FIELDTRIP

 

FIELDTRIP:

            A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment. The purpose of the trip is usually observation for education, nonexperimental research or to provide students with experiences outside their everyday activities, such as going camping with teachers and their classmates. The aim of this research is to observe the subject in its natural state and possibly collect samples. Field trips are also used to produce civilized young men and women who appreciate culture and the arts. It is seen that more-advantaged children may have already experienced cultural institutions outside of school, and field trips provide a common ground with more-advantaged and less-advantaged children to have some of the same cultural experiences in the arts.

Need and Importance

            General Science for their effective teaching and purposeful learning need first hand experiences through real objects and natural events. There occurs many occasions for the teachers while teaching in the class room or working in the laboratory that s/he feels quite handicapped in providing to his/her students these necessary first hand experiences. In order to compensate for it, it is desirable to take the pupils on field trips or excursions to show the desired objects or processes connected with General Science so that they may be able to acquire first-hand knowledge of the same. It short, the benefits derived from the excursions may be summed up as below:

1.Helps to clarify the subject matter. The experience gained during excursion helps in understanding and clarifying many concepts, and processes related to science. For example, a variety of animals and wild life, industrial processes and products, operations of complicated machines, marine objects and events concerning natural and physical surroundings, etc. cannot be studies properly in the class room only through their reading or descriptions. Their study is more effective and purposeful when such things and events are observed in actual situations and excisions definitely can provide such opportunity.

2. Creates Interest: Real interest in the study can be conveniently generated though the visits and excursions where the related objects and events may be observed in detail within the natural set-up. A thing or process observed or enjoyed by one at the time to excursion is able to create more interest than the more reading or listening about it.

3. Provides entertainment: Educational excursions help in breaking the boredom and monotony of the class room. The change of environment thus provided may prove quite helpful in refreshing them and thus generating a new zeal and enthusiasm for the further learning in the subject.

4. Establishes contact with outer world: The students get opportunity to come out from the narrow boundaries of class rooms, and home for entering and enjoying the life of the outer world. Here, they get new experiences for widening their mental horizons concerning the facts and principles of both physical and like sciences.

5. Develops scientific attitude: Excursions help the students to move out from the narrow boundaries of classrooms and homes for entering and enjoying the life of the outer world. Here, they get new experiences for widening their mental horizons concerning the facts and principles of both physicals and like sciences.

6. Helps in the collection of useful material: Through scientific excursions, students get proper opportunity of colleting specimens of different rocks, ores, soils, metals, etc, and similar other objects for the school science museum. They can also collect different kinds of leaves, flowers, stems, roots, seeds, etc. And can preserve them for the future study. Similarly, from sea shores, many specimens of different shells, sea animals, fishes etc., can be collected by the students for keeping in their science museum. In this way, excursion may prove a quite valuable source for the children to satisfy their hoarding urge as well as potent for getting things and objects for the museum.

7. Generates spirit of co-operation: Excursion helps in developing the spirit of co-operation among the students. When the students go out in a group with a common aim under the guidance of the teacher, they work together, helping each other or invoking others help in their outdoor activities. Therefore, a sense of fraternity and responsibility towards each other is developed through the activities performed during excursion.

8. Provides opportunities for the selection of the projects: During excursions, students come in touch with a variety of things, events or processes and may feel the curiosity of knowing in detail about them, colleting their specimens or deserting to remain in their constant touch. Such sort of feelings generated in the students may give birth to the necessity of choosing a suitable project or selecting a suitable problem for being used in the project or problem method of teaching science.