Learning History Through Field Trips (Task Two)

     One of the most important things I can do for my students is provide them with experiences that makes understanding the world around them easier.  I am concerned because the prior knowledge students bring into my classroom seems to get smaller year after year. I'm not sure why children aren't being provided with opportunities to experience the world around them (there are probably many reasons), but I know I have to make an effort to fill in some of these gaps if I am to make my students learning experiences as rich and meaningful as I want them to be.  Field trips allow me to do this.  Unfortunately, budgets make many field trips difficult or downright impossible.  Virtual field trips are an alternative, but you simply can't beat the feeling of being in the same place or touching and feeling what has been talked about in the classroom. That's why I try to find creative ways to finance field trips for my classes.  Most of the trips are local, but amazingly, many students aren't familiar with the historical and scientific treasures they can find in their own back yards.  Strategy eight, "Connecting with Cultural Institutions", caught my attention since I agree with the authors that "field trips are a time honored and valuable part of the social studies curriculum..." (Melber & Hunter, 2010, p. 55).
     I think a field trip to the museum to view the airplane created by James Henry Gatling would add richness to the unit my group plans to teach.  I believe my students will be in awe to see with their own eyes the topic of our unit.  The fact that this historical treasure is located in a town with which all of them are very familiar should be amazing to my students and hopefully gets them interested in discovering what else the town has to share that they had never heard before.  I must make sure I spend plenty of time prior to the trip preparing my students for what they are going to see.  They must know about the inventor as well as the airplane.  I will also create a data sheet with open-ended questions to guide students as they tour the museum with the airplane.  The students will be asked to draw and label a diagram of the airplane as they view it in the museum. The questions on the data sheet will guide the students as they think about the topic of the unit but also allow room for them to focus on other areas that may capture their interest.  The data sheets will be used to help guide a discussion once the class returns to school after the trip. During the discussion, students will discuss how the actual experience of viewing the airplane we read about and discussed in the classroom differed from the visual image they had created in their heads.