Field trips—we love them, we loathe them. For educators, taking students out of the classroom and into the wild is no small feat. From corralling them onto an overheated school bus to emergency bathroom breaks, what often feels like a “get out of jail free” card for students can feel the opposite to their teachers. Yet field trips offer undeniable potential to solidify intellectual understandings and capture student minds in ways the classroom simply cannot.

I’ll share some insights into how I’ve used the Understanding by Design framework to select and facilitate meaningful field trips. By integrating the UbD model into your curriculum, and applying it to field trips, both student success and logistical ease can be accomplished. Let’s look at how.

The Danger of Routine 

One critical issue with field trips is managing the logistics. From booking guides to planning for lunch and snack breaks, it can be an overwhelming process. So it is understandable that many educators find themselves dragging students through the same experiences year after year simply because it’s easy. But just because something has worked for one group of students or with one curriculum, does not guarantee its success with the next.

This is not to say that there aren’t natural matches between academic topics and field trip locations. If a classroom in northern California is learning about the history of gold mining in California in 1849, it makes sense to hop on a school bus to make the trek to Coloma, California where the gold rush began. Or for an art class to head to a nearby museum featuring surrealist artwork when studying Salvador Dalí.

But simply matching a location to a subject without the intentionality of backwards curriculum planning poses the risk of bells and whistles without substance. As with homework assignments (as discussed in this blog post), I challenge us to think of the intention behind every activity and not the mere act of accomplishing it.

Mission Dolores: An Example

To demonstrate the importance of utilizing the UbD model with field trips, allow me to share a personal example of a longstanding field trip that benefited from a revamp.

In my third grade classroom, we studied the Indigenous Ohlone tribe as an integral element to the California history curriculum. The lead teacher I worked with had acquired an incredible collection of Ohlone artifacts, images, and cuisine that she brought into the classroom throughout the year. We had multiple guest speakers—all experts from the community itself—come in to discuss Ohlone history and culture.

Yet the students looked forward to the field trip to the Mission San Francisco de Asís (known colloquially as Mission Dolores) most of all. There was something about venturing off-campus with their classmates that made them feel adult and worldly. It was a reminder that learning exists well beyond the walls of the classroom and that what we are studying has real life application to the past, present, and future. And if our goal as educators is to develop lifelong learners, scaffolding the skills of critical thinking through field trips is paramount.

The Mission Dolores field trip had existed years before I’d joined and the teachers generally enjoyed the experience. The activity was well suited to our discussion of missions, as the mission includes historical dioramas, images, and text regarding not only the Spanish colonizers but also the Ohlone experience, which was our main focus.

When we arrived this particular year, a new docent took us through the facility. It was clear from the beginning that while the docent was knowledgeable, they were less informed about the history of the enslaved Ohlone people forced to work at the mission, and more focused on the European missionaries. We guided students through the mission, instructing them to pay attention to the docent, and listening as they regaled us with stories ranging from overly gory details of animal slaughters to a negative personal opinion about Indigenous atole, or what they referred to as “acorn mush.”

By the end of the day we were exhausted and frustrated by an experience deeply informed by one person’s opinions and perspectives that did not support or inform the inclusive lens we were applying to the exploration of an important part of our curriculum. We were also uncertain if the students had taken anything tangible from the experience other than harmful stereotypes. We headed back to the classroom to lead the class in a thoughtful discussion on biases, and the danger of a single story. Though this was a valuable lesson, it was not the main intent for our rare day out in San Francisco.

Making Adjustments Based on Enduring Understandings 

When planning the same field trip the following year, my team met for a full debrief. We were intent on righting the mistakes of the previous year’s unsuccessful learning experience but unsure how to do so. As always, we turned to the UbD model as our gold standard for intentional planning.

We revisited our Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions for the unit (see more about defining these integral components to a curriculum here). In taking time to circle back to these “end goals” it quickly became evident that our focus lay primarily in the Ohlone experience at Mission Dolores and only touched upon Catholic missionaries as they related to the Ohlone people.

We needed to ensure the entire field trip hinged on exposing students to Ohlone life at the mission. We felt clear that actually visiting the mission was a worthwhile and meaningful trip. Yet because it is not permitted to request a specific docent at the mission, we couldn’t ensure a less biased or one-sided guide, let alone one with sufficient knowledge of the Indigenous experience.

Thus, we concluded that we would be best served by reimagining the trip as an independent exploration of the mission in four individual groups. Then we could guarantee the guidance we provided matched our desired outcomes and we could provide relevant structured activities.

Specificity is Key 

I know what you’re thinking: “Isn’t designing and self-guiding your own tour just adding work? You promised us ease and this is the opposite!”

While it may seem like more work up front to revisit understanding goals and make adjustments, the UbD framework is just that: a framework. When we create intentional end goals as the first stage of curriculum planning, we are able to adjust specific elements (such as field trips and activities) easily within that framework.

For example, this particular year, we had an incredibly high-energy class with a propensity for winding each other up. A docent that spends too much time storytelling or droning on about monotonous details would quickly lead to mayhem. With our specific students in mind, we were able to develop a script to lead us through the mission hitting important elements of the Ohlone experience, while including engaging activities to deepen independent critical thinking.

In order to accommodate different student strengths and needs, students were asked to sketch and replicate specific design elements of Ohlone art within the mission, write stories from specified points of view, conduct student-led scavenger hunts, and more. All were built into our plan and the end goals we had developed.

While the initial prep work took time, we created an outline that could be revisited and revised year by year that met our intended goal. The day still involved the traditional field trip logistics (shepherding students on and off of buses and keeping track of lunch bags), the overall elimination of uncertainty and potential emotional stress over tour guide biases, narrow perspectives and undifferentiated learning were undeniable.

Conclusion 

Field trips are just one example of the many planned learning experiences during a unit to support Enduring Understandings, but they are often neglected. It is easy to get caught up in the fun of the excursion without fully naming the intention behind the day. Whether you are trekking through a museum, food market, botanical garden, or historical site, there is always room for intentionality within field trips. By continuously revisiting Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions, there is always room for growth and expansion.

As each new group of students brings a new set of joys and challenges, so should each field trip be tailored for their success. Holding ourselves continuously responsible for revisiting the frameworks of units, and ensuring each unit serves a purpose within them, is always time well spent.