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The Benefits of Field Trips: Why They Are Important for Education

By Happy Sharer

Introduction

Field trips have been a staple of education for centuries. From school trips to museums, historical sites, and outdoor activities, field trips offer students an opportunity to learn in a unique and engaging environment outside of the traditional classroom. Field trips can provide students with invaluable experiences that promote learning, encourage exploration, and inspire creativity. In this article, we will explore why field trips are important and how they can help solve the problem of student engagement.

Examining the Educational Benefits of Field Trips

Field trips offer a number of educational benefits that cannot be replicated in a classroom setting. By participating in field trips, students gain hands-on experience, introduce new ideas and perspectives, and enhance their learning through exploration.

Gaining Hands-on Experience

One of the most important benefits of field trips is that they provide students with hands-on experience. By visiting museums, historical sites, and other places of interest, students are able to interact with and explore objects and artifacts that may not be available in their classroom. Through these interactions, students can develop a deeper understanding of the material they are studying and gain a greater appreciation for the topic.

Introducing New Ideas and Perspectives

Another benefit of field trips is that they allow students to be exposed to new ideas and perspectives. By visiting different locations, students can observe the world around them in a way that is not possible in the classroom. This exposure to new environments and cultures can help students better understand the topics they are studying and gain a broader perspective on the world.

Enhancing Learning Through Exploration

Finally, field trips provide students with an opportunity to explore and discover new information. By engaging in activities such as scavenger hunts and interactive exhibits, students can engage in active learning and gain a deeper understanding of the material. This type of exploration encourages critical thinking and creative problem-solving, which can help students become more successful learners.

Exploring the Impact of Field Trips on Student Engagement

In addition to providing educational benefits, field trips can also help improve student engagement. By participating in field trips, students can develop motivation, enthusiasm, and a sense of confidence and self-esteem.

Improving Motivation and Enthusiasm

Field trips can help improve student motivation and enthusiasm by providing an engaging and stimulating learning environment. By participating in activities that are both fun and educational, students can become more engaged in their learning and be more likely to take an active role in the classroom.

Developing Social Skills

Field trips can also help students develop social skills. By interacting with their peers in a new environment, students can learn how to communicate and collaborate more effectively. This type of interaction can help students build relationships with their classmates, which can lead to increased engagement in the classroom.

Increasing Confidence and Self-Esteem

Finally, field trips can help increase student confidence and self-esteem. By participating in activities outside of the classroom, students can learn new skills, explore new ideas, and be exposed to new experiences. This type of learning can help students feel more confident in their abilities and be more willing to take risks in the classroom.

Experiencing History Firsthand Through Field Trips

Field trips can also provide students with the opportunity to experience history firsthand. By visiting historical sites and monuments, students can connect classroom lessons to real-world applications and gain a better understanding of historical events.

Connecting Classroom Lessons to Real-World Applications

By visiting historical sites, museums, and monuments, students can learn about the past in a more meaningful way. By seeing the artifacts and hearing firsthand accounts from experts, students can gain a better understanding of the events that shaped the world. This type of learning can help students make connections between what they are learning in the classroom and the real world.

Encouraging Students to Be Curious and Ask Questions

Field trips can also encourage students to be curious and ask questions. By exploring new environments and interacting with experts, students can gain a better understanding of the topics they are studying and be more likely to ask questions and seek out additional information. This type of curiosity can help students become more engaged in their learning and be more likely to take an active role in the classroom.

Understanding Historical Events in a More Meaningful Way

Finally, field trips can help students gain a deeper understanding of historical events. By visiting the places where these events took place, students can gain a better understanding of the people, places, and events that shaped the course of history. This type of learning can help students appreciate the importance of history and gain a greater understanding of the world around them.

Connecting Classroom Learning to Real-World Applications with Field Trips

Field trips can also help bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world applications. By participating in field trips, students can apply theoretical knowledge to real-life situations, develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and build on existing knowledge and explore new topics.

Applying Theoretical Knowledge to Real-Life Situations

By participating in field trips, students can apply the theoretical knowledge they are learning in the classroom to real-life situations. By exploring different environments and interacting with experts, students can gain a better understanding of the topics they are studying and how they can be applied in the real world. This type of learning can help students become better problem-solvers and more effective communicators.

Developing Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking Skills

Field trips can also help students develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills. By engaging in activities such as scavenger hunts and interactive exhibits, students can practice critical thinking and develop strategies for solving complex problems. This type of learning can help students become more successful learners and be better prepared for the challenges of the real world.

Building on Existing Knowledge and Exploring New Topics

Finally, field trips can help students build on existing knowledge and explore new topics. By visiting different locations and engaging in activities, students can gain a deeper understanding of the material they are studying and be exposed to new ideas and perspectives. This type of exploration can help students become more informed citizens and better equipped to handle the challenges of the world.

