Family Field Trips

Make Learning Fun For Your Family; Take and Educational Vacation.

by Tanya Frank

There is something about being human that makes us crave the elements of nature, creativity and the unrivaled learning experience of seeing something new and different.

As a teacher at a small independent school for gifted children, ages 9-14, I encourage experiential, hands-on learning. There is no finer way to stimulate the senses, build upon what we have learned, or pose a new topic of study than the field trip.

Prior to an adventure, research the subject or locale of interest and arm yourself with field trip journals, pencils, a camera, a pack lunch, first aid kit, a map, an adequate ratio of adults to children, the name of the host or expert and a teacher's guide, if one exists.

Just the mere act of leaving the physical domain of the home or the classroom will create a raised level of inquiry. The kinesthetic aspect of exploration and the opportunity to engage with teachers, parents, peers and subject specialists provide our students with the means to learn about the past and the present and to develop a sense of responsibility for their community.

Last year, to complement our science curriculum, we visited the Mount Wilson Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena. The scenery is spectacular and the journey to the summit exhilarating. In addition, the observatory itself is a extraordinary feat of engineering, with solar telescopes mounted on high towers.

Among other projects, our students were able to observe an astronomer reflecting images of the sun's hot spots, the cool stuff that keeps the sun hot! As complicated as this may sound, the scientist, along with the museum's exhibits, made the subject accessible enough for one of our students to write a follow-up paper on the subject.

This year, to illustrate our cross-curricular theme of "Creative California," we will visit the Watts Towers, the Bottle Village in Simi Valley, the Hollywood Heritage Museum and various architects' creations in and around L.A. To accompany our teachings on "Early Life on Earth" and "The Migration Patterns to the USA," we will attend the "Bog People" exhibit at the Natural History Museum, conduct an archaeological dig in Topanga and visit "California: The Golden Years" at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.

Get the flavor? As Creative Californians in their own right, our kids can choose to draw a picture, sculpt a bust, write a poem, find a fossil, model a map or collect junk from a recycling center and fashion a mosaic or montage. The possibilities are endless. The joy of discovering the world in this way furthers their love of learning and promotes their ability to conduct research on their very doorstep.