Where are you planning to go on your next school trip? Do you think your choice of destination will offer fantastic learning beyond the classroom?
Photo by Chang Duong on Unsplash
Whether it’s a historical place or a tranquil space in the world, school trips have a meaningful impact on our students’ lives. They create lifetime memories that empower them about the great environments and brand new perspectives.
Let’s plan and organize school trips with enthusiasm! That is why I really find time to gather incredible ideas for school trips for your inspiration.
Students typically have their normal group at school. A trip out of the classroom and into a new environment allows them to mingle with other classmates outside of their regular peers and form new great encounters.
Remember, our motivational techniques should not only end up in the classroom but should also be transported to places outside the school premises. Our students may bring back something incredible that may not stem from their routine comforts and habits.
Hence, school organizers for school trips should enrich themselves with delightful ideas for school trips to give students unforgettable traveling educational tour experiences.
Before we go into detail about the different incredible ideas for school trips, let’s delve first into their great importance. I see it very helpful to tell everyone about the great importance of school trips and educational tours.
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<<Do you have a presentable outdoor bottle for your water? Any of the 10 water bottles below are great for school trips!
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Importance of School Trips
Allow students to get first-hand information
Getting our students out of the classroom every once in a while is beneficial to them. While outside, they are free to absorb and interact with the chosen environment. It will give them varied perspectives on a topic and about life itself.
As teachers, we should not seclude them from the amazing experiences of life outside the classroom. They have to be somewhere out there, so to speak. It can be one of their best experiences while studying.
Being outside can be the best way of learning the material being taught in the classroom. In the same way, the school field trip will give students amazing opportunities to learn more and decide things for themselves.
Yes, it’s a fact that the classroom plays an important role in our students’ learning experiences but it doesn’t mean they can’t learn outside. There are a lot of amazing things outside that can spark their curiosity and can change their views and preferences.
Taking the students to a historical place, for example, will allow them to visualize the theories and concepts they learned inside the classroom and read from history books. This is a good example that we can supplement or reinforce our classroom learning materials with rich opportunities outside and by providing our students with a different world of experience.
A successful school trip is an example of experiential learning that increases students’ interest and motivation. They will be more excited to explore learning materials if they feel and visualize them. Although watching educational videos may help, it is more spectacular in the outside environment.
Enrich students’ learning experiences
Field experience is a very remarkable opportunity. Imagine the natural setting that enables them, especially children, to use and develop all of their senses and feel the air and the air outside.
The different locations will increase their knowledge and motivation. They can exercise imagination in an exciting interpersonal scene, thereby increasing their participation and performance.
A field trip also introduces them to other people in the community who are responsible for caring for the plants, animals, or natural parks.
As an illustration, the discussion of the parts of the plant in the classroom is best understood when students are observing plants in the garden. They are to go beyond their comprehensive science books. This is one of the incredible benefits of experiential learning.
Most students like this, especially visual learners. They love to see the actual happenings and they get excited to touch on the things that we’ve been talking about in the classroom. This sparks their curiosity and increases their motivation.
In addition, having trips to historical sites and a close encounter with the wildlife will give students enjoyable and enriching learning experiences. The more they experience what’s shown on the slides in PowerPoint presentations in the classroom, the more they process and retain information.
Increase students’ learning perspectives
I have no questions about our instructions in the classroom. I’m sure they are perfectly done and going well.
However, in terms of increasing students’ learning perspectives, there’s no doubt how amazing destinations for school trips can bring them to the highest level.
Education visits play an important role in providing students with a wide frame of mind. As they interact with real visuals more than their favorite educational toys, they gain more knowledge and a positive attitude regarding the subject matter.
School trips are also a great opportunity for kinaesthetic learning. The combination of kinesthetic-tactile techniques (visual and/or auditory study techniques) encourages multi-sensory learning. This supports children who find visual and sensory experiences helpful to their learning and understanding.
Also, when students experience what they read they tend to increase their confidence. Moreover, the more they investigate the real scenario, the more they are engrossed with the subject at hand.
Maximize students’ cooperation and bonding time
In terms of education, the satisfactory good time of field trips allows learners to spend a lot of time learning things that they love at their own pace.
They can immerse themselves in an authentic nature-filled experience without being anxious about quizzes or tests.
The group project also makes one great bonding time. Their willingness to connect more on a personal level relaxes their brains from the structure of the normal school day.
Regardless of whether it is in small groups, observing, or simply brainstorming done outside the school, cooperation and collaboration already are a strategy for learning about classmates they may not know very well.
When they work on a project outside and observe things by teams, chances are, they will improve their collaborative efforts and will produce amazing outputs and presentations.