Cultivating Curiosity and Encouraging Exploration through Field Trips

Field trips can also help cultivate curiosity and encourage exploration. By participating in field trips, students can explore their interests, create opportunities for collaboration and teamwork, and be encouraged to think creatively and innovatively.

Allowing Students to Explore Their Interests

Field trips can provide students with the opportunity to explore their interests. By visiting different locations, students can gain a better understanding of the topics they are studying and be exposed to new ideas and perspectives. This type of exploration can help students become more informed citizens and better equipped to handle the challenges of the world.

Creating Opportunities for Collaboration and Teamwork

Field trips can also create opportunities for collaboration and teamwork. By participating in activities together, students can develop communication and collaboration skills that can help them in the classroom and beyond. This type of interaction can help students build relationships with their classmates, which can lead to increased engagement in the classroom.

Encouraging Creativity and Innovation

Finally, field trips can encourage creativity and innovation. By exploring new environments and interacting with experts, students can gain a better understanding of the topics they are studying and be inspired to think critically and creatively. This type of learning can help students become more successful learners and be better prepared for the challenges of the real world.

Understanding the Role of Field Trips in Social Development

In addition to providing educational benefits, field trips can also play an important role in social development. By participating in field trips, students can develop social awareness and empathy, strengthen communication and collaboration skills, and promote respect for diversity and cultural differences.

Developing Social Awareness and Empathy

Field trips can help students develop social awareness and empathy. By visiting different locations and interacting with peers and experts, students can gain a better understanding of the world around them and learn to appreciate the perspectives of others. This type of learning can help students become more empathetic and understanding citizens.

Strengthening Communication and Collaboration Skills

Field trips can also help students strengthen their communication and collaboration skills. By participating in activities together, students can learn how to work together more effectively and develop the skills needed to succeed in the classroom and beyond. This type of interaction can help students build relationships with their classmates, which can lead to increased engagement in the classroom.

Promoting Respect for Diversity and Cultural Differences

Finally, field trips can help promote respect for diversity and cultural differences. By visiting different locations and interacting with peers and experts, students can gain a better understanding of the world around them and learn to appreciate the perspectives of others. This type of learning can help students become more accepting of cultural differences and promote understanding and respect among their peers.

Field trips are an important part of education, offering students hands-on experience, introducing new perspectives, and improving student engagement. Field trips can also help students gain a better understanding of the topics they are studying, develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and cultivate curiosity and exploration. Finally, field trips can help students develop social awareness and empathy, strengthen communication and collaboration skills, and promote respect for diversity and cultural differences. For all these reasons, it is essential that field trips remain a priority in education.

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Hi, I'm Happy Sharer and I love sharing interesting and useful knowledge with others. I have a passion for learning and enjoy explaining complex concepts in a simple way.

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Yes, Field Trips Are Worth the Effort

Culturally enriching trips can boost grades and decrease absences and behavioral infractions, new research reveals. 

As a teacher, Elena Aguilar often looked for opportunities to get her students out of the classroom and into different neighborhoods or natural environments. “We did the usual museum trips and science center stuff, but I loved the trips which pushed them into unfamiliar territory,” writes Aguilar , an instructional coach and author. Nudging kids out of their comfort zones, she says, “taught them about others as well as themselves. It helped them see the expansiveness of our world and perhaps inspired them to think about what might be available to them out there.”

Aguilar’s thinking made an impact: 15 years after traveling with her third-grade class to Yosemite National Park, a student contacted Aguilar on Facebook to thank her for the life-changing excursion. “You changed our lives with that trip,” the student wrote. “It's what made me want to be a teacher, to be able to give that same gift to other kids.”

As schools grapple with pandemic-related concerns about balancing in-seat instructional time with non-essentials like trips, new research published in The Journal of Human Resources argues that field trips, and the vital educational experiences that they provide—whether it’s a visit to a local museum or a big commitment like Aguilar’s national park trip—deliver a host of positive social and academic outcomes and are worth the effort.

“The pandemic should not keep schools from providing these essential cultural experiences forever,” asserts Jay P. Greene , one of the study’s co-authors and a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, in an opinion piece for the Daily News . “If schools make culturally-enriching field trips an integral part of the education experience, all students—especially those whose parents have a harder time accessing these experiences on their own—would benefit.”

In the study, researchers assigned more than 1,000 fourth- and fifth-grade students in Atlanta to two groups. One group participated in three to six “culturally-enriching” field trips—visits to an art museum, a live theater performance, and a symphony concert—while students in the control group stayed put in class. The outcome? Kids in the field trip group “scored higher on end-of-grade exams, received higher course grades, were absent less often, and had fewer behavioral infractions,” compared to students in the control group, according to a ScienceDaily brief . Benefits lasted two to three years, Greene writes, and were “most visible when students were in middle school.”

