ABSTRACT
To us as teachers what factors make a field trip with high school students an experience worth our efforts? Can we agree on standards of excellence for a museum field trip? Do we know exactly why students are bored and restless in one museum, while excited in another museum? As we exchanged notes on our own museum field trip experiences over the past seven years, we realized that the most satisfying experiences for us and our students are the result of careful pre-visit preparation and sensitive museum program planning. We concluded that teacher and museum educator share equal responsibility for the success of a museum
experience for teenage participants. Careful pre-visit preparation is essential to field trip success. In addi
tion to the administrative chores of planning, teachers should prepare for a museum visit by: 1) carefully selecting a museum program; 2) dis cussing educational expectations with museum educators; and 3) moti vating students for the visit. Cooperation between museum educator and teacher is invaluable in each step of the process. Unfortunately, dia logue between the two is infrequent and often limited to scheduling the field trip date with a stranger on the other end of the phone line.
