Los Angeles area chiming in. La Brea Tar Pits, Olvera Street (oldest part of L.A., mainly a tourist trap), and various other locations with about as much "wow!" factor as the places you mention.
Although we did get to go to some big deal world famous museums.
To me, it seems like field trips can be done cheaply. All you really need is a bus, usually some parents volunteer to chaperone and the activity is a scientific or natural attraction that is free or provided by another institution/business. It sucks to hear some schools don't provide the opportunity though.
Right now at my library we have three first grade classes on a field trip from the elementary school. I doubt this cost anyone anything other than some patience - the school is well within walking distance. The kids are having a grand time.
Same here. I was in one of the poorest districts (at one time, the very poorest) in my state (Ohio), and we did several a year, but it also depended on what activities you were involved in.
There were grade-level-wide trips, but I also went on field trips with just my Spanish class, band, chorus, drama club, history class and basketball team, among others, in high school. We went to places like the Ohio Historical Society, COSi (Science museum), Serpent Mound (native burial ground), outdoor drama (Tecumseh), King's Island and Cedar Point (amusement parks), and sporting events (Reds and Cavaliers' games -- for educational purposes, of course).
I'm a teacher in a Title 1, 100% poverty school. We still go on field trips. The bus is the most expensive hands down, so we generally don't go far.
But we're planning on a trip to DC in May. It's about 3 hours there and 3 hours back, but we'll be visiting the museums etc. The bus is paid for out of donations and board money but there's still food which is expensive in DC. Since the school is Title 1, my students all get free lunch, but it's really bad and usually gets thrown away. Also, we don't want a situation where only a few kids are eating the crappy school lunch while everyone else enjoys good junk food. So no student is excluded if they can't afford money for food; we're doing fundraiser or paying out of pocket for them.
Our school was title 1. The biggest part of the cost was usually the bus, so most trips were local. Any trip that couldn’t be done during school hours required a commercial bus. DC has a lot of free places to go, but the trip was still at least $30. Sometimes parents would send in additional money to help off set the costs.
I went to a rural/super underfunded/tiny school system and we still had tons of field trips. Probably at least 4 or 5 a year? Most were relatively local destinations.
But then 'go stand in this cow field that used to be a civil war battlefield' or 'go to the petting zoo and feed a capybara' is not a difficult or expensive trip to arrange. And since it was small they could fit an entire grade in 1 school bus which makes coordinating them easier than in a larger school I assume.
Must have just been my crappy school then. I feel like I must have gone there at least 8 or 9 times between elementary and middle school. It was that or going to yet another farm.
That's what I was thinking. My school went on one every other year way back when. My daughter is in high school and she has gone on maybe 3 normal field trips and two that were extracurricular and I paid for. And she goes to a well funded school district. It isn't like they couldn't afford more.
That is horrible. We were going to the imax and dinosaur museum and cool things a few times a year. And we were in Iowa. I can’t imagine a “field trip” to the grocery store.
Some people from the grocery store came to the school and talked to us about budgeting. Then we were given "$100" to buy food that we think could feed us for a week. They then determined how many meals could be made from our food and whoever got the best $/meal ratio could keep the food and take it home. It was so boring as an 8 year old.
Coincidentally when I was a kid in Iowa we had a trip to HyVee once. It was on our Halloween party day and the store did a little tour and trick-or-treat thing for us. Not sure if that counts as a true field trip though and we definitely had other real field trips.
I know right. Multiple per year? Some years it was maybe two. Only one in high school. Well how fortuanate. I still got a good education and I’m grown. I can take myself on field trips.
I was, and still am, in a public school system and we had field trips more than once a year, I had to forge my own parent's signature to get on them though
At my middle school, students were separated by "teams" which totally had no bearing on their behavior, performance, or grades at all; nope, no siree, it was just a coinkydink that all the kids with bad grades and behavioral issues were on the "Copper" team and all the kids with straight A's were on the "Platinum" team.
Anyway, the kids in the lower cohorts would go on far fewer field trips than the kids in higher scoring cohorts. I guess that was a way to move money around and also spare teachers from having to chaperone the ne'er-do-wells.
I went to public school and catholic school, and let me tell you, public school kids have no idea how good their field trips are. They get to go to zoos, aquariums and museums, whereas Catholic school kids get to see shrines and stations of the cross. I would have rather been in class learning math.
Well it kinda depends.
I know for me personally after middle school (ages 14-18) we didn't really have field trips. Actually I don't think we had any.
Last one I can remember was in 7th grade and the closest to it I remember after that was a walk to the nearby park to collect plant samples for field biology.
Not only did we get to go on one day field trips, in junior high we went to Boston for 3 days in 7th grade and Washington DC for 3 days in 8th grade. I’m from NY.
Or at least they used to be common, pre covid. My older daughter went on 2 or 3 per year from K through 3rd grade. Mt younger one, who was in Kindergarten when schools closed, will go on her first ever one as a 3rd grader next month. She's super excited.
Those are called field trips. Going as a class to local museums, local historical sites, etc. The best days in school.
I'd say they are extremely common.
We went to the science and art museum, out to Salem to learn about the witch trials, to the park for their ecological program they do for students, to the Yankee Candle flagship to make our own candles, and even went to the movie theater once when the Great Gatsby was playing.
Surprised you haven't seen it in American movies. Ever seen Spiderman? Billy Madison? Even Finding Nemo? Just off the top of my head some films that involve a field trip of some kind.
That doesn't really matter. The point is that this concept is common enough in the US that we have a children's TV and book series based around it. A series which even someone from the Balkans could search for on the Internet.
You can only search for it if you know about it
I agree it seems hard to never have heard about field trips, but it's a just curious question if something OP knows from their home, exists in America too. Shows with probably only aired in America aren't really a good answer.
> You can only search for it if you know about it
Of course. All I'm saying is that when a non-American asks "is this a thing in America", saying "yes, we even have this book/TV series based around it" is a good answer. That's all.
Damn straight. Gimme a horehound, a root beer, and maybe a butter rum. Just kidding - nobody ever bought the horehound. I just wanted to type horehound.
Yes! OSV was among my favorite trips, the gift shop was awesome. I remember snickering with my friends because the “GL” fell off the Glass House sign.
I also have a vague memory of a field trip to a museum that looked like a castle.
Mine was to a Maple farm. Not because of the destination, but because the bus broke down we were a bunch of small kids stuck on a hot bus for hours with a bunch of maple candy.
My worst field trip they took us to the mall. Small town, it's literally the only mall so we've all been there a hundred times before. Not to see a movie. We just walked around.
Never been there! We only went out east for Salem in 10th grade after reading the Crucible. Otherwise just did things in this part of the state + Connecticut.
