Field Trip Best Practices

Clearly define your educational objectives and goals of the field trip. What specific knowledge or skills do you want students to gain from the experience? Share these goals with students and their parents, to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Provide students with relevant background information they will need to know to understand their visit. Many of our locations can provide you with suggested pre-visit readings, background information, activities, or videos to heIp provide the context for their trip. 

Communicate behavioral expectations, safety guidelines, and any assignments or tasks that students need to complete during or after the trip. Based on the educational goals you have defined for your particular class, make sure you have an appropriate number of trained chaperones to help achieve your goals. 

Encourage students to ask questions about what they hope to learn or discover during the trip, and discuss their upcoming trip with family members. This fosters a sense of curiosity and anticipation. 

Depending on your field trip's location, the itinerary might be planned for you by the site or might be set by you as the teacher. Find out when you book your trip how much you need to plan and set.  A structured itinerary of how the class will spend their time at location, as well as how that fits into an itinerary for a larger day of exploration if seeing other sites, helps ensure your time at a location is focused, purposeful, and maximized. Even if your time is limited, planning can help make every minute count on-site, and the available classroom resources can assist you in extending the important lessons back at school.

Incorporate interactive and hands-on activities on-site to keep students engaged and actively participating. On-site activity options are available, such as the handson, printable Field Notes journal, and educators are encouraged to create your own.

Build in moments for students to pause and reflect on what they're seeing and learning on-site/in the moment. This can be through question prompts from teachers and chaperones, or by utilizing the Freedom Park Field Notebook activity, which provides a printable “Field Notebook” of diverse prompts.

Encourage students to take photos, record videos, or make sketches during the trip. This creates tangible memories and materials for post-trip activities.

Hold a debriefing session where students share their experiences, discoveries, and insights. This helps consolidate their learning and encourages peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. Ask your location if they have any suggested Post-Visit Prompts & Strategies for Discussion & Reflection that could help you.

Assign activities and projects that require students to synthesize what they learned during their trip. Some ideas might include:

• Create an exhibit on a topic they learned about during their visit.
• Write a story or create a piece of artwork based on their experience.
• Write a thank you letter to the site about their favorite memory from the trip.
• Take civic action or plan a community engagement activity on a cause they may have learned about. 

Relate the trip experiences back to the classroom curriculum. Discuss how the trip's content aligns with information and concepts they’ve learned in class and highlight the real-world connections, reinforcing the relevance of the experience.

Invite guest speakers who are related to a topic or theme that they learned about during their visit to further enhance students' understanding and create real-world connections.

Provide opportunities for students to showcase their projects and share their insights with the wider school community, fostering a sense of accomplishment and further sharing the relevance of what students learned and experienced on their field trip.

Offer resources for further exploration, such as recommended books, appropriate films, or additional field trips that students can engage in with their families to learn more about the subjects of their trip.

Gather feedback from students about their experience. What did they find valuable? What could be improved? This helps refine future field trips. 

Reflect on the effectiveness of the trip and the strategies used. What worked well? What could be adjusted for better outcomes next time you visit with a group of students? Is there a specific resource you wish the location made available for your use?