Beyond the Field Trip (Call for Papers)

September 2020: Beyond the Field Trip

Deadline October 1, 2019

Consider writing an article for Science and Children, NSTA's premier peer-educator journal dedicated to PreK-5 science teaching and learning.

We all know about the benefits of a field trip on a child in making learning more meaningful and memorable. How are field trips or field experiences planned and implemented in your school? Are you still involved in the more traditional type trips to the zoo, pumpkin farm, or local nature center; without fully connecting the long-lasting benefits? With budgetary issues making a single trip to any local venue an almost impossible option for many teachers, how have some schools and teachers, looked beyond the field trip model to find alternatives? Share some of your innovative and intriguing ideas for field trips and field experiences. Thinking outside of the box, offer ideas about how to bring multi-sensory, impactful field trip experiences to children of all ages. Share your models of bringing the field trip experience into the classroom, extending the learning through field study trips, or providing meaningful pre- and post-trip learning connections. How are you connecting the real-world benefits that a field trip can afford to your students?

Article suggestions for this issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Identify and outline a successful field trip or field experience for elementary students. Include supporting evidence for student learning.

• Describe a field experience from planning stages to the summative assessment. How did the experience raise the level of learning for your students?

• Share a field experience that provided differentiation opportunities for student learning modifications. How were students supported?

• Explain the details of an out-of-the-ordinary field trip or experience and how it supported student learning.

• Be sure to include cost-related information as well as ideas for cost alternatives or cost reduction.