Best Practices for Field Days: Factors That Influence Students’ Learning in an Environmental Field Day

Abstract

A field trip is a common strategy used by educators to bring out-of-school learning experiences into schools. Many research studies suggest a field trip will not only bring an individual close to the real-world, but may also increase an individual’s environmental knowledge and responsible behaviors. Therefore, many environmental educators use field trips as a tool to strengthen their in-school curriculum. Thus, program evaluations usually focus on the predetermined outcomes, such as increasing environmental knowledge and responsible behaviors, which were decided by environmental educators and program designers. Students rarely have active voices in program evaluations. How do students evaluate their field trip experience? This study focuses on students’ prespective and the factors that influence students’ field trip experience. In this study, we found that an interesting and fun learning environment is a critical criterion, which students believe can increase their satisfaction level, can help them focus on field day activities, and can contribute to their learning in an out-of-school experience.