and Personal Development
Museums are one of the most common destinations for school and day care center field trips. Why? Each painting, exhibit, and statue offers a portal back in time to a specific location and set of socioeconomic conditions. All of these factors work together to influence how an artist rendered their experiences and put them into a visual art form. This gives students a basic understanding of what life was like in that time period.
Different Modalities
In the classroom, teachers are restricted to the confines of textbooks or digital media. But in the field, teachers can present lessons using different modalities and perspectives. Field trips simulate concepts discussed in class without the dry, often times boring droning of the teacher for an hour straight. Using a variety of real-world applications, from sight to touch to taste, traditionally dry concepts can be brought to life with a much higher chance of the learning sinking in later.
Student Engagement
New concepts may not quite register in the minds of students when they fail to find the topic or subject matter engaging or relatable to their lifestyles. Field trips break that apathy barrier, allowing students to interact freely with subjects such as objects, places, processes, and personalities without being constrained by the rigid nature of a classroom.
They are more free to explore other friendships, bonding with others during their trip that they otherwise may not have in a traditional learning environment. These excursions also serve to sharpen their observation and perception skills while engaging in sensory-based learning to enjoy a deeper understanding of the topic at hand.
Abstract classroom concepts and unstructured ideas can take shape through hands-on learning experiences, which is beneficial to students who otherwise have difficulty keeping up with traditional classroom discussions. When you pair knowledge with tactile or relatable examples with classroom lectures, students are better able to recognize how these concepts work in real life.
Now that you know all the learning benefits that can come with attending field trips, why not come see us and find out what we offer for your little ones?
Book a Tour of Country Home Learning Center Today
Here at Country Home Learning Center, we know the value of field trips, and offer them frequently as part of our summer camp outings. Take a virtual tour of our facilities or book a tour in person with us today in San Antonio or Austin.