“We are able to demonstrate that a relatively simple intervention—and we consider it pretty low-touch; three field trips in a year, maybe six field trips in two years—can actually have some substantial impacts,” says lead study author Heidi Holmes Erickson in an interview with The 74 . “They’re not just limited to social benefits. It shows that smaller interventions can actually have some significant effects on academics as well.”

Field trips aren’t a threat to in-class instruction, Erickson notes, they’re a tool to help bolster engagement and expand students’ horizons. “It's possible to expose students to a broader world and have a culturally enriching curriculum without sacrificing academic outcomes, and it may actually improve academic outcomes,” Erickson says. Far from harming test scores, the researchers found that culturally rich excursions reinforce academics and “students who participated in these field trips were doing better in class.”

Meanwhile, class trips don't need to be elaborate productions to make an impact: small excursions outside the classroom—"low-touch," as the researchers call them—can pack a punch. Here’s how three educators recommend dialing it back with low-stakes options that are both engaging and stimulating for students, but might not require days to prepare and plan:

Make Them Bite-Sized : Instead of allocating an entire day to a field trip, educational consultant Laurel Schwartz takes her classes on micro field trips , or “short outings that can be completed in a single class period.” These real-world encounters, she says, are especially beneficial for English learners and world language students. A micro field trip to a nearby park or around school grounds, for example, can be a great opportunity to “enhance a unit on nature and wildlife while reinforcing vocabulary for senses, colors, and the concepts of quantity and size,” Schwartz writes. “Afterwards, students might write descriptive stories set in the place you visited using vocabulary collected and defined together by the class.”

Try Teacher-Less Trips : To encourage exploration and learning outside of the classroom, former social studies teacher Arch Grieve removes himself from the equation with teacher-less field trips rooted in students’ local communities. Grieve only suggests options that are directly tied to a unit being discussed in class—like attending a talk at a local university or visiting a museum or cultural festival—and offers extra credit to incentivize students. “These trips allow for a greater appreciation of my subject matter than is possible in the school setting, and perhaps best of all, there's little to no planning involved.”

Explore Virtual Options : It may not be as fun as visiting in person, but the Internet makes it possible to visit museums like The National Gallery of London and The Vatican Museums without leaving the school building. Middle school English teacher Laura Bradley likes to search the Museums for Digital Learning website by topic, keyword, and grade level, to find lessons and activities that meet her unique curricular needs. The site grants access to digitized museum collections, 3D models, audio files, documents, images, and videos. 

How to Write an Essay on a School Field Trip

Susan davis.

Teachers often ask students to write essays about school field trips. These essays allow teachers to assess exactly what students have learned on the trip. This type of assignment also ensures that students actually think about the learning that took place on the trip, so that they understand that field trips are both a fun and a learning experience. To write a field trip essay, you must stick to the topic and write at least three sections.

Write a topic sentence telling where you went on your field trip.

Write three details about your topic sentence. Consider sentences that talk about how the trip relates to what you are studying, areas of study you focused on during the trip, and any tasks you had to complete while on the trip. This is your introductory paragraph.

Write a topic sentence for a new paragraph about one specific thing you learned. Then, write three or more sentences that go into detail about what you learned and how you learned it. Talk about how this knowledge corresponds to what you have learned in class. Write two more paragraphs just like this one, covering additional points of knowledge, to make the body of your essay.

Write a concluding sentence, summarizing what you've discussed in the essay thus far. Add sentences that demonstrate the value of the trip and summarize your learning. Consider finishing the essay by discussing how you might implement the knowledge you gained during the field trip into your classroom studies in the future.

• Always read over your essay to make sure it makes sense and has no spelling or grammatical errors. You may wish to have someone else read it, as well.
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• Vol. 14, No. 1

The Educational Value of Field Trips

Jay P. Greene

Brian Kisida

Daniel H. Bowen

Jay P. Greene joined EdNext Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss the benefits of field trips, including how seeing live theater is a more enriching experience to students, on the EdNext podcast .

Crystal Bridges; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; School Tour © 2013 Stephen Ironside/Ironside Photography Bo Bartlett – “The Box” –  2002 • Oil on Linen • 82 x 100 – Photographer is Karen Mauch

The school field trip has a long history in American public education. For decades, students have piled into yellow buses to visit a variety of cultural institutions, including art, natural history, and science museums, as well as theaters, zoos, and historical sites. Schools gladly endured the expense and disruption of providing field trips because they saw these experiences as central to their educational mission: schools exist not only to provide economically useful skills in numeracy and literacy, but also to produce civilized young men and women who would appreciate the arts and culture. More-advantaged families may take their children to these cultural institutions outside of school hours, but less-advantaged students are less likely to have these experiences if schools do not provide them. With field trips, public schools viewed themselves as the great equalizer in terms of access to our cultural heritage.

