20 Instructional Strategies That Engage the Brain: #3 Field Trips
A while back, I was invited to present for the Honolulu Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. My husband and I went one week earlier than the day on which I was to present so that we could enjoy the scenic beauty and historical significance of our 50th state. I will never forget spending one of those days at Pearl Harbor. We were there with several high school classes who experienced the same emotional impact on this field trip as did we. After a tour of the grounds and a video recalling the horrific attack on December 7, 1941, we were transported by boat to the U.S.S. Arizona memorial. It was such a spiritual experience that no one said a word. Students did not even have to be told not to talk. They just didn’t!
The purpose of the brain is not to make good grades or to score high on standardized tests. The brain has but one purpose: survival in the real world. Students can read about Pearl Harbor, research it on the Internet, or view a video, but none of those things can serve as substitutes for the field trip the students and I took on that day. Is it any wonder that the places that you and your students travel to in the real world are long remembered?
What the Research Says
Field trips, a form of experiential learning, enable students to acquire new knowledge through interaction and experience firsthand the concepts they are encountering in textbooks (Bouchrika, 2024).
Field trips add more context to what students have already experienced since they provide a great deal of information that teachers can refer to as they lecture (Kelly, 2019).
Aristotle and Socrates, two of the world’s greatest teachers, used field trips thousands of years ago, as tools of instruction (Krepel & Duvall, 1981).
Make It Happen
For a change of scenery, convene class outside of the classroom on the school grounds. Allowing students to absorb the vitamin D and other positive effects of sunlight and the beauty of nature calms students’ brains and puts the mind in a good state for learning. Conducting a class discussion while sitting under a tree can add a whole new dimension to instruction.
Following lessons on the concepts of angles, circles, rays, lines, line segments, and intersecting and parallel lines, take the class outside and have them identify these items on the sports fields or in the outside environment. Have students measure these fields. Following this field trip, lead students in a discussion of how geometry affects the design of sports fields.
Thanks to virtual field trips, have students experience what it is like to visit locations of interest around the globe that would be otherwise cost prohibitive or inaccessible. Go online to wesbites and access virtual field trips that pertain to a concept being taught.
For additional research and more specific examples of instructional activities that engage students in the strategy of Field Trips, consult Chapter 3 in the 4th edition of my best-selling book, Engaging the Brain: 20 Unforgettable Strategies for Growing Dendrites and Accelerating Learning.
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