Why Should we Take Middle School Students on Geology Field Trips?

Field trips are essential for Earth Systems Education. Students must be given the chance to draw conclusions from their own observations in the field. Nevertheless, the practice of removing students from the conventional educational setting is associated with a number of significant challenges. These include additional costs for the families, students missing out on classes, schools having to substitute the participating teachers and finding suitable and safe locations of educational geological value.

A total of 29 middle school students were taken to the vicinity of the Harz. The topics were related to sedimentary and igneous rocks (e.g. dinosaur tracks, mining history, fossil coral reef, regional geology). We conducted a simple practical pre- and posttest on two typical rock samples in the classroom and asked them - on the way home after the field trip - to rate the field trip as a whole, and their interest in geoscience before and after the field trip. Finally, they had to state with a clear “yes” or “no” whether they would recommend a field trip as part of future geoscience classes and explain their opinion.

A clear majority of 27 students (93%) recommend field trips as an obligatory part of geoscience courses. They stated that they had gained knowledge, enjoyed the practical learning setting and felt it was a unique experience. The fieldwork programme, the designed exercises and evidence on the extent to which middle school students are able to draw conclusions from their own observations will be presented.