Which Kind of Field Trips Do Students Love Nowadays?
I got a message this morning from a lady who wants to bring her son in to meet us and maybe get a tour of the radio station. That got me thinking about the field trips that we used to take when I was in grade school.
First off, grade school was almost a hundred years ago -- I went in the 1970s. But we went on all kinds of field trips that I still remember.
They weren't all a great time. For instance, the school district-mandated field trip to tour the city of Great Falls water treatment plant wasn't the most fun I'd ever had. But I still remember a lot of the tour. And I probably toured it in about 1973.
Then in sixth grade, we took the two-day "mountain/prairie" field trip. Half the kids go to the mountains while half go to the prairie, then swap the second day. And while it was nice to get out of regular classroom instruction, it was still two days of science. So I didn't really enjoy it all that much. And other than getting to sit next to Lisa Lovell on the first day, that field trip did nothing for me.
Along the way, I can remember touring radio and television stations, Eddy Bakery, and one gentleman's ranch because his kid was in our class.
Here at Cat Country, we don't get the requests for field trips anymore. I can't remember the last time that we had a group of school kids come through.
So, are kids are still taking field trips, and what do they like to do?