Today, culturally enriching field trips are in decline. Museums across the country report a steep drop in school tours. For example, the Field Museum in Chicago at one time welcomed more than 300,000 students every year. Recently the number is below 200,000. Between 2002 and 2007, Cincinnati arts organizations saw a 30 percent decrease in student attendance. A survey by the American Association of School Administrators found that more than half of schools eliminated planned field trips in 2010–11.

The decision to reduce culturally enriching field trips reflects a variety of factors. Financial pressures force schools to make difficult decisions about how to allocate scarce resources, and field trips are increasingly seen as an unnecessary frill. Greater focus on raising student performance on math and reading standardized tests may also lead schools to cut field trips. Some schools believe that student time would be better spent in the classroom preparing for the exams. When schools do organize field trips, they are increasingly choosing to take students on trips to reward them for working hard to improve their test scores rather than to provide cultural enrichment. Schools take students to amusement parks, sporting events, and movie theaters instead of to museums and historical sites. This shift from “enrichment” to “reward” field trips is reflected in a generational change among teachers about the purposes of these outings. In a 2012‒13 survey we conducted of nearly 500 Arkansas teachers, those who had been teaching for at least 15 years were significantly more likely to believe that the primary purpose of a field trip is to provide a learning opportunity, while more junior teachers were more likely to see the primary purpose as “enjoyment.”

If schools are de-emphasizing culturally enriching field trips, has anything been lost as a result? Surprisingly, we have relatively little rigorous evidence about how field trips affect students. The research presented here is the first large-scale randomized-control trial designed to measure what students learn from school tours of an art museum.

We find that students learn quite a lot. In particular, enriching field trips contribute to the development of students into civilized young men and women who possess more knowledge about art, have stronger critical-thinking skills, exhibit increased historical empathy, display higher levels of tolerance, and have a greater taste for consuming art and culture.

Design of the Study and School Tours

The 2011 opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Northwest Arkansas created the opportunity for this study. Crystal Bridges is the first major art museum to be built in the United States in the last four decades, with more than 50,000 square feet of gallery space and an endowment in excess of $800 million. Portions of the museum’s endowment are devoted to covering all of the expenses associated with school tours. Crystal Bridges reimburses schools for the cost of buses, provides free admission and lunch, and even pays for the cost of substitute teachers to cover for teachers who accompany students on the tour.

Because the tour is completely free to schools, and because Crystal Bridges was built in an area that never previously had an art museum, there was high demand for school tours. Not all school groups could be accommodated right away. So our research team worked with the staff at Crystal Bridges to assign spots for school tours by lottery. During the first two semesters of the school tour program, the museum received 525 applications from school groups representing 38,347 students in kindergarten through grade 12. We created matched pairs among the applicant groups based on similarity in grade level and other demographic factors. An ideal and common matched pair would be adjacent grades in the same school. We then randomly ordered the matched pairs to determine scheduling prioritization. Within each pair, we randomly assigned which applicant would be in the treatment group and receive a tour that semester and which would be in the control group and have its tour deferred.

We administered surveys to 10,912 students and 489 teachers at 123 different schools three weeks, on average, after the treatment group received its tour. The student surveys included multiple items assessing knowledge about art as well as measures of critical thinking, historical empathy, tolerance, and sustained interest in visiting art museums. Some groups were surveyed as late as eight weeks after the tour, but it was not possible to collect data after longer periods because each control group was guaranteed a tour during the following semester as a reward for its cooperation. There is no indication that the results reported below faded for groups surveyed after longer periods.

We also assessed students’ critical-thinking skills by asking them to write a short essay in response to a painting that they had not previously seen. Finally, we collected a behavioral measure of interest in art consumption by providing all students with a coded coupon good for free family admission to a special exhibit at the museum to see whether the field trip increased the likelihood of students making future visits.

All results reported below are derived from regression models that control for student grade level and gender and make comparisons within each matched pair, while taking into account the fact that students in the matched pair of applicant groups are likely to be similar in ways that we are unable to observe. Standard validity tests confirmed that the survey items employed to generate the various scales used as outcomes measured the same underlying constructs.

