Why is it that when freshmen year rolls around, there are no field trips? Except for a few junior and senior classes, marine bio, and personal finance as past examples, there are very few trips, including the big one freshman year. That’s about 3 trips in 4 years, not counting senior week, which is only if you graduate. If we subtract the foreign exchange we canceled this year, I’d say we need some more field trips to motivate our student body.
Junior Ava Brown records her last field trip being ¨the 7th grade science museum.¨ She says in response to what she thinks of field trips that they are ¨hands on¨ and thinks ¨they are great for kids. ¨ According to most students I asked, a Field Trip is positive with not much negative connotation behind it.
Are Field Trips a Privilege Or A Right?
Field trips give students a chance to learn beyond the classroom. They make lessons more exciting and help connect school subjects to real life. By visiting places like museums, nature centers, or historical sites, students can explore new environments and gain hands-on experience, according to teachers. Thomas Horsley, who teaches Environmental Science, Marine Biology, and sustainability, which is a class he’s teaching next year. The course is about ¨How we can take care of our environment moving on,¨ said Horsley.
Horsley believes the primary benefits are that he thinks they’re a fun way to show students what these different fields are like.¨ Teachers say they can use these trips to show how what’s taught in class applies to the real world. Field trips can also inspire new interests and careers, helping students discover what they enjoy and what they might want to learn more about. Francisco Torres, a business and finance teacher at Triton High School, believes ¨Field trips are a privilege for children doing well, needing to be exposed to a certain career field.¨ Field trips are much more than just a break from the classroom—they are powerful learning experiences, which is agreed on by many teachers as well as students. They give students the chance to see, touch, and explore what they’ve been studying.
Torres does believe they can be beneficial as well, but only with proper direction. Such as ¨If a teacher who is planning it provides objectives and goals¨, he explained that this gives a field trip some reason. Mr. Horsley states that field trips are a way to ¨a real world experience ¨ Recently, Mr. Torres joined a co-worker and business teacher, Amy Lantaigne, on a trip for personal finance to NHTI. But, when Horsley was asked what his most successful trip was, he answered the one with UNH, where he worked to ¨restore the dunes.¨
The work behind the trip
With any event comes challenges behind it and the planning itself. The Triton Voice asked Mr. Torres and Mr. Horsley what challenges they face. Mr. Torres reported back that ¨Some challenges are getting students to understand their responsibilities.¨ He again repeated that a field trip is a privilege earned from giving back the same effort in your work. Some challenges, according to Horsley, are, ¨The right date¨. He believes there is a lot of conflict with teachers over wanting their students to miss classes for these trips. This sometimes means these field trips get overlooked. Horsley gets fair and direct feedback, wanting to hear the works and didn’t work on the trip, and when asked if he wants more field trips to be brought up to the school, he answered, ¨Absolutely! 100%! It is ridiculously important, ¨ Torres says ¨If every teacher were to do 5 field trips a year, that’d be great. ¨ So I think we can all agree that field trips are more needed.
Advocacy is the way to get these trips on track, so if we keep speaking up and giving ideas, the field trips can happen. Teachers, students, and even the place itself can benefit from these trips, leading paths for students to take that weren’t there before.