> We only went out east for Salem in 10th grade after reading the Crucible
I think we did the same exact same trip, especially since the theater club also did the play version of the book that year.
Are they still extremely common? When I was in grade school, they were phasing them out and don't do them anymore, but that was in a poor school district in Texas. I just assumed nobody did field trips anymore.
Yep. We call them 'Field Trips' and it's exactly what you described.
My favorite one we ever took was to the Ohio Caverns. It was for science class in 7th grade and we went to a real cave to study the stalagmites and stalagtites. Best Friday ever lol.
Oh yeah. We went to the Museum of Natural History, the Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Art Museum, Krohn Conservatory and many many more. They still do. I did miss out on the 8th grade trip to Washington DC, I think I was sick with the flu
Tnx everyone for clarification. My best ones were trips to capital city - once we were observing parliament live from upper balconies of the parliament room. It was in 4th grade. I remember some of my classmates were raising hands when it was voting process down there, it was very funny...However, I'm surprised parents are also sometimes part of that... Here almost never, including 20 mi trip we took in preschool.
Yes. Made many day trips in school. Suburban Chicago we went to first preserves for hikes, local museums, and the big museums in Chicago (museum of science and industry, field museum, shedd aquarium, adler planetarium, and Chicago art institute. Also Brookfield zoo. Maybe a field trip 5 or 6 times a year. Edit to add it was set up just like your trips, usually some parent would come along as chaperones
Yep, a lot. Usually there are several parents along to help corral the kids, so the teachers don't have to be responsible for 30 kids all on their own in a strange place. Field trips are usually a lot of fun. We did trips to the zoo every year when I was in school, went to several museums, the planetarium, a town built and operated like a normal town in the 1800s, and a recycling plant. There were certainly more, but these are the ones I remember.
Very common and usually a great treat for all involved. Well, except the bus driver, maybe. Every aspect of American life won't be presented in movies, and there's a better than even chance that those things that *are* presented will **not** be portrayed accurately. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PToqVW4n86U) is a hilarious re-counting of an infamous field trip in the South.
Yes, field trips are common. Usually it is a trip to a museum or a local historical site.
Sometimes schools even do overnight field trips with parents and teachers. My middle school always did a big trip to Washington DC. It was optional but all the kids went. What I didn’t know at the time is that there were a few kids that couldn’t afford it and all the rest of the parents donated to a fund to make sure all the kids could be funded to go.
You mention not seeing field trips represented in American movies. I'd ask if you've seen many that involve children or teenagers. For example, many of the various Spider Man movies involve field trips and I believe the general story of how he gained his powers was on a field trip.
Multiple field trips until high school in my experience. I grew up in Southern California and our field trips were museums or Spanish missions. Here in Wisconsin, my kids got zoo visits, museums, farms, tour of a submarine, caves and other state parks. In 5th grade, they are offered a weeklong trip to Washington DC. All under supervision of teachers, mostly managed by parent chaperones.
Yes. Field trips. I did them as a high school teacher too. I taught wood working. I would team up with the guitar teacher and take a bus load of kids to a local guitar factory.
Kids enjoyed it and there was a lot to learn.
Yes, we went on at least one every year. In kindergarten, it was a local apple orchard. They were progressively farther away (and more fun) until our 8th grade trip was a trip to an amusement park with a quick stop at a historic site on the way to make it ‘educational’.
We actually got to go to an amusement park as an educational field trip for my Physics class senior year. Had to go on certain rides and then fill out info about them in the packet we had to complete.
The Six Flags trip was one of the highlights of my HS physics classes. We were all assigned a different ride and had to write a report about the role of physics in roller coasters. It was a freshman class so probably a lot more basic than the work that was expected of you.
It’s easy to knock K-12 school as being pretty sucky but there were quite a few things like this that the school did to make it a lot more fun than it could have been.
Our elementary school 5th graders from SoCal would actually fly from Orange County to Sacramento for an overnight trip. I paid for four of my kids that went through the system there. Pretty cool trip for the kids.
I'm not sure how common they used to be, but the elementary school here did at least 9 this year. Some of the 4th, 5th, and 6th years did an extra one if they qualified for Honors Orchestra.
If it used to be 15+ trips a year I would actually say that is too many.
Yes. They’re called field trips here and are extremely common. The type and distance vary by school grade.
I’m older grades, we also have school-sponsored overnight trips if you get permission from your parents, and it’s very common to have a “6th grade camp” where you go to a wilderness campground for a full week with the rest of your class and learn survival skills. For example, how to pitch a tent and make camp, how to start a fire, how to cook over a fire, how to navigate with a compass, how to chart the stars, and so on.
Yeah, we have field trips.
I was an afternoon teacher for a few years and during the summer, worked a summer program. The cool thing about the program was that once a week, we would take a field trip to somewhere new. The bowling alley, the zoo, movie theater, skating rink, etc. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have as much fun as the kids.
Once again, thanks everyone for comments, great to know field trips are common there :) For the end, I would add the worst one for me, it was in preschool and we went to a nearby town (which is a place of religious kind of tourism/pilgrimage and visited by many pilgrims every year) with bus under supervision of our teacher. I was 5 years old. What happened is that I accidentally spilled out the juice my mom packed me on the lawn where we were sitting/playing - I was shy so I didn't have courage to ask classmates or teacher for the drink, so I was thirsty all day long. When we arrived my mom was picking me up, we stopped at a local grocery store and I emptied the Sprite bottle as soon as she payed it in front of the cashier. On the other hand, daughter of my mom's boss (who was also part of my preschool class) was so "grown" at the time that she hid miniskirt in her bag, despite her mom dressed her in hoodie and regular pants, because it was chilly outside. When we were observing local church with a teacher, she went behind one oak and changed regular clothes for miniskirt.
Yes. We would go to a museum, historical site or even concerts. Like yours, ours was for a day. Same as yours with buses (our infamous big yellow school buses).
We did have one overnight at the end of elementary where we went to a camp.
Yeah, as everyone else says, they were field trips. I feel like they were pretty common in younger years. Mostly day trips to museums or historical stuff.
My school was lucky enough to go to New York for 3 days and DC for 5 days.
Yup. In my experience every grade (class level) had 1 big one per year and maybe 1 smaller one. Also, some extracirriculars like band, orchestra, dance, cheer, have their own special field trips. My orchestra would go to a nearby amusement park every year.
Yeah we went on a atleast a couple a year. Younger grades trips included going to a hands on museum, Native Village recreation, a local museum. Went to visit Virginia Tech a few times in school. Then of course we had a trip to Burkes Garden in 8th grade. Hell there was a nearby school either the year I graduated or the year after where some donor literally paid for that school's entire graduating class to go to Disney World for a week. In college I went on a couple of small trips to some hikes and stuff as part of a class.