The school trip will encourage them to help one another to achieve the desired learning objectives with accuracy and authenticity. Through the variety of experiences that our students gain by being exposed to real settings and events, they will be able to think outside the box and become even more creative and interactive.
On our part as teachers, trips like these provide us with a practical opportunity to develop personality, expertise, and a sense of freedom away from the routine.
Connecting students to the stories and tastes of long ago
Say the word “history story” and most children will be intrigued to listen to it. It’s fun for them!
Seeing real relics of the war, monuments of heroes, and past presidents all carry child-geared stories. Spots like these give children an idea of what. how, and where exactly those stories they read in history books happened.
Educational trips are perfect occasions for historical escapades outside the classroom. Because school trips provide awareness of real events, they will be able to get a feel of our world in the times of long ago. Even old-fashioned foods can bring them to the taste of long ago.
School trips contribute significantly to the cognitive development of children. Nothing adds a zest of energy beyond the theory of subjects than experiencing and seeing topics in real life. Obviously, it’s a better way to learn something fun.
Since tours are mostly composed of visiting new places and environments and observing how life exists on earth, it erases the typical “I’m bored…” days of classroom lectures and assignments. To me, it’s another opportunity to awaken their interest by doing a hands-on experience.
Organizing school trips for students is really a good idea. It opens the opportunity for learners to experience what they have read in books and researched on the internet. This is what I mean by having a connection in the real world. Besides, our students deserve to know what’s happening around them. They ought to know, for them to understand why things happen.
Make students experience different cultures and languages
School trips abroad will give school children amazing experiences of cultural exchange. It’s a spectacular scene seeing our students interacting with other students abroad and listening to conversations of people of different languages. It is very enriching.
Students may have the opportunity to observe realities that are not available in schools like the exotic wildlife, rare plants, and maybe even the stars if the educational trip is to a planetarium. Furthermore, trips allow students to develop and display respect to other cultures and practices making them more friendly and understanding.
Discussing the Educational trip beforehand allows your students to prepare ahead, expect what they will be experiencing, and be excited about a day of fun and play outside the classroom.
The more they are exposed to the world, the more they appreciate what they learned from books and classroom discussions. Their experiences will last for a lifetime.
10 Incredible Ideas for School Trips
Having a School Trip Overseas
It’s one way of getting to know other countries, especially their culture, customs, and tradition. Indeed, traveling internationally will give students astounding experiences of rich cultural exchange besides exploring other countries’ unique spots and safe educational locations. But then, if we consider this in our school trip plans, we have to plan it well and in advance because of the great monetary commitments it requires.
Here are some of the best itineraries I can suggest if you are given the best chance to travel to other countries for educational purposes.
1. The ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan
This can be a perfect educational destination for your students. Visiting this perfect spot will give students the most exciting historical experience. Teotihuacan showcases magnificent plazas, captivating pyramids, and temples, not to mention the splendid palaces of nobles and priests.
Encouraging our students to engage in various outdoor activities is highly supported by this amazing location. The city’s important historical structures enable the students to experience the rich ancient Mesoamerican city which is very rewarding.
2. The Prominent Mayan Temples of Chichen Itza
Are the Temples of Chichen Itza part of your lessons in history? Would you like your students to gain authentic experiences from places of ancient times?
Chichen Itza got over 2.6 million tourists just in the year 2017 alone making it the most-visited and popular archaeological site in Mexico.
Bringing your students to places with inspiring topics of antiquity can be a worthwhile experience. They will consider it one of their achievements reaching the remarkable mouth of the well of the Itza which has been existing between the 9th and 13th centuries A.D.
This place will give students a practical understanding of the events in the past and how this spectacular place came to be. Exploring this popular tourist attraction with your students will give them authentic viewpoints in history that deserve to be scribbled in their journals.
The remarkable ancient structures of the place will surely make the students visualize the images they had in their classroom learning. Hence, this amazing school trip provides students with authentic learning experiences they won’t forget in their lifetime. Besides, this is one way of making them understand historical events that play an important role in world history.
3. Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne
The subject of Botany carries a really interesting focus on plants, providing your class with really something special in this outdoor location.
Well, then the Forest Therapy session at Melbourne Gardens will take every student for a slow walk through Cranbourne Gardens. They’d love to meet the Southern Brown Bandicoots called the bushland home.
The garden is home to some magnificent towering forest giants including a 150-year-old Queensland Kauri, a native softwood with pale cream to pinkish-brown heartwood, and a straight grain – just one magnificent finding for kids.
This place combines natural structure, genetics, as well as ecology, and their importance to life and the economy. The garden’s beautiful plants provide the best escape from the bustling city which at the same time offers students personal learning experiences.
