Field Trip
Sometimes it is helpful for students to see something or experience something themselves, instead of just reading about it in a book. To help students learn something firsthand, many teachers will take a class of students on either a field trip or a class trip.
Field Trip
A field trip is a special outing. The purpose of a field trip is to help students better understand the material being taught. So, field trips are often tied to material that is being studied in a particular subject. For example, a class studying the period of the American Civil War might take a field trip to Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln’s house is, as well as Lincoln’s Tomb. On the other hand, a class of younger children learning basic biology might go on a field trip to the zoo.
Field trips are usually only for the day, during school hours. So, the places a class might go on a field trip are limited to those places within a reasonable driving distance. That way, the school can have the students back in time for the closing bell at the end of the school day.
To go on a field trip, a student must have a parent’s permission. Before the field trip is scheduled to take place, the teacher will hand out permission slips to the students. If a parent consents to the student going on the field trip, the parent should sign the permission slip, and the student must bring it back to the teacher. The teacher will not allow the student to go on the field trip without a permission slip signed by the parent. If a student does not go with his classmates on the field trip (whether because of the lack of a parent’s permission, or some other reason), the student will stay at school and be given other work to do under the supervision of one of the other teachers.
Sometimes a few parents will go on the field trip along with the students. These parents are called “chaperones.” The teacher usually likes to have chaperones on a field trip, because it helps to extra adults helping the teacher to organize the excursion and make things run more smoothly.
Students often ride a school bus when they are going on a field trip. American schools generally have buses that transport students to and from school when students live too far away to walk, so it makes sense to use the school buses during the day for things like field trips. This also helps to keep the cost of participating on a field trip down, so often the only fees a student would have to pay for a field trip would be any admission costs, or personal expenses (for example, snacks or souvenirs). If a field trip includes the lunch hour, most students will bring a sack lunch for the trip.
Class Trip
A class trip is also a special outing, but it is generally an overnight trip (or over several nights). Class trips usually involve more traveling than day trips – for example, students might go on a class trip to Washington, D.C.
Class trips also require parental permission, particularly in light of the fact that they cover one or more days away from home. Chaperones often go on class trips as well, especially since the trip covers several days. Also, because a class trip is longer than a field trip, they have more expenses – travel, admission fees, hotel, food – than a field trip, and they therefore cost more. Traveling by coach bus is one way to keep expenses reasonable, but the cost of a class trip can still get fairly high. Consequently, a class might hold fundraisers, such as bake sales or car washes, to generate money to help offset costs and enable more students to participate.
Class trips are often done as a special trip for a graduating class. For example, an 8th grade class might go on a class trip in the spring as a kind of final trip together before the class graduates and moves on to high school. Likewise, high school seniors might go on a class trip in the spring of their final year before they all graduate and go their separate ways to college or the world of work.