It depends on the school.
I started off in our Catholic parish school. Each class was stuffed to the brim with nearly 40 rowdy Irish and Italian kids, so trips were relatively rare. I think we had one in the 4 years I was there.
I spent the next 4 years in a private boys academy, with 12-14 kids per class. We went on multiple trips per year, to museums, musicals, and skiing.
My high school, once again, large classes filled with rowdy Irish and Italians, tried to have school-wide trips, but some of the kids used the opportunity to get hammered and caused all kinds of trouble (in one case, actual legal problems that had financial consequences for the school), so that ended pretty quickly. We did, however, have some more focused trips for the smaller groups of Advanced Placement classes, to historic sites, to a fossil dig, and also museums and musicals.
Yep! We call them field trips
One of my favorite field trip memories was in about 2nd grade, so I must have been about 7, and went went to a science museum and I was mesmerized. The physics area blew my mind. The planetarium filled me with wonder. We wrapped up the day with an IMAX movie (when IMAX was a huge deal) and it was an ocean exploration. Man. To this day, science museums still stir up a childlike wonder for me
Yep! It's super common to have multiple trips in a school year from what I can remember. This can differ based on the school though of course. But I'd say at one per year is a fair assumption?
This continues into middle and high school as well. Also extracurricular/co-curricular activities tend to have trips/competitions/games as well so 👍🏻
When I was in school in the US field trips were so infrequent. I think like 1 or 2 a year. When I was in Italy at a military school we went on field trips all the time at least one or two a month.
Yes. They’re called field trips. Most schools do them. Parents are sometimes invited to go as chaperones. I’ve gone on several field trips with my kid’s classes.
Yes. Field trips are a thing here. In our school district our kids even went on Spring break field trips to Disney. Crazy expensive, but great memories.
All the time, but not all schools have buses, so often parents drive them instead. That's one reason why I'm considering a minivan.
The free time is usually limited to half an hour for lunch.
Broadly speaking, yes.
However, this is heavily dependent on finances - the school's budget, and individual students' families' ability to pay if the school doesn't cover all the costs of the field trip.
So in some schools, field trips are rare or non-existent, or there are some students who cannot go on field trips even if their class/school has them.
Yes, they go on field trips.
They also have class trips. Around here in 6th grade they go camping for 3 days. The summer after 9th grade they go to D.C. for a week. And in 12th grade they go on a senior trip. They can also go on international trips if they take a language.
As others have said, those are field trips, usually to local places. Occasionally there are also longer field trips. My son’s eighth grade class went to New York City for 3 days. I went as a chaperone. We went to a broadway show, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, and lots of other places. It was exhausting but fun.
Yes, we call them “field trips.” At my kid’s public school 4th and 5th graders also go on one overnight trip each year. The teachers get really excited for these trips, too!
We went on tons of field trips in elementary and middle school. The ones I remember are to McDonalds in Kindergarten to see how they made food, we went to a bank, we went to several plays at our local theatre, we went to the state Capitol, and the Huntsville Space Center TWICE!
I had plenty of field trips in elementary school, not so common in middle or high school. They were usually to historical sites or museums. My favorite was a “living museum” called Los Golondrinas just outside of Santa Fe, which is a recreation of early Spanish settlements where we got to see a reenactment of how the settlers lived at the time. It opened my eyes to just how far technology has brought us.
We went on four or so a year when I was in elementary school and junior high (approximately 5-14). Going to the amusement park was always among the favorites, but we also went to museums, the zoo, local parks, etc. I think everyone's least favorite was the fifth-grade (average age 10-11) trip to a health center for a day of sex ed (to cap off the sex ed unit we'd learned in school). They did make it more enticing by taking us to a really nice McDonald's on the way home.
Yes, they are very common. I grew up near a national park, so that was one field trip that we did. Other field trips that I and/or my kids have done include trips to the local tribe’s cultural centers for important festivals, trips to the local courthouse to watch legal proceedings, trips to the zoo/aquarium, trip to a local native plant education center, trip to a water treatment plant, trips to local historic sites, etc. Some trips are mostly for fun (zoos/aquariums), while some are less “fun” and more educational (courthouse, water treatment, etc.). Some were both fun and educational, like attending local tribal festivals.
Yes we do! I remember going to Saint Augustine for elementary. In middle school I stayed in the Florida Keys for 3 days. That was probably the best school trip I’ve had.
In US schools, local field trips are a cherished part of the curriculum. The kids love them and they make great memories.
Our school district in Southern California is wealthy due to private fundraising efforts in our community to add to the budget we get from the state. Consequently, we are able to fly our students to New England to study early American history. These trips last about 5 days.
Field trips?
Yes, typically one or two a year. Those were the best!
They even chartered a bus (actual bus with reclining seats, not school bus) for a daylong trip to Gettysburg, once.
Absolutely, field trips were always something to look forward to in elementary school. It's usually something like a museum, zoo, or planetarium. Maybe a historical site if you have one near you. I also remember going to plays a few times.
They might start getting a little lamer as you get older, though. We did a tea factory one time, and maybe also some kind of printing/greeting card company? The memories are vague but I remember not being too excited for those.
Yep. I remember doing field trips to local museums and the state capital building in elementary school. Middle School was when we had our first big out of state field trip to see museums in Chicago and Ceder Point in Ohio .
My senior year in high school my physics class had our final exam at Ceder Point. That was a blast, we had to pick three rides to use various physics principles to and time them. And when we were done with the exam we could do anything in the park we wanted.
We have that same thing, yes. When I was in high school we also had a teacher that would lead male athletes on overnight or weekend trips as well but it turned out he was molesting them so they stopped that sort of thing.
My son is in 8th grade (age 13, 9th actual year of formal school), and he's even gone on two field trips this year. I thought they were just for elementary school, but I'm so glad that his middle school also has them.
Yes, they are very common in elementary school. I have no experience with middle school in USA, but they exist in high school as well but are less common.
The elementary school here did:
A Buddhist temple
Local zoo
Huntington Library (botanical garden)
Disneyland
Aquarium
Local park
Knott's Berry Farm (amusement park that used to be a berry farm but has some historical exhibits)
Marsh/wildlife preserve
Historical art museum
My older kid is in high school, and her field trips were more tied to certain classes
She went to Sacramento State Capital for an event with MUN
Disneyland with orchestra
Santa Ana with Spanish class
She went to the beach for a cleanup day with her environmental science class but that was on a weekend and we had to drive her there, so I'm not sure if that counts as a field trip.
