Best Practices for Field Days: A Program Planning Guidebook for Organizers, Presenters, Teachers and Volunteers

Abstract

Field days are one approach to environmental education programming that provide effective means of bridging classroom learning with real-world issues or problems. Field Days are typically multi-station field trip events in which students and teachers rotate through multiple presentations on environmental topics. They can happen indoors or outdoors for audiences of tens to thousands of students. Following a review of relevant literature, program surveys, and feedback from University of Minnesota Extension Educators, a series of seven recommendations were developed for planning and delivering effective Environmental Field Day programs. This guidebook translates these recommendations into implications for the design and delivery of effective events, and provides resources to help event organizers, presenters and participant teachers effectively address these implications.