Educational field trips

A field trip is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment.

The purpose of the trip is usually observation for education or non-experimental research. The aim of this research is to observe the subject in its natural state and possibly collect samples. In western culture people first come across this method during school years when classes are taken on excursions to visit a geological or geographical feature of the landscape, for example. Much of the early research into the natural sciences was of this form. Charles Darwin is an important example of someone who has contributed to science through the use of field trips.

Field trips are extracurricular educational field studies a class makes. These are normally one day long, but they can be longer. Such excursions usually consist of visits to local landmarks and educational institutions, like zoos, parks and museums.

The term is most often used in an educational sense, classes are taken on a residential biology field trip or a geography field trip, most often where the experiences delivered by the field trip cannot be undertaken in the class room. However, the term is also sometimes used by non-educational entities to refer to off-site research studies and/or leisure activities.

Residential field trips are popular with some teachers because the experience of staying away from home provides an environment where children can grow in self confidence and awareness of the needs of others.

There is a controversy as to whether or not it is appropriate to do field trips. Some people believe they are unnecessary because the liability increases when students are taken off school property, requiring extra insurance.

To mitigate these risks and expenses, most school systems now have formalized field trip procedures that considers the entire trip from estimation, approval and scheduling through planning the actual trip and post-trip activities.