The intervention we studied is a modest one. Students received a one-hour tour of the museum in which they typically viewed and discussed five paintings. Some students were free to roam the museum following their formal tour, but the entire experience usually involved less than half a day. Instructional materials were sent to teachers who went on a tour, but our survey of teachers suggests that these materials received relatively little attention, on average no more than an hour of total class time. The discussion of each painting during the tour was largely student-directed, with the museum educators facilitating the discourse and providing commentary beyond the names of the work and the artist and a brief description only when students requested it. This format is now the norm in school tours of art museums. The aversion to having museum educators provide information about works of art is motivated in part by progressive education theories and by a conviction among many in museum education that students retain very little factual information from their tours.

Recalling Tour Details. Our research suggests that students actually retain a great deal of factual information from their tours. Students who received a tour of the museum were able to recall details about the paintings they had seen at very high rates. For example, 88 percent of the students who saw the Eastman Johnson painting At the Camp—Spinning Yarns and Whittling knew when surveyed weeks later that the painting depicts abolitionists making maple syrup to undermine the sugar industry, which relied on slave labor. Similarly, 82 percent of those who saw Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter could recall that the painting emphasizes the importance of women entering the workforce during World War II. Among students who saw Thomas Hart Benton’s Ploughing It Under , 79 percent recollected that it is a depiction of a farmer destroying his crops as part of a Depression-era price support program. And 70 percent of the students who saw Romare Bearden’s Sacrifice could remember that it is part of the Harlem Renaissance art movement. Since there was no guarantee that these facts would be raised in student-directed discussions, and because students had no particular reason for remembering these details (there was no test or grade associated with the tours), it is impressive that they could recall historical and sociological information at such high rates.

These results suggest that art could be an important tool for effectively conveying traditional academic content, but this analysis cannot prove it. The control-group performance was hardly better than chance in identifying factual information about these paintings, but they never had the opportunity to learn the material. The high rate of recall of factual information by students who toured the museum demonstrates that the tours made an impression. The students could remember important details about what they saw and discussed.

Critical Thinking. Beyond recalling the details of their tour, did a visit to an art museum have a significant effect on students? Our study demonstrates that it did. For example, students randomly assigned to receive a school tour of Crystal Bridges later displayed demonstrably stronger ability to think critically about art than the control group.

During the first semester of the study, we showed all 3rd- through 12th-grade students a painting they had not previously seen, Bo Bartlett’s The Box . We then asked students to write short essays in response to two questions: What do you think is going on in this painting? And, what do you see that makes you think that? These are standard prompts used by museum educators to spark discussion during school tours.

We stripped the essays of all identifying information and had two coders rate the compositions using a seven-item rubric for measuring critical thinking that was developed by researchers at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The measure is based on the number of instances that students engaged in the following in their essays: observing, interpreting, evaluating, associating, problem finding, comparing, and flexible thinking. Our measure of critical thinking is the sum of the counts of these seven items. In total, our research team blindly scored 3,811 essays. For 750 of those essays, two researchers scored them independently. The scores they assigned to the same essay were very similar, demonstrating that we were able to measure critical thinking about art with a high degree of inter-coder reliability.

We express the impact of a school tour of Crystal Bridges on critical-thinking skills in terms of standard-deviation effect sizes. Overall, we find that students assigned by lottery to a tour of the museum improve their ability to think critically about art by 9 percent of a standard deviation relative to the control group. The benefit for disadvantaged groups is considerably larger (see Figure 1). Rural students, who live in towns with fewer than 10,000 people, experience an increase in critical-thinking skills of nearly one-third of a standard deviation. Students from high-poverty schools (those where more than 50 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunches) experience an 18 percent effect-size improvement in critical thinking about art, as do minority students.

A large amount of the gain in critical-thinking skills stems from an increase in the number of observations that students made in their essays. Students who went on a tour became more observant, noticing and describing more details in an image. Being observant and paying attention to detail is an important and highly useful skill that students learn when they study and discuss works of art. Additional research is required to determine if the gains in critical thinking when analyzing a work of art would transfer into improved critical thinking about other, non-art-related subjects.

Historical Empathy. Tours of art museums also affect students’ values. Visiting an art museum exposes students to a diversity of ideas, peoples, places, and time periods. That broadening experience imparts greater appreciation and understanding. We see the effects in significantly higher historical empathy and tolerance measures among students randomly assigned to a school tour of Crystal Bridges.

Historical empathy is the ability to understand and appreciate what life was like for people who lived in a different time and place. This is a central purpose of teaching history, as it provides students with a clearer perspective about their own time and place. To measure historical empathy, we included three statements on the survey with which students could express their level of agreement or disagreement: 1) I have a good understanding of how early Americans thought and felt; 2) I can imagine what life was like for people 100 years ago; and 3) When looking at a painting that shows people, I try to imagine what those people are thinking. We combined these items into a scale measuring historical empathy.

