Students Field Trip -Meaning, 5 benefits, advantages and disadvantages of Field Trip
Introduction
A number of factors have come into play in the past 10 years to interfere with the students field trip element of the educational experience.
Decreased funding across all government departments and educational system have forced administrations to resort to the most economical educational experiences.
Inflationary prices in fuel and transportation services have made the cost of travelling to a remote location nearly prohibited, with prices for a school bus well one $100 and frequently over $200 for a single trip. Efforts to improve the educational system within the state of Maine and throughout the united have resulted in a huge increase in the workload of teachers as they at empty to incorporate new curriculum plans and education methodology.
All of these factors combined to reduce the number of schools taking field trips to museums, planetariums and cultural centres. Consequently, depriving managed students of experiences that would enrich this education and, for some, provide motivation and insights that suit their learning style.
What is a field trip?
A field trip can be explained as a group of students and their classroom to increase their understanding and exposure to curriculum-related topics. The trip may include visits to explore its collections a walking tour to learn about some aspect of the surroundings, or some other type of educational experience.
The field trip should augment content, skills and processes as recommended for their grade level by the Massachusetts frameworks. MITS levels that field trips and available classroom resources are an integral part of a curriculum for many schools. Such field trips do or can be made to complement the Massachusetts frameworks and local curriculum.
We have prepared this memo for museum educators to use and inform their administrators, trustees and other supporters about the value of field trips to their museum for the students of Massachusetts in hopes that they will inform the board of education. The board needs to hear this from thoughtful, respected community members.
These are the cases of field trips
(1) The PALMS: PALMS stand for partners Advancing the learning of mathematics and science it is the learning project at the Massachusetts department of education based on the assumption that partners from the community increase the resources available for the education of students in schools.
(2) The National Science Foundation and the US Department of Education, in their funding of school/museum programs, mandate that they be tied to the educational reform standards.
(3) The National science education standards under teaching standard D State that the school science program must extend beyond the walls of the school to include the resources of the community.
Benefits of field trips to students
- Field trips extend the resources available to students in the classroom.
- They expand learning by giving the student access to the real thing
- They illustrate and permit experience with what has been read about, such as television or computer software. Teachers include field trips in their units of study for this purpose. Therefore, field trips are linked to the classroom because they are contextualized within the curriculum.
- Teachers choose from museum programs and exhibits to expand and reinforce desired concepts
- Field trips can contribute to many different disciplines of the school curriculum and demonstrate that mathematics is not separate from art, from silence, from history etc. the world is not segregated into neat little boxes with labels such as social studies and science.
A field trip is an opportunity for learning in an interdisciplinary setting to bring it all together and start the process of thinking.
Museums have artefacts and exhibits that provide opportunities for learning through direct experience, reaching the student who does not learn as well from traditional modes of teaching. Museums provide opportunities for students to practice and practice observation skills which enhance the hands-on inquiry mode of teaching.
The common chapters of the Massachusetts framework state that learning must be for all students. They chart various types of intelligence filing examples from the framework that address these types of learning. They also give examples of strategies which may be used to help all students to learn.
These strategies can be augmented and made more relevant through planned field trips. It can also provide students with research opportunities around a topic of study. They provide a setting for practising observational skills to awaken curiosity and inquiry.
Life-long learning in field trips the framework advocate learning and teaching so that the opportunities for lifelong learning are opened up to students.
For many students, the school field trip is the only opportunity to visit a museum. It is one more way to provide equal opportunity for all students.
Field trips introduce students to different worlds which can be enjoyed throughout their lives. School field trips provide an organized learning experience that is different from visiting a museum for entertainment purposes with parents or scouts.
The term museum we are talking about is should be understood to include all informal education institutions and cultural resources, maintaining allocation and education staff and offering education programs to the public.
Therefore, the term includes botanical gardens, aquariums, 200s, historical sites, nature centres, planetariums etc, all of which are considered part of the informal education network offering field trips.
Advantages of field trips
These are the advantage of field trips: one of the biggest advantages to field trips is that:
– Field trips allow students to have a real-world experience. This experience should clearly illustrate and enhance the information taught by the curriculum.
For example, a textbook lesson on the life cycle of a salmon can be enhanced by where the students can clearly see the salmon in its many life stages. New learning Environment. Field trips allow the students to learn outside of the classroom. This is slightly different from the first advantage, while the first advantage of field trips is to supplement the curriculum.
The second advantage is that field trips offer the opportunity to teach students something new. A field trip to a local flight museum that features space flight simulators will teach students a lot about rockets that cannot be nearly as effectively taught in a classroom.
– Team building; field trips bring students closer together. Many field trips combine educational content with team-building activities, such as working together to clear a stream that has been polluted. In fact, it is often a good idea to go on a field trip early in the school year to help create a bond between the student
Disadvantages of field trips
– Planning one of the disadvantages of field trips is that they take an incredible amount of planning. You must figure out transportation issues and chaperones (including background checks). Food and alternate plans in inclement weather if the trips to a location outdoors. You must make sure that every child has signed a permission form, that you have emergency contact and information available on each student (inkling allergies), and that all fees have been paid in advance.
– Liability: Field trips bring up a wide array of legal issues, most regarding liability. If a student gets injured in a school, it is liable for medical fees. What about the park or the forest ranger leading the like? Parents may be nervous about the safety of their children. Other liabilities include exposure issues.
For example, even a children’s theatre performance may contain material or scenes that some parents might object to.
CONCLUSION
Finally, field trips bring classroom study alive for student alive for students and help them to remember and relate to what they have learned. And also provide new cultural contexts for literature and provoke questions.
REFERENCE
April Sanders, (1998) a professional educator on academic research content for publishing and elementary curriculum.
