ST. PETERSBURG — Dozens of Midtown Academy fourth graders and their chaperones disembarked from two school buses outside the James Museum of Western Wildlife Art and chatted as they lined up in pre-assigned groups. .
They entered the cave-like sculptural arroyo that welcomes visitors, paused for selfies in front of an indoor waterfall, and stepped silently. They received a brief welcome in the museum's auditorium and then departed to experience the art.
For most of the kids, it was their third or fourth field trip of the year. And they couldn't be happier.
10-year-old Brynley Brown said as her classmates tried on Western clothing displayed by physician Chuck Duritsch. “It's fun. You learn a lot of new things. You have to get out of school. … You can't always picture it without a field trip.”
Pinellas County Superintendent Kevin Hendrick expected such a response when he set a goal to engage students through hands-on activities. Many children lost interest as classes moved online during the pandemic, and then once they returned, everyone had to distance themselves due to ongoing health concerns.
Many additional events that captured students' attention were scaled back.Attendance rate has decreased Families are now taking advantage of Florida's growing number of other educational options.
Hendrick made it clear that the district needs to do more to get students back. For him, that meant giving him a reason to be there beyond sitting in a classroom and listening to lectures. He encouraged clubs, sports, and academic competition. He also created a new position on the leadership team, Director of Student Experience, to oversee this effort.
“So many people are talking about attendance, and we have an attendance crisis,” Hendrick said. “You can't get out of this situation by creating policies and talking about them.”
The answer, he argued, lies in giving children something to look forward to. And field trips are a key feature of that effort.
Kim Hill, director of the student experience, said the district had 15,000 more students sign up for field trips this school year than a year ago. Funding comes from a variety of sources, including the district's property tax referendum and federal pandemic relief funds.
Hill said her office is working on developing a system to track data while continuing to provide opportunities for all students. This is a priority for the district, she added. “There’s power in getting off campus.”
There's research to back that up.
Heidi Erickson, assistant professor of educational leadership at Brigham Young University, conducted a study to measure the effectiveness of field trip participation among a randomly selected group of students from the Atlanta School District. One group traveled to the cultural center three times, and the other group remained at the school.
Over time, Erickson said, students who participated in field trips improved their academic performance, had fewer discipline problems and were more tolerant of others. The results are statistically strong enough to suggest a causal relationship, she said, but she added that the reason is less clear.
One theory is that students associated school with positive activities that encouraged them to work harder.
“Overall, field trips are a relatively low-cost, simple intervention or activity that can improve students' educational experiences,” Erickson said. “I think schools should be more accepting of that.”
Sarah O'Donoghue, an art teacher at Midtown Academy, said taking her students to art museums gets them excited about art by showing reproductions and reprints in class. She also provides ideas for back to school, such as creating your own work based on what you see.
It may be difficult to gather all the children together or arrange a bus for the trip. At least one month of preparation is required. “But they love it so it's okay,” O'Donoghue said.
For example, she didn't mind when Dekota Brown, 9, wandered away from the group to take in art on her own terms.
“I don't always like being with a crowd,” Dakota explains, poring over the brushstrokes and shading in her paintings. “I like quiet spaces.”
It was also great that Jace Nettles, 10, toured the exhibit with his smartphone and recorded everything he could until the battery died. From his teacher's perspective, Jace valued the museum's potential.
“It's beautiful and amazing,” Jace said, adding that the video was “to capture the moment and share it with my family.”
For Thomas Myers, a math teacher at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, expanding children's worldviews is a key selling point of field trips. He guided 25 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders to USF's St. Petersburg campus and the St. Petersburg Grand Prix as part of a science and engineering field trip in March, just before spring break.
With support from the City of St. Petersburg, students from Bay Point Middle School and John Hopkins Middle School also participated in the trip.
“As kids grow up and figure out what they want to do and where they fit in the world,” Meyers said as he watched students participate in a computer-aided design contest to create logos for the race. , this is very important.”
His colleague, science teacher Amy Gress, said the students clearly enjoyed seeing how some of the lessons they had learned in school were applied in real life.
“I love this classroom every day,” Gress said as she watched students experiment with 3D printers, electronic circuits and virtual reality goggles at USF’s Library Manufacturing Station.
She praised the district for making a concerted effort to get students on more field trips. She said, “Everywhere I take them, they get so excited.”
Angela Truong, who has three children in the area, accompanied her son Alex Nguyen, an eighth-grader, on the trip. She, too, said schools should offer as many field trips as possible to keep children interested in what they are learning.
“The kids look forward to it and it's something they will remember,” Truong said. “My youngest son still talks about the time he went to the firehouse from kindergarten.”
Her son Alex agreed.
“Instead of being stuck in a classroom, you can go exploring,” he said as he waited to head to the race paddock to meet the pit crew and drivers. “I like seeing how things are made and how they work. It's better to see it in person than in a photo.”
For sixth-grader Jordyn Shelby, field trips provide a much-needed distraction. “Sitting in class every day is really boring,” she said while eating lunch in one of USF's cafeterias, which she said was much better than the school lunches. “This is a more fun way to learn.”
Her classmate, Marley Larkin, said she had never participated in a car race before. She welcomed more new experiences and suggested that it was about right for her to do one each marking period. Without knowing it, she agreed with the Overseer's words.
“It's something to look forward to,” Marley said. “Everyone likes field trips.”
