The Power Of Field Trips

I strive to make every day interesting for my students. I work hard to make sure they are participating in verified activities throughout the 80 minute class, and try to engage each learner where they are—playing to their strengths and interests as much as possible. 

It’s still just school.

The truth of it is this: We are preaching workplace readiness skills and 21st century learning on the daily, but we are doing it from the pulpit in our classrooms with examples and visions of the working environment.

We need to take them out of that academic environment, and surround them with the real world. Business is everywhere, people, and that is where we should teach from. 

Rationale For Field Trips

I can rationalize students going absolutely anywhere. We have that ability as business education teachers to advocate for visiting any type of business under the sun. What we need to do is prove to students that business is, in fact, everywhere, by taking them places that are of interest to them and proving the connection to our classroom.

The rationale for any and every field trip can be the exact same: To expose students and future professionals to the world of work in any field related to business.

So, yeah, Boo Boo, we’re heading to Disneyland!

How do I pay for it?

This is, by far, the toughest part of any field trip for me. How do I fund this experience in a way that is reasonably priced for students, while still having their “buy-in” with some money coming from them? Here are several ways:

• Fundraise – We do several different fundraisers throughout the school year, and they work very well to get every kid participating. We find that we don’t earn significant funds usually, but the biggest thing in this area is that every kid does their part.
• Course fees – This may not be possible due to your demographic, but we have students pay a yearly course fee that pays for industry certifications, FBLA, and has a little left over for my discretional use. 
• Donors/Sponsors – We have a sponsorship letter that we use to try to secure funds from business sources in our town. Living in Las Vegas, you’d think this would be much easier than it actually turns out to be. This is the toughest way, in my opinion.
• Perkins/government funding – Say hello to my very best friend Perkins. No matter where you are teaching in the United States, Perkins is supporting you to some degree. While it has many rules and limits, my good friend Perkins is there to support your students’ learning—-even if it means leaving campus.
• Just ask… – I’ve got a fantastic administration who supports even my craziest ideas, and they do their best to support me financially, too. I’ve also got district people who, sometimes with the right bait, can help me. All they can say is no, people, just ask them. 

How Many Kids Should I Take?

Here’s an answer nobody wants to hear: It depends.

The biggest hurdle for me is obtaining chaperones. DECA, for example, requires a chaperone at a 10:1 ratio, and your school probably has their own requirement. That may slow down your field trip abilities.

The actual answer for me is this:

• Day trips – As many kids as I can take depending on the location requirements and ability to get chaperones
• Overnight trips – One busload. I can’t manage more than that effectively with hotel rooms, activities and food.

Benefits Of Multi-Grade Levels

I currently teach juniors and seniors, with my partner teaching the freshmen and sophomores. Not including CTSOs, I don’t know any of the younger kids, but she has the privilege of knowing all of the kids, which helps us a lot. Most of our field trips are open to our entire Business Management program, so we take freshmen through seniors. We find this has several benefits:

• Make friends/get mentors – Through our trips and grouping for projects, our students meet others with similar interests in different grades. It supports their learning, and makes them feel more engaged in our Program. They exchange numbers, and have someone to reach out to with questions or for help on projects.
• Leadership opportunities – Grouping students together with different grades, it is interesting to watch the growth and development of leaders within the teams. We witness freshmen extending themselves to take leadership roles, and see the seniors practicing their supervisory skills to make sure everything gets done well.
• Continuity – Having annual or bi-annual trips is a huge selling point for our Program. Incoming freshmen learn very quickly what they have to look forward to in the four years with us, and our kids who have participated in a field trip previously take on that leadership role to support the learning of the younger kids. It is also an incredible recruitment tool.

The BOSS Trip

A very popular annual field trip I want to share with you is the BOSS Project. One of my interns is responsible for setting it up every year, so what the students are doing and studying changes from year to year. It is something, however, that anyone anywhere can do, because all you need is a local shopping center. Consider this:

• What is it exactly? – We have a huge, extremely profitable and popular mall about a mile from our school. It has everything a regular mall has, plus an ice rink, minor league baseball field, and farmer’s market, in addition to other things. We use our connections at the mall to have students visit the mall in teams in an effort to solve a problem. 
• Where to go? – You can do this field trip at any mall or shopping center, with or without assistance from the mall management. The larger the shopping center, the more kids you can bring.
• What to do? – Our teams of students are given research to do, and some problems to solve for the vendors within the mall. They ultimately create a presentation that (theoretically) they share with the mall or store management
• Interested? – Message me for more information about this fantastic field trip.

Theme Parks

Here is the granddaddy of all field trips. Take them to a theme park. Oh boy…We just got back from Disneyland with a group of 50 (remember—only one bus for overnighters!) and they had a spectacular time. They learned, played, and got out of their normal routines for about 36 hours of pure joy and fun. 

• Very expensive – I don’t care whether you do Disney, Universal, or the local zoo, it’s going to be expensive. Because of the darn bus. For Disneyland, the bus alone was close to $4000. That equates to almost $100 per kid right off the bat. Ignoring the skyrocketing prices of the theme park ticket, we also needed a hotel, which came in at $250 a night. You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?  
• Where to go? – 
  • Major theme parks are not within driving distance for everyone, so that might be out. We are fortunate to be able to drive to many alternatives in Los Angeles and San Diego, and hopefully there is something close to you. Many theme parks have organized programs for schools, and can help you with discounted tickets, too. At Disneyland, for example, we did a three-hour leadership class in the theme park, and received a decent discount on our two-day tickets.
  • Smaller locations may have programs for you to complete with your groups. The San Diego Zoo does, for example. But if they don’t, you can easily create some research-based projects for your students to complete while they are on site. Analyzing retail offerings, for example, or studying crowd movement through the most popular attractions.   
• What to do? – So we’ve got the groups mixing grade levels, and they are in smaller teams of 6 – 8 to move around the facility. Now what? That is entirely up to you to decide. While they need some project to complete and research to do, don’t forget to give them that important time to relax, enjoy themselves, and build relationships with different students. 

Intrigued Yet?

Now that I’ve given you some things to think about, I’m going to leave you for the two weeks to do some homework, and will continue this important and fun topic next time. 

In Part Two of this topic, we will look at some very unique and different ideas you can expand on for field trips your kids will never forget, that just might spark their interest for a future career.

While you are waiting for Part Two, please do the following:

1. Make a list of good places for field trips within one mile of your school
2. Make a list of good places for field trips within a 20 mile radius
3. Find some super fun area within driving distance you could visit with students
4. Think about a need or two in your community that could be served by your students within one day
5. Look around your classrooms for potential Interns next year who can plan your field trips

On that note, I’ll see you on February 26 for Part Two of The Ultimate Field Trip!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING THIS FAR!!!

Wow, thank you for reading about the ultimate field trip!

Hey, since you’re here! You may as well check out what it’s like to attend conference, here, and learn about project based learning, here! Check out our other topics here! Either way, I appreciate you!

Please leave a COMMENT about any tips you may have!! Or comment what your favorite lesson of mine was! How’s your student organization operating?

Feel free to contact me or leave a COMMENT with anything you would like to hear more about! Or reach out with any unrelated questions, comments, concerns, or random outbursts of excitement by clicking here.

Oh! And don’t forget to check out my video series by CLICKING HERE!!!