Students who went on a tour of Crystal Bridges experience a 6 percent of a standard deviation increase in historical empathy. Among rural students, the benefit is much larger, a 15 percent of a standard deviation gain. We can illustrate this benefit by focusing on one of the items in the historical empathy scale. When asked to agree or disagree with the statement, “I have a good understanding of how early Americans thought and felt,” 70 percent of the treatment-group students express agreement compared to 66 percent of the control group. Among rural participants, 69 percent of the treatment-group students agree with this statement compared to 62 percent of the control group. The fact that Crystal Bridges features art from different periods in American history may have helped produce these gains in historical empathy.

Tolerance. To measure tolerance we included four statements on the survey to which students could express their level of agreement or disagreement: 1) People who disagree with my point of view bother me; 2) Artists whose work is critical of America should not be allowed to have their work shown in art museums; 3) I appreciate hearing views different from my own; and 4) I think people can have different opinions about the same thing. We combined these items into a scale measuring the general effect of the tour on tolerance.

Overall, receiving a school tour of an art museum increases student tolerance by 7 percent of a standard deviation. As with critical thinking, the benefits are much larger for students in disadvantaged groups. Rural students who visited Crystal Bridges experience a 13 percent of a standard deviation improvement in tolerance. For students at high-poverty schools, the benefit is 9 percent of a standard deviation.

The improvement in tolerance for students who went on a tour of Crystal Bridges can be illustrated by the responses to one of the items within the tolerance scale. When asked about the statement, “Artists whose work is critical of America should not be allowed to have their work shown in art museums,” 35 percent of the control-group students express agreement. But for students randomly assigned to receive a school tour of the art museum, only 32 percent agree with censoring art critical of America. Among rural students, 34 percent of the control group would censor art compared to 30 percent for the treatment group. In high-poverty schools, 37 percent of the control-group students would censor compared to 32 percent of the treatment-group students. These differences are not huge, but neither is the intervention. These changes represent the realistic improvement in tolerance that results from a half-day experience at an art museum.

Interest in Art Museums. Perhaps the most important outcome of a school tour is whether it cultivates an interest among students in returning to cultural institutions in the future. If visiting a museum helps improve critical thinking, historical empathy, tolerance, and other outcomes not measured in this study, then those benefits would compound for students if they were more likely to frequent similar cultural institutions throughout their life. The direct effects of a single visit are necessarily modest and may not persist, but if school tours help students become regular museum visitors, they may enjoy a lifetime of enhanced critical thinking, tolerance, and historical empathy.

We measured how school tours of Crystal Bridges develop in students an interest in visiting art museums in two ways: with survey items and a behavioral measure. We included a series of items in the survey designed to gauge student interest:

• I plan to visit art museums when I am an adult.

• I would tell my friends they should visit an art museum.

• Trips to art museums are interesting.

• Trips to art museums are fun.

• Would your friend like to go to an art museum on a field trip?

• Would you like more museums in your community?

• How interested are you in visiting art museums?

• If your friends or family wanted to go to an art museum, how interested would you be in going?

Interest in visiting art museums among students who toured the museum is 8 percent of a standard deviation higher than that in the randomized control group. Among rural students, the increase is much larger: 22 percent of a standard deviation. Students at high-poverty schools score 11 percent of a standard deviation higher on the cultural consumer scale if they were randomly assigned to tour the museum. And minority students gain 10 percent of a standard deviation in their desire to be art consumers.

One of the eight items in the art consumer scale asked students to express the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the statement, “I would tell my friends they should visit an art museum.” For all students who received a tour, 70 percent agree with this statement, compared to 66 percent in the control group. Among rural participants, 73 percent of the treatment-group students agree versus 63 percent of the control group. In high-poverty schools, 74 percent would recommend art museums to their friends compared to 68 percent of the control group. And among minority students, 72 percent of those who received a tour would tell their friends to visit an art museum, relative to 67 percent of the control group. Students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, are more likely to have positive feelings about visiting museums if they receive a school tour.

We also measured whether students are more likely to visit Crystal Bridges in the future if they received a school tour. All students who participated in the study during the first semester, including those who did not receive a tour, were provided with a coupon that gave them and their families free entry to a special exhibit at Crystal Bridges. The coupons were coded so that we could determine the applicant group to which students belonged. Students had as long as six months after receipt of the coupon to use it.

We collected all redeemed coupons and were able to calculate how many adults and youths were admitted. Though students in the treatment group received 49 percent of all coupons that were distributed, 58 percent of the people admitted to the special exhibit with those coupons came from the treatment group. In other words, the families of students who received a tour were 18 percent more likely to return to the museum than we would expect if their rate of coupon use was the same as their share of distributed coupons.

