ABSTRACT
If guest speakers represent bringing the outside world into the classroom, then field trips are the exact opposite. They are intrusions of the school world into real life. The argument in favor of field trips is a simple one: students learn things on field trips that they might not otherwise learn, especially when they visit places they would not necessarily go on their own. It also helps when some thought has been put into the learning experiences students are intended to have. Families and school administrators alike will agree that if a teacher is taking students on field trip. Some field trip settings offer curricular materials that can help make more authentic connections to the science that the students are studying in school. By putting school science to the test of surviving contact with the real world, guest speakers and field trips are sources of both randomness and authenticity that ultimately strengthen students’ relationship with scientific concepts.
