by Gerardo A.

Recently, students who signed up for 8th-grade science STEM went on a field trip to the SAMSAT Museum. Maxwell Alsabrook, a student I interviewed, said it felt like it took around 30 minutes to get there.

Maxwell said that when they arrived, they learned about architecture and participated in various interactive activities to help them understand architectural concepts.

I asked Maxwell if he preferred learning on field trips or in his usual classroom environment, and he responded that he would much rather learn on field trips because they include fun activities that still involve learning.

One response that stood out to me was when I asked him, “What are some ways field trips can benefit your learning compared to learning in the classroom?” He said that classrooms can’t provide as strong of a visual representation of what students are learning as field trips can.

Some challenges I found with field trips include budget and time. For example, in a previous article, I interviewed Ms. Zorn (an English teacher) and learned that the school has experienced recent budget cuts. These cuts may limit the number of field trips students can take in the future. Another possible issue is the amount of time field trips require. Students might miss multiple class periods, which could be important and cause them to fall behind on their work.

However, according to Maxwell, the time missed isn’t as bad as it seems. He said the valuable information he gained was worth the missed class time, especially since it was only one day.