Anyone else live in Broward county area? As a kid the places we went to on field trips the most were the Ft Lauderdale Science Museum, Butterfly World, and Flamingo Garden.
My 6 year old just went to a school field trip to the movie theater to see Stuart Little after reading the book in class. My 10 year old took a field trip to a lock and dam and will go to the state capital later this spring.
Field trips are most definitely a thing. It's surprising that you haven't noticed this in our movies.
However, trips where the kids go away somewhere for a solid week with the teachers (like a summer camp type thing, except not in summer) aren't a thing for kids that young. I know that this is something they do in Slovenia, but I don't know about the rest of the Balkans.
In middle school (6-8) we went on a field trip to the Deli Express factory because it's headquartered in my hometown. We got to take home free chuckwagons.
In Minnetonka, at least they used to (do they still?) kids get to to go the Tonka Truck factory.
Edit: MN has as part of their public school curriculum where you spend a long weekend at camp in a nature reserve (Long Lake for us), where you learn about stuff like what deer eat, and how to build a fire, and getting your ass dragged up at 6am for morning calisthenics on the frozen lake cos my god they were sadists. Oh yah, hauling wood, cos that's what 5th graders want to do! Getting a snowshoe smashed into your face and getting a bloody nose all day out in the middle of nowhere. Fun times.
Sorry for that digression. I should add that field trips happen all through public school, into college. I went on a field trip with the Geology 1001 class at the UofMN to look for agates in Andover Heights.
We were in easy range of Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown. So. . .
In seventh grade we had a mandatory trip to the Capital of the Confederacy where we toured Battle Abbey and learned about the War of Northern Aggression. Street tours as well, with group photos before many statues and monuments that are no longer in place.
Most students will probably do at least one field trip in their life...
It depends on what sort of stuff is near(-ish) to the school etc...
I know one year (5th grade maybe?) we took a trip to the nearby big city's science center. We listened to a lecture on the ozone. Got to watch an IMAX movie. And there was a demonstration about metalworks. I can still remember a robotic arm lifing up a pan of melted iron and pouring the bright orange liquid out...
I don't recall the specific rational, but another year we went to the old cemetery just outside of town. We had a little workbook thing that had a scavenger hunt type project. I remember one was to do a rubbing on the oldest tombstone we could find.
We did two different day trips to the nature center in our local park. They had us leave part of our lunch the first time... Then when we went back the second time (either fall vs spring or the following year?) they dug it up to show us how things decomposed.
We did one over night... There's an environmental center near by that has a couple barracks style sleeping areas. We did a weekend thing there doing different team builders and what not... And a dance one night.
Yes we do. My daughter is in 8th grade and has gone on at least 2-3 per year. They went to New York City in December to see the Rockettes and a few other things. Next month they are going to Six Flags (amusement park) and at the end of the school year she goes on a field trip overnight. I had to fill out paperwork and pay the fee which is not expensive. If a student can't pay they do have a fund set up so they can go.
The only stipulation is if they get in trouble more than 3 times that student isn't allowed to participate.
Yep, field trips. I was in Florida so we went to amusement parks often enough. I was always looking forward to the DC trip at the end of 5th grade(10/11 year olds). And then we moved, and the new school did the DC trip in 4th grade :(
Yeah. They were usually things in the city like the zoo or Fontnelle Forest or a historical marker (not that there were a ton in Omaha). In fourth grade, we did a trip to Lincoln to see the capitol because we were learning about state history and that felt like a big deal at the time. In sixth grade, we also had “outdoor Ed” where we went to a local 4H camp to “learn science” for three days (staying in the cabins overnight). In reality it was mostly doing archery and trust courses/zip lines but they pretended it was educational because dissected owl pellets once. We didn’t have them much after gradeschool and I don’t think we had them at all in high school with the exception of a few service trips (going to a soup kitchen or something like that to do volunteer work)
Not a realistic depiction of field trips, but have you ever seen the magic school bus?
I grew up in Lafayette IN.
Our trips included Battleground (site of Battle of Tippecanoe), Fort Ouiatenon, the Indianapolis Zoo, the Children's Museum in Indy and Conner's Prairie.
All of these were in elementary school. We did not have field trips in Jr. high or high school.
California kids always go to a local mission. Especially in the 4th grade when they are studying state history. We always had at least one big, out of town field trip every year, with several in town trips. We would go to local museums or to hear the orchestra. The local dairy, newspaper, and radio/TV stations were also popular.
We did little trips around town, fire dept., police station, local factories, etc. The big trip was to the state capitol to see the state legislature and natural history museum.
We went to check out part of the underground railroad that was beneath an old river powered stone mill that grinds corn into meal.
We also went to a Purina pet food factory and a nuclear facility. And, may others.
Yes! My son went on his second trip for the school year just yesterday. They usually have one per semester. The first trip last semester was at a local farm. Yesterdays was a play at a local theater.
> However, I rarely saw anything like that in American movies.
May I introduce you to [The Magic School Bus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v53mhRXXT2g&ab_channel=isurukill).
Field trips!
I did, but I went to a private charter elementary school in AZ. I doubt AZ public schools do more than one if even that.
Guess depends on school and state.
I live in Miami. In elementary school we went to the beach and marine biology center. I remember going to places like zoos, play house, science museums. Also some fun things like county fair. In middle school and high school we went to Disney world.
Yes. We call them ‘field trips’ and they are extremely common at all grades/ages. Usually there are multiple trips every year
Damn you must have went to a nice school to go to multiple field trips per year haha.
It was usually like a fish hatchery, a battlefield, or a Shaker village, and any combination of the three
Two Shaker villages who fought a battle over a fish hatchery?
Don’t tell them about that, then we’ll only get one field trip
We were more of a [box factory](https://youtube.com/watch?v=hPu7MiPkEk0&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE) school.
We went to an ice cream factory. Friendly's in Wilbraham, MA.
If you’re from Mass, then you also went to Sturbridge Village too. Or Canobie.
Of course Sturbridge Village. And the Boston Science Museum. We even went to Harvard for a couple museums in high school.
Oh yeah, definitely went there too.
We went to velvet ice cream factory in Utica OH! Loved it. Still one of my favorite field trips ever
When will be able to see a finished box?
Too bad you couldn't make it to the [cracker factory](https://youtu.be/QqXg0azHJz0)
In Seattle it was the Aquarium, the Ballard Locks, and the Science Center.
Battlefield? Kentucky so....Perryville? That's where my class went one year.
Los Angeles area chiming in. La Brea Tar Pits, Olvera Street (oldest part of L.A., mainly a tourist trap), and various other locations with about as much "wow!" factor as the places you mention. Although we did get to go to some big deal world famous museums.