This will allow our class to explore indigenous plants that can be the best supplementary material in their science class.
4. Park Güell, Barcelona
Another place composed of gardens and architectural elements, this amazing park, our students will discover ways on how to enjoy nature and on how to gain an amazing outdoor experience. The green space is perfect for adventure and fun.
This relates to our topics about parks and spots built during the 1900s, or World Heritage sites. The students will personally discover the perfect blend of architecture and nature which helps them directly connect to what they heard from our lectures during classes.
The park’s Art Nouveau architecture allows our students to explore major historical standpoints to support their classroom learning. Moreover, the spectacular garden in the park gives students a unique school trip experience.
There’s nothing like a reflection of artistic plenitude belonging to the naturalist phase, or the 2oth decade. The architect perfected from organic shapes during this period can really be interesting and yes, unforgettable.
5. Terracotta Army, China
This is one of the best places I can recommend. This educational destination is a smashing hit to our students’ traveling interests. We all know that China has shown to the world its great capability in providing the world with amazing tourist destinations.
The arousing story behind the 8,000+ soldiers and hundreds of chariots and horse figures is that the wonder has been approximately from the late third century BCE but was only discovered on March 29, 1974.
This discovery led to the finding of an ancient tomb built by Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China. Parts containing his remains remained unexcavated. Thanks to a group of farmers who were digging a well approximately just a kilometer away from the Qin Emperor’s tomb mound.
We can visualize how the local farmers were astounded upon unexpectedly coursing through a terra-cotta army of life-size soldiers with the tallest being the generals. This is the first in an extensive collection of terra-cotta warriors ever found in China.
The country’s fascinating history and culture is a fine exhibit of archeological structures. A trip like this offers extraordinary promises to bring our students to China’s historic 221 B.C.
Aren’t you amazed?
6. Ancient Pagodas, Myanmar
Pagoda means a religious building or a multistory Buddhist tower. This originated from the 9th to 13th centuries although more pagodas and monasteries were built during the 11th and 13th centuries.
The pagodas are a feature of Myanmar’s prominent landscape, earning the country the title of “land of pagodas” where the golden structures were completed in 1102 AD.
With more than 10,000 temples and pagodas constructed in the Bagan plains alone, the first real-life kingdom unified the regions that later composed Myanmar.
What makes this wonder famous is its thousands of old pagodas and stupas stretching into the horizon. Several cities in the country are known for their abundance of pagodas. This is one of the flawless educational destinations with spectacular sights that we teachers can offer our students.
The Shwezigon Pagoda in Bagan makes educational trips enchanting and memorable. Its golden color attracts tourists from all over the world. Indeed, it’s a whole new world to discover and our students would surely love this place.
Because Myanmar is home to 1,479 pagodas exceeding 27 feet (8.2 m) in height, your class will never forget you as the teacher who gave them an opportunity to experience this glorious existence.
7. Dense Jungle of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has been known as one of the best educational tourism destinations that offer fantastic experiences and a wonderful inspiration to students. It is a relatively small continental island exhibiting a remarkable diversity of forests known as one of the richest jungles in Asia.
Exploring the wilderness, the dense jungle covers about 12,ooo km and more. Obviously, traversing the forest and natural parks of Sri Lanka will be an amazing outdoor experience our students will enjoy.
The vegetation is filled with trellis and meshwork of woody lianas reaching with a canopy layer. There stand trees with umbrella-shaped rounded crowns and perverted branches that make children feel like among the stars of the movie Tarzan.
Here the children will experience giant trees and leaves with a high density of epiphytic orchids, lichens, mosses, and liverwort ferns that are only found in decaying woods and soil. Children love this experience.
The rich wildlife can become a wonderful resource for us teachers so learning can be more realistic, productive, and fun. As nature offers a lot of avenues for our students to learn, we have to grab it so students will embrace learning with enthusiasm and interest.
When they’re back in the classroom, it’s easy for them to create their visual presentations about the subject at hand. Hence, learning is made even more interactive and meaningful.
8. Have a Delightful European Tour
As we unearth amazing opportunities all over the world, let’s not forget to have a firsthand experience in Europe. It offers the world inspiring educational destinations that will be remembered for a lifetime.
From the stunning historical and architectural structures in Spain to the magnificent and world-class museums in France, we can say that Europe deserves our visit and explorations.
Dali Theatre-Museum is one of the irresistible places I know which provides our students with an authentic experience of the amazing art of Salvador Dali.
Extending our students’ horizons with delightful sights by witnessing exactly the authentic beauty of the places they see in your bulletin boards, is an impressive idea that makes students excited and highly motivated.