This is particularly impressive given that the treatment-group students had recently visited the museum. Their desire to visit a museum might have been satiated, while the control group might have been curious to visit Crystal Bridges for the first time. Despite having recently been to the museum, students who received a school tour came back at higher rates. Receiving a school tour cultivates a taste for visiting art museums, and perhaps for sharing the experience with others.

Disadvantaged Students

One consistent pattern in our results is that the benefits of a school tour are generally much larger for students from less-advantaged backgrounds. Students from rural areas and high-poverty schools, as well as minority students, typically show gains that are two to three times larger than those of the total sample. Disadvantaged students assigned by lottery to receive a school tour of an art museum make exceptionally large gains in critical thinking, historical empathy, tolerance, and becoming art consumers.

It appears that the less prior exposure to culturally enriching experiences students have, the larger the benefit of receiving a school tour of a museum. We have some direct measures to support this explanation. To isolate the effect of the first time visiting the museum, we truncated our sample to include only control-group students who had never visited Crystal Bridges and treatment-group students who had visited for the first time during their tour. The effect for this first visit is roughly twice as large as that for the overall sample, just as it is for disadvantaged students.

In addition, we administered a different version of our survey to students in kindergarten through 2nd grade. Very young students are less likely to have had previous exposure to culturally enriching experiences. Very young students make exceptionally large improvements in the observed outcomes, just like disadvantaged students and first-time visitors.

When we examine effects for subgroups of advantaged students, we typically find much smaller or null effects. Students from large towns and low-poverty schools experience few significant gains from their school tour of an art museum. If schools do not provide culturally enriching experiences for these students, their families are likely to have the inclination and ability to provide those experiences on their own. But the families of disadvantaged students are less likely to substitute their own efforts when schools do not offer culturally enriching experiences. Disadvantaged students need their schools to take them on enriching field trips if they are likely to have these experiences at all.

Policy Implications

School field trips to cultural institutions have notable benefits. Students randomly assigned to receive a school tour of an art museum experience improvements in their knowledge of and ability to think critically about art, display stronger historical empathy, develop higher tolerance, and are more likely to visit such cultural institutions as art museums in the future. If schools cut field trips or switch to “reward” trips that visit less-enriching destinations, then these important educational opportunities are lost. It is particularly important that schools serving disadvantaged students provide culturally enriching field trip experiences.

This first-ever, large-scale, random-assignment experiment of the effects of school tours of an art museum should help inform the thinking of school administrators, educators, policymakers, and philanthropists. Policymakers should consider these results when deciding whether schools have sufficient resources and appropriate policy guidance to take their students on tours of cultural institutions. School administrators should give thought to these results when deciding whether to use their resources and time for these tours. And philanthropists should weigh these results when deciding whether to build and maintain these cultural institutions with quality educational programs. We don’t just want our children to acquire work skills from their education; we also want them to develop into civilized people who appreciate the breadth of human accomplishments. The school field trip is an important tool for meeting this goal.

Jay P. Greene is professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas, where Brian Kisida is a senior research associate and Daniel H. Bowen is a doctoral student.

Additional materials, including a supplemental study and a methodological appendix , are available.

For more, please see “ The Top 20 Education Next Articles of 2023 .”

This article appeared in the Winter 2014 issue of Education Next . Suggested citation format:

Greene, J.P., Kisida, B., and Bowen, D.H. (2014). The Educational Value of Field Trips: Taking students to an art museum improves critical thinking skills, and more . Education Next , 14(1), 78-86.

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Ropes Course: Field Trip Experience Essay

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A field trip is an expedition to an area that is far from the normal environment. It is usually done by a group of people. The trip’s objective is a reflection of education. It is aimed at providing students with an experience that will offer them an understanding and knowledge of daily activities. It usually provides observation opportunity for any subject in their natural state.

During a field trip, various activities take place. We went for a field trip to a ropes course, during which we were divided into teams and were able to do various team-building activities. Towards the afternoon, we did challenge activities such as rock wall climbing, walking on a wooden log that was about 20 feet high, and climb cargo net. The activities that surrounded me were of substantial experience and included rock wall climbing which was a fascinating challenge. This activity involved an individual to climb an artificial rock wall in all directions. The directions may be going upwards, downwards or sideways. The aim of this activity was to get to the top of the wall without falling. Since it was a competition, the goal was to complete climbing the rock wall in the shortest time possible. There was also an aim of reaching the topmost part depending on the difficulty of climbing. In the process of climbing, an individual was to maintain the use of hands in order to provide balance and support of his or her weight.

The challenging activities involved physically and mentally demanding sports. My set out goals when planning to participate in the event was to be courageous, and to be able to participate in all the activities. The reason for this was that, being afraid would be an obstacle for achieving the goal of completing the challenging activities at hand.