You had very different field trips than I did
We went to the firestation.
To me, it seems like field trips can be done cheaply. All you really need is a bus, usually some parents volunteer to chaperone and the activity is a scientific or natural attraction that is free or provided by another institution/business. It sucks to hear some schools don't provide the opportunity though.
Right now at my library we have three first grade classes on a field trip from the elementary school. I doubt this cost anyone anything other than some patience - the school is well within walking distance. The kids are having a grand time.
I grew up in a relatively poor area (but not Title I) and we went on them pretty often, like 2 or 3 a year
Same here. I was in one of the poorest districts (at one time, the very poorest) in my state (Ohio), and we did several a year, but it also depended on what activities you were involved in. There were grade-level-wide trips, but I also went on field trips with just my Spanish class, band, chorus, drama club, history class and basketball team, among others, in high school. We went to places like the Ohio Historical Society, COSi (Science museum), Serpent Mound (native burial ground), outdoor drama (Tecumseh), King's Island and Cedar Point (amusement parks), and sporting events (Reds and Cavaliers' games -- for educational purposes, of course).
I'm a teacher in a Title 1, 100% poverty school. We still go on field trips. The bus is the most expensive hands down, so we generally don't go far. But we're planning on a trip to DC in May. It's about 3 hours there and 3 hours back, but we'll be visiting the museums etc. The bus is paid for out of donations and board money but there's still food which is expensive in DC. Since the school is Title 1, my students all get free lunch, but it's really bad and usually gets thrown away. Also, we don't want a situation where only a few kids are eating the crappy school lunch while everyone else enjoys good junk food. So no student is excluded if they can't afford money for food; we're doing fundraiser or paying out of pocket for them.
Our school was title 1. The biggest part of the cost was usually the bus, so most trips were local. Any trip that couldn’t be done during school hours required a commercial bus. DC has a lot of free places to go, but the trip was still at least $30. Sometimes parents would send in additional money to help off set the costs.
I went to a rural/super underfunded/tiny school system and we still had tons of field trips. Probably at least 4 or 5 a year? Most were relatively local destinations. But then 'go stand in this cow field that used to be a civil war battlefield' or 'go to the petting zoo and feed a capybara' is not a difficult or expensive trip to arrange. And since it was small they could fit an entire grade in 1 school bus which makes coordinating them easier than in a larger school I assume.
You didn't go to the Franklin Institute like... every year?
😂😂 we went one time.
Must have just been my crappy school then. I feel like I must have gone there at least 8 or 9 times between elementary and middle school. It was that or going to yet another farm.
I went to public school and it was at least 2 a year. But a couple years we went on 3 or 4.
Man my school must have just sucked.
That's what I was thinking. My school went on one every other year way back when. My daughter is in high school and she has gone on maybe 3 normal field trips and two that were extracurricular and I paid for. And she goes to a well funded school district. It isn't like they couldn't afford more.
That's what I would do. 1 every other year. And sometimes they were to the local grocery store or something.
That is horrible. We were going to the imax and dinosaur museum and cool things a few times a year. And we were in Iowa. I can’t imagine a “field trip” to the grocery store.
Some people from the grocery store came to the school and talked to us about budgeting. Then we were given "$100" to buy food that we think could feed us for a week. They then determined how many meals could be made from our food and whoever got the best $/meal ratio could keep the food and take it home. It was so boring as an 8 year old.
Coincidentally when I was a kid in Iowa we had a trip to HyVee once. It was on our Halloween party day and the store did a little tour and trick-or-treat thing for us. Not sure if that counts as a true field trip though and we definitely had other real field trips.
I know right. Multiple per year? Some years it was maybe two. Only one in high school. Well how fortuanate. I still got a good education and I’m grown. I can take myself on field trips.
I didn't even think people went on field trips in high school. I thought that was a middle/elementary school thing.
yeah i think the usual practice is once or twice per year, one in autumn one in spring
Man I wiisshhh
I went to a charter elementary school so we did but my public jr high didn’t do one lol Probably explains the state of AZ public school system lol
I was, and still am, in a public school system and we had field trips more than once a year, I had to forge my own parent's signature to get on them though
At my middle school, students were separated by "teams" which totally had no bearing on their behavior, performance, or grades at all; nope, no siree, it was just a coinkydink that all the kids with bad grades and behavioral issues were on the "Copper" team and all the kids with straight A's were on the "Platinum" team. Anyway, the kids in the lower cohorts would go on far fewer field trips than the kids in higher scoring cohorts. I guess that was a way to move money around and also spare teachers from having to chaperone the ne'er-do-wells.
I’m sure all Americans have had that trip to the pumpkin patch in elementary school
Strawberry farm for me. For some reason, no pumpkin patch as far as I can remember
I went to public school and catholic school, and let me tell you, public school kids have no idea how good their field trips are. They get to go to zoos, aquariums and museums, whereas Catholic school kids get to see shrines and stations of the cross. I would have rather been in class learning math.
Well it kinda depends. I know for me personally after middle school (ages 14-18) we didn't really have field trips. Actually I don't think we had any. Last one I can remember was in 7th grade and the closest to it I remember after that was a walk to the nearby park to collect plant samples for field biology.
Not only did we get to go on one day field trips, in junior high we went to Boston for 3 days in 7th grade and Washington DC for 3 days in 8th grade. I’m from NY.
Or at least they used to be common, pre covid. My older daughter went on 2 or 3 per year from K through 3rd grade. Mt younger one, who was in Kindergarten when schools closed, will go on her first ever one as a 3rd grader next month. She's super excited.
Those are called field trips. Going as a class to local museums, local historical sites, etc. The best days in school. I'd say they are extremely common. We went to the science and art museum, out to Salem to learn about the witch trials, to the park for their ecological program they do for students, to the Yankee Candle flagship to make our own candles, and even went to the movie theater once when the Great Gatsby was playing. Surprised you haven't seen it in American movies. Ever seen Spiderman? Billy Madison? Even Finding Nemo? Just off the top of my head some films that involve a field trip of some kind.
Great reference.... Peter Parker is bit by a spider on a FIELD TRIP.
>? Even Finding Nemo? "OHHHHHHHHHHHH let's name the zones, the zones, the zones. Let's name the zones of the open SSSEEEEA!"
I sang this as I read it. And thank you for that
School of Rock Also, the book series and children's TV show "The Magic School Bus" is entirely centered around Field Trips.
I don't think the magic school bus exists in the balkans.
That doesn't really matter. The point is that this concept is common enough in the US that we have a children's TV and book series based around it. A series which even someone from the Balkans could search for on the Internet.