9. Experience Stunning Vietnam
The top sights in Vietnam are inviting us. The country’s pristine beaches, as well as the hospitable ethnic minorities, are a perfect blend of nature delight and impressive culture.
Many elements of Vietnamese culture combine local traditions with Chinese, American, and French influences. Being mostly Buddhist, it plays a strong emphasis on harmony with family and community, ancestor veneration, manual labor, and the natural environment.
Our students will indeed get overjoyed by the amazing beauties of stunning spots. An example is the Cat Ba national park which is begging to be explored and is awaiting our visits. The Ba Be National Park, which is partly inhabited by Vietnam’s largest ethnic minority groups welcoming visitors with authentic home-stay experiences in stilt houses by the lake.
10. Visit Architectural Sites in Mexico
Our students need to explore ancient times to appreciate the past. Hence, we should not overlook the varied destinations in Mexico.
Educational tours from the eco-park at Xcaret to the spectacular tour of the Yucatan are just some of the fantastic delights the country offers to your students and to teachers like us.
Also, exploring world heritage sites will enrich our students with great historical explorations. Immersing in the rich Mexican culture is a fantastic experience for education and adventure. Indeed, the striking spots in Mexico are one of the timeless places on Earth that also offer great learning experiences to students. Therefore, it’s just right to include this in your list of choices for your school trips.
Having a School Trip Within the Community or Country
Leaving the same four walls of the classroom for a day of nature, fresh air, and the sun is a way of enriching young people’s learning experiences. Not only it’s exciting but immensely reinforcing.
Any desired place within the community or country gives unique opportunities to school children too. I really consider bringing students to the community’s amazing places because I believe we have locations that are worth visiting.
Not just that, bringing them closer to places in the country like incredible parks, museums, places of recreation, beautiful spots, and other local educational places gives them a genuine taste of their own localities.
On a personal stand, I do appreciate local educational tours because it allows us to know our country and appreciate its natural beauty. Our students will gain wonderful opportunities with their close interaction and exploration of local landscapes and landmarks.
Learning Expedition Insights
Tips for a Delightful School Trip
On Clear Learning Goals
Before we carry out a school trip, we have to consider the learning goals we have for our students to make the tour really worthwhile and productive.
What do we intend to achieve for the school trip? What do we want our students to achieve? What are our learning objectives? Why do we want to take our students to the field? Will exposing them to the real world increase their performance?
Therefore, it is extremely necessary to include our school trip purposes by the time we present our itineraries to our parents to make it clear for them that their sons/daughters have to achieve something while having the educational tour and that the trip is not merely for sightseeing but for in-depth learning.
What do they need to learn throughout the trips? Also, the learning outcomes should be made clear to students so that they know what to write or what to observe during the trip. In this way, they are guided in making their outputs or reaction paper as their reflection of their experiences.
On Students’ Behavior Management
The splendid educational places deserve proper care to sustain and preserve their magical beauty and historical appeal.
Therefore, our students should be deeply oriented about what they should do when they arrive and explore the chosen places.
They have to be reminded that they are bringing the name of the school and the country where they come from. So, it’s important to observe the ground rules imposed in a certain area.
As they visit other places, they have to adapt and display good behavior at all times. As a teacher, you have to be consistent with your behavior management ideas.
On Places to Explore
Where are you going? Has this been discussed in the planning stage? Will the place give students incredible learning experiences? Will your visit be worthwhile? What about the access to going to that place? Have you contacted a reliable and trustworthy travel agency that will assist you on your school trip?
As you can see, it’s not all about packing your backpacks and tossing in your necessities. The itineraries should be made clear to be more organized.
Furthermore, the place that we choose should be clearly relevant to the course we are handling. Of course, we don’t want to give our students far-fetched experiences to avoid a total waste of time, money, and effort. Hence, we have to make sure that the place to visit is for learning betterment.
On Affordability
It talks about the budget. So, consider how affordable the trip is. Planning for a school trip overseas requires exceptional dime and resources. Therefore, in planning for a school trip, we should not overlook the overall traveling cost.
Aside from being an engaging trip, is it within the budgetary brackets of the participants and beneficiaries? So, trip organizers have to look for affordable educational trips that will not compromise your learning goals as well.
Conclusion
When our students are exposed to the vast environment outside the classroom, it offers a heightened experience that increases their respect for life and for the world. Equally, this makes them aware of the feelings and needs of others. They learn to value the essence of respect, sympathy, and tolerance.
In the same way, our students’ accomplishments outside the classroom will give them a sense of pride and self-esteem. As they become more responsible for others and for themselves as a result of their limitless explorations in educational locations, their patterns of good behavior are likewise developed.
Have you thought of your school trips? What other educational school trip places do you know?