An individual’s state was challenged, and his or her attitude or emotional state could be shaken. The knowledge of participation in the event for an individual would challenge his or her attitude and emotional state before, during, and after the event. Before the event, I was a bit nervous. I was filled with anxiety and worry of getting involved in activities that I had little or no experience. During the event, I gained endurance and strength and was able to overcome all fears. Through participation in the event’s challenging activities, I was able to do many things that I never thought I could. This is mainly attributed to the support I received from my classmates. After the event, I was happy to be able to participate and overcome the challenging activities in the event.

The event was meant to be a mentally and physically demanding sport because it involved various elements of pain and work. This was experienced in the morning through the team building activities. As a result, the elements of pain and work influenced the experience to become more fun and enjoyable.

Through participation in this activity, I believe it will have a lasting effect on me. This is because the experience tested me both physically and mentally. It tested my balance, swiftness and durability with mental control. This affected me and made me gain more strength and endurance. Through participation in the event, I also gained educational benefits. The experience was an informative, learning and enlightening one. As an individual, I attained motivation and understood the importance of working together as a group. It also motivated me to make better decisions.

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Essay on Field Trip To Museum

Students are often asked to write an essay on Field Trip To Museum in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Field Trip To Museum

Exciting day out.

Imagine a day filled with adventure and learning, but not in your regular classroom. That’s what a field trip to a museum offers. It’s a chance to see and touch things from the past.

Seeing History Up Close

In a museum, history comes to life. You can see old paintings, tools, and even dinosaur bones. It’s like meeting characters from your history book face to face.

Fun Learning

Museums make learning fun. You can play games, solve puzzles, and sometimes even dress up like people from long ago. It’s like being a detective in a world of mysteries.

Memories to Keep

After a day at the museum, you return home with cool stories and facts to share. It’s not just a trip; it’s a memory that stays with you, making learning something you’ll always enjoy.

250 Words Essay on Field Trip To Museum

What is a museum field trip, getting ready for the trip.

Before going, teachers tell students what they will see. They may talk about paintings, old tools, or bones of dinosaurs. Students might feel excited to see things they have only read about in books.

At the Museum

Once at the museum, students walk around with their friends and teachers. They look at different things, such as clothes from long ago or machines that were used before computers. Sometimes, there are activities like drawing or puzzles that help students learn in a fun way.

Learning New Things

Museums are great for learning. Students can see with their own eyes how people lived in other times. They can understand how things change over time. This trip can make students think and ask questions, which helps them learn even more.

Remembering the Trip

After the trip, students may talk or write about what they liked best. They can draw pictures or tell their families about the adventure. The trip to the museum might be over, but the memories and knowledge stay with them.

In short, a museum field trip is a special journey. It takes students out of the classroom and into a world of discovery. It’s a day of walking, watching, and wondering that can make school more fun and interesting.

500 Words Essay on Field Trip To Museum

Introduction to museum field trips, planning the trip.

Before going on a field trip, teachers and students plan together. They choose which museum to visit based on what they are studying in class. For example, if they are learning about history, they might visit a history museum. They also need to think about how they will get there, what time to leave, and what to bring. Students often bring pencils and notebooks to write down what they learn and cameras to take pictures of the interesting things they see.

Arriving at the Museum

On the day of the field trip, everyone feels excited as they arrive at the museum. At the entrance, museum staff often greet students and explain the rules, like not touching the artifacts and not running inside. They give maps to help find different sections of the museum. Sometimes, students are split into smaller groups so that they can explore more easily and ask questions.

Learning and Exploring

Special museum activities.

Many museums offer special activities for students on field trips. They might have a scavenger hunt where students look for certain items throughout the museum. Or there could be a workshop where they make their own art inspired by what they see. These activities make the trip even more memorable because students get to do something hands-on and creative.

Reflection and Discussion

After walking around and exploring, students usually have time to sit and talk about what they saw. They might discuss their favorite parts of the museum or something new they learned. This is a good time for students to share their thoughts and feelings about the trip. Teachers can ask questions to help students think more deeply about their experience.

Conclusion and Memories

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — Field Trip — The Multifaceted Educational Tool: Field Trip

The Multifaceted Educational Tool: Field Trip

• Categories: Cognitive Development Field Trip

About this sample

Words: 805 |

Published: Sep 12, 2023

Words: 805 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Table of contents

Conceptual foundation of a field trip, integration with educational objectives, benefits on cognitive development, fostering social skills and teamwork, experiential learning: a deep dive, exploration and discovery: opening new horizons, psychological benefits and well-being, preparation and pre-trip briefings, post-trip integration: bridging the gap, challenges and mitigative strategies, conclusion: field trip as a holistic learning approach.

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