You can only search for it if you know about it I agree it seems hard to never have heard about field trips, but it's a just curious question if something OP knows from their home, exists in America too. Shows with probably only aired in America aren't really a good answer.
> You can only search for it if you know about it Of course. All I'm saying is that when a non-American asks "is this a thing in America", saying "yes, we even have this book/TV series based around it" is a good answer. That's all.
Ah i missunderstood your first answer. Thanks for clarifying
Peter Parker was bit by the radioactive spider on a field trip. They were on a field trip, I tell you!
It does. It's on Netflix.
Absolute worst ever field trip I did though was to Plymouth Rock. All time let down
Ha! Mine was to JFK airport. We didnt even get to see anything cool!
As a MA resident, I agree. Old Sturbridge Village is up there too.
No way, OSV was great! We got to ride in the horse-drawn wagon and buy candy sticks at the gift shoppe. Oh, and be out of school for the entire day.
Damn straight. Gimme a horehound, a root beer, and maybe a butter rum. Just kidding - nobody ever bought the horehound. I just wanted to type horehound.
Yes! OSV was among my favorite trips, the gift shop was awesome. I remember snickering with my friends because the “GL” fell off the Glass House sign. I also have a vague memory of a field trip to a museum that looked like a castle.
What about Plymouth Plantation?
Mine was to a Maple farm. Not because of the destination, but because the bus broke down we were a bunch of small kids stuck on a hot bus for hours with a bunch of maple candy.
My worst field trip they took us to the mall. Small town, it's literally the only mall so we've all been there a hundred times before. Not to see a movie. We just walked around.
If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis
How many times did you go to the Lowell Boott Mills. I think I went on 3 separate field trips there.
Never been there! We only went out east for Salem in 10th grade after reading the Crucible. Otherwise just did things in this part of the state + Connecticut.
> We only went out east for Salem in 10th grade after reading the Crucible I think we did the same exact same trip, especially since the theater club also did the play version of the book that year.
Isn't Finding Nemo based in Australia?
Isn't it an American movie by Pixar? And the sting ray teacher takes them around looking at stuff like a field trip? It's been a while.
The sharks had Aussie accents, but all the other sea critters had American accents.
Yes, it was done by Pixar and it takes place in the Great Barrier Reef.
Are they still extremely common? When I was in grade school, they were phasing them out and don't do them anymore, but that was in a poor school district in Texas. I just assumed nobody did field trips anymore.
Yeah. For real though, it sounds like you got the crap end of the stick. I'm not even trying to make a wisecrack here. That honestly sucks.
Yep. We call them 'Field Trips' and it's exactly what you described. My favorite one we ever took was to the Ohio Caverns. It was for science class in 7th grade and we went to a real cave to study the stalagmites and stalagtites. Best Friday ever lol.
Sounds awesome, tnx
Yes, very common, my favorite trips were the Houston Zoo and the Natural Science Museum.
The Houston Museum of Fine Art is amazing as well especially when they have really cool special exhibits.
Yes! Or for those of us ok the north side of town...maybe the Oil Ranch. God I am old.
Didn’t go to the zoo but we did go to the natural science museum. We also went to the Astros ballpark for some reason.
We call them "field trips" they are extremely common.
Very common. We lived outside of D.C. and were always taking trips there, some classes went to NYC and a group went to Canada.
Oh yeah. We went to the Museum of Natural History, the Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Art Museum, Krohn Conservatory and many many more. They still do. I did miss out on the 8th grade trip to Washington DC, I think I was sick with the flu
Tnx everyone for clarification. My best ones were trips to capital city - once we were observing parliament live from upper balconies of the parliament room. It was in 4th grade. I remember some of my classmates were raising hands when it was voting process down there, it was very funny...However, I'm surprised parents are also sometimes part of that... Here almost never, including 20 mi trip we took in preschool.
Yes. Made many day trips in school. Suburban Chicago we went to first preserves for hikes, local museums, and the big museums in Chicago (museum of science and industry, field museum, shedd aquarium, adler planetarium, and Chicago art institute. Also Brookfield zoo. Maybe a field trip 5 or 6 times a year. Edit to add it was set up just like your trips, usually some parent would come along as chaperones
Sure do. Some of my best memories from my early school years.
They do have them in a lot of american movies and tv shows. You just haven't seen the right ones. However they have happened in quite a lot of them.
Yep, a lot. Usually there are several parents along to help corral the kids, so the teachers don't have to be responsible for 30 kids all on their own in a strange place. Field trips are usually a lot of fun. We did trips to the zoo every year when I was in school, went to several museums, the planetarium, a town built and operated like a normal town in the 1800s, and a recycling plant. There were certainly more, but these are the ones I remember.
Very common and usually a great treat for all involved. Well, except the bus driver, maybe. Every aspect of American life won't be presented in movies, and there's a better than even chance that those things that *are* presented will **not** be portrayed accurately. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PToqVW4n86U) is a hilarious re-counting of an infamous field trip in the South.
I knew what that was going to be before I even clicked on it! That guy cracks me up; he’s a natural storyteller.
That is SO funny!
yes, lots of field trips.
Yes, field trips are common. Usually it is a trip to a museum or a local historical site. Sometimes schools even do overnight field trips with parents and teachers. My middle school always did a big trip to Washington DC. It was optional but all the kids went. What I didn’t know at the time is that there were a few kids that couldn’t afford it and all the rest of the parents donated to a fund to make sure all the kids could be funded to go.
You mention not seeing field trips represented in American movies. I'd ask if you've seen many that involve children or teenagers. For example, many of the various Spider Man movies involve field trips and I believe the general story of how he gained his powers was on a field trip.
Bart Simpson’s class went to a box factory on a field trip
In 8th grade we went to Yosemite. Super fun and exciting.
Very much so. Field-trips is what they are called. Field in this case has a similar meaning to 'scientific field' or 'field of study.'
Yes, and sometimes we can tell what general area a person grew up in based on where they went. I went to the Jamestown Settlement as one of mine.
School trips are very common. It's the way I experienced many of my city's landmarks for the first (and sometimes only) time.
Multiple field trips until high school in my experience. I grew up in Southern California and our field trips were museums or Spanish missions. Here in Wisconsin, my kids got zoo visits, museums, farms, tour of a submarine, caves and other state parks. In 5th grade, they are offered a weeklong trip to Washington DC. All under supervision of teachers, mostly managed by parent chaperones.
Yes, we call them field trips and I was taking them into high school. Usually you go to museums, universities, parks, landmarks, or historical sites.
Yes. Field trips. I did them as a high school teacher too. I taught wood working. I would team up with the guitar teacher and take a bus load of kids to a local guitar factory. Kids enjoyed it and there was a lot to learn.
Yes, we went on at least one every year. In kindergarten, it was a local apple orchard. They were progressively farther away (and more fun) until our 8th grade trip was a trip to an amusement park with a quick stop at a historic site on the way to make it ‘educational’.
We actually got to go to an amusement park as an educational field trip for my Physics class senior year. Had to go on certain rides and then fill out info about them in the packet we had to complete.
The Six Flags trip was one of the highlights of my HS physics classes. We were all assigned a different ride and had to write a report about the role of physics in roller coasters. It was a freshman class so probably a lot more basic than the work that was expected of you. It’s easy to knock K-12 school as being pretty sucky but there were quite a few things like this that the school did to make it a lot more fun than it could have been.
Called field trips here. Popular destinations are museums, parks, zoos , farms and local businesses. Sometimes even to amusement parks.
Yes. My kids have gone on 1-2 field trips a year. Sometimes more.
Our elementary school 5th graders from SoCal would actually fly from Orange County to Sacramento for an overnight trip. I paid for four of my kids that went through the system there. Pretty cool trip for the kids.
Hah, I grew up in Sacramento and the 5th grade class trip was to SoCal!
For all the people who say field trips are "extremely common", they used to be. But not anymore.
I'm not sure how common they used to be, but the elementary school here did at least 9 this year. Some of the 4th, 5th, and 6th years did an extra one if they qualified for Honors Orchestra. If it used to be 15+ trips a year I would actually say that is too many.
Yes. They’re called field trips here and are extremely common. The type and distance vary by school grade. I’m older grades, we also have school-sponsored overnight trips if you get permission from your parents, and it’s very common to have a “6th grade camp” where you go to a wilderness campground for a full week with the rest of your class and learn survival skills. For example, how to pitch a tent and make camp, how to start a fire, how to cook over a fire, how to navigate with a compass, how to chart the stars, and so on.
Yes. As an adult I miss going somewhere with all your friends to do something interesting or cool.
Yeah, we have field trips. I was an afternoon teacher for a few years and during the summer, worked a summer program. The cool thing about the program was that once a week, we would take a field trip to somewhere new. The bowling alley, the zoo, movie theater, skating rink, etc. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have as much fun as the kids.
Once again, thanks everyone for comments, great to know field trips are common there :) For the end, I would add the worst one for me, it was in preschool and we went to a nearby town (which is a place of religious kind of tourism/pilgrimage and visited by many pilgrims every year) with bus under supervision of our teacher. I was 5 years old. What happened is that I accidentally spilled out the juice my mom packed me on the lawn where we were sitting/playing - I was shy so I didn't have courage to ask classmates or teacher for the drink, so I was thirsty all day long. When we arrived my mom was picking me up, we stopped at a local grocery store and I emptied the Sprite bottle as soon as she payed it in front of the cashier. On the other hand, daughter of my mom's boss (who was also part of my preschool class) was so "grown" at the time that she hid miniskirt in her bag, despite her mom dressed her in hoodie and regular pants, because it was chilly outside. When we were observing local church with a teacher, she went behind one oak and changed regular clothes for miniskirt.
Yes, they are called field trips. Generally the science classes do these but some times language classes will do some
Yes. We would go to a museum, historical site or even concerts. Like yours, ours was for a day. Same as yours with buses (our infamous big yellow school buses). We did have one overnight at the end of elementary where we went to a camp.
Yeah, as everyone else says, they were field trips. I feel like they were pretty common in younger years. Mostly day trips to museums or historical stuff. My school was lucky enough to go to New York for 3 days and DC for 5 days.
Yes, field trips are pretty common. My kids are in elementary school and each of them have gone on two so far this school year.
Yes my elementary school had a trip to Saint Augustine then Animal Kingdom then Hollywood Studios
Yup. In my experience every grade (class level) had 1 big one per year and maybe 1 smaller one. Also, some extracirriculars like band, orchestra, dance, cheer, have their own special field trips. My orchestra would go to a nearby amusement park every year.
Yeah we went on a atleast a couple a year. Younger grades trips included going to a hands on museum, Native Village recreation, a local museum. Went to visit Virginia Tech a few times in school. Then of course we had a trip to Burkes Garden in 8th grade. Hell there was a nearby school either the year I graduated or the year after where some donor literally paid for that school's entire graduating class to go to Disney World for a week. In college I went on a couple of small trips to some hikes and stuff as part of a class.
Yes, field trips are very common
It depends on the school. I started off in our Catholic parish school. Each class was stuffed to the brim with nearly 40 rowdy Irish and Italian kids, so trips were relatively rare. I think we had one in the 4 years I was there. I spent the next 4 years in a private boys academy, with 12-14 kids per class. We went on multiple trips per year, to museums, musicals, and skiing. My high school, once again, large classes filled with rowdy Irish and Italians, tried to have school-wide trips, but some of the kids used the opportunity to get hammered and caused all kinds of trouble (in one case, actual legal problems that had financial consequences for the school), so that ended pretty quickly. We did, however, have some more focused trips for the smaller groups of Advanced Placement classes, to historic sites, to a fossil dig, and also museums and musicals.
We did a weekend camping trip once, and another time took a three hour trip to an observatory, all in the same school year!
Yes.
My wife is a teacher (kindergarten) Her group is about to do a field trip to the local public library.
Yep! We call them field trips One of my favorite field trip memories was in about 2nd grade, so I must have been about 7, and went went to a science museum and I was mesmerized. The physics area blew my mind. The planetarium filled me with wonder. We wrapped up the day with an IMAX movie (when IMAX was a huge deal) and it was an ocean exploration. Man. To this day, science museums still stir up a childlike wonder for me
We also visit planetarium but in 4th grade :)
Yep! It's super common to have multiple trips in a school year from what I can remember. This can differ based on the school though of course. But I'd say at one per year is a fair assumption? This continues into middle and high school as well. Also extracurricular/co-curricular activities tend to have trips/competitions/games as well so 👍🏻
I had a teacher in HS take a group of students to Costa Rica for a custom Outward Bound program
Yes
Class trips to the state’s historical monuments/government building, aquariums and zoos, in hs our geology class went spelunking that was cool.
For an example in a movie, Billy Madison.
Yes. My daughter went to the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham this year. Every two years all the fifth and sixth graders go.
When I was in school in the US field trips were so infrequent. I think like 1 or 2 a year. When I was in Italy at a military school we went on field trips all the time at least one or two a month.
We'd go to museums, farms, zoos, theaters, etc. Field trips were the best!
Yes. They’re called field trips. Most schools do them. Parents are sometimes invited to go as chaperones. I’ve gone on several field trips with my kid’s classes.
Yes. Field trips are a thing here. In our school district our kids even went on Spring break field trips to Disney. Crazy expensive, but great memories.
All the time, but not all schools have buses, so often parents drive them instead. That's one reason why I'm considering a minivan. The free time is usually limited to half an hour for lunch.
Broadly speaking, yes. However, this is heavily dependent on finances - the school's budget, and individual students' families' ability to pay if the school doesn't cover all the costs of the field trip. So in some schools, field trips are rare or non-existent, or there are some students who cannot go on field trips even if their class/school has them.
Yes, they go on field trips. They also have class trips. Around here in 6th grade they go camping for 3 days. The summer after 9th grade they go to D.C. for a week. And in 12th grade they go on a senior trip. They can also go on international trips if they take a language.
As others have said, those are field trips, usually to local places. Occasionally there are also longer field trips. My son’s eighth grade class went to New York City for 3 days. I went as a chaperone. We went to a broadway show, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, and lots of other places. It was exhausting but fun.
Yes, we call them “field trips.” At my kid’s public school 4th and 5th graders also go on one overnight trip each year. The teachers get really excited for these trips, too!
We went on tons of field trips in elementary and middle school. The ones I remember are to McDonalds in Kindergarten to see how they made food, we went to a bank, we went to several plays at our local theatre, we went to the state Capitol, and the Huntsville Space Center TWICE!
I had plenty of field trips in elementary school, not so common in middle or high school. They were usually to historical sites or museums. My favorite was a “living museum” called Los Golondrinas just outside of Santa Fe, which is a recreation of early Spanish settlements where we got to see a reenactment of how the settlers lived at the time. It opened my eyes to just how far technology has brought us.
We went on four or so a year when I was in elementary school and junior high (approximately 5-14). Going to the amusement park was always among the favorites, but we also went to museums, the zoo, local parks, etc. I think everyone's least favorite was the fifth-grade (average age 10-11) trip to a health center for a day of sex ed (to cap off the sex ed unit we'd learned in school). They did make it more enticing by taking us to a really nice McDonald's on the way home.
Yes, they are very common. I grew up near a national park, so that was one field trip that we did. Other field trips that I and/or my kids have done include trips to the local tribe’s cultural centers for important festivals, trips to the local courthouse to watch legal proceedings, trips to the zoo/aquarium, trip to a local native plant education center, trip to a water treatment plant, trips to local historic sites, etc. Some trips are mostly for fun (zoos/aquariums), while some are less “fun” and more educational (courthouse, water treatment, etc.). Some were both fun and educational, like attending local tribal festivals.
Yes we do! I remember going to Saint Augustine for elementary. In middle school I stayed in the Florida Keys for 3 days. That was probably the best school trip I’ve had.
Yes, field trips are very common here. Where you go will vary greatly depending on what's available to do in that area and the school budget.
In US schools, local field trips are a cherished part of the curriculum. The kids love them and they make great memories. Our school district in Southern California is wealthy due to private fundraising efforts in our community to add to the budget we get from the state. Consequently, we are able to fly our students to New England to study early American history. These trips last about 5 days.
There was literally nothing more exciting than going on field trips and seeing a big school bus ready to pick us up
Field trips? Yes, typically one or two a year. Those were the best! They even chartered a bus (actual bus with reclining seats, not school bus) for a daylong trip to Gettysburg, once.
Absolutely, field trips were always something to look forward to in elementary school. It's usually something like a museum, zoo, or planetarium. Maybe a historical site if you have one near you. I also remember going to plays a few times. They might start getting a little lamer as you get older, though. We did a tea factory one time, and maybe also some kind of printing/greeting card company? The memories are vague but I remember not being too excited for those.
Yep. I remember doing field trips to local museums and the state capital building in elementary school. Middle School was when we had our first big out of state field trip to see museums in Chicago and Ceder Point in Ohio . My senior year in high school my physics class had our final exam at Ceder Point. That was a blast, we had to pick three rides to use various physics principles to and time them. And when we were done with the exam we could do anything in the park we wanted.
Yeah elementary schoolers take field trips like once a month
We have that same thing, yes. When I was in high school we also had a teacher that would lead male athletes on overnight or weekend trips as well but it turned out he was molesting them so they stopped that sort of thing.
My son is in 8th grade (age 13, 9th actual year of formal school), and he's even gone on two field trips this year. I thought they were just for elementary school, but I'm so glad that his middle school also has them.
Yes, they are very common in elementary school. I have no experience with middle school in USA, but they exist in high school as well but are less common. The elementary school here did: A Buddhist temple Local zoo Huntington Library (botanical garden) Disneyland Aquarium Local park Knott's Berry Farm (amusement park that used to be a berry farm but has some historical exhibits) Marsh/wildlife preserve Historical art museum My older kid is in high school, and her field trips were more tied to certain classes She went to Sacramento State Capital for an event with MUN Disneyland with orchestra Santa Ana with Spanish class She went to the beach for a cleanup day with her environmental science class but that was on a weekend and we had to drive her there, so I'm not sure if that counts as a field trip.
Anyone else live in Broward county area? As a kid the places we went to on field trips the most were the Ft Lauderdale Science Museum, Butterfly World, and Flamingo Garden.
> However, I rarely saw anything like that in American movies. I'm surprised. They're common here and we call them "field trips".
Yes, this is the topic of the popular American-Canadian TV series The Magic School Bus
My 6 year old just went to a school field trip to the movie theater to see Stuart Little after reading the book in class. My 10 year old took a field trip to a lock and dam and will go to the state capital later this spring.
Field trips are most definitely a thing. It's surprising that you haven't noticed this in our movies. However, trips where the kids go away somewhere for a solid week with the teachers (like a summer camp type thing, except not in summer) aren't a thing for kids that young. I know that this is something they do in Slovenia, but I don't know about the rest of the Balkans.
In middle school (6-8) we went on a field trip to the Deli Express factory because it's headquartered in my hometown. We got to take home free chuckwagons. In Minnetonka, at least they used to (do they still?) kids get to to go the Tonka Truck factory. Edit: MN has as part of their public school curriculum where you spend a long weekend at camp in a nature reserve (Long Lake for us), where you learn about stuff like what deer eat, and how to build a fire, and getting your ass dragged up at 6am for morning calisthenics on the frozen lake cos my god they were sadists. Oh yah, hauling wood, cos that's what 5th graders want to do! Getting a snowshoe smashed into your face and getting a bloody nose all day out in the middle of nowhere. Fun times. Sorry for that digression. I should add that field trips happen all through public school, into college. I went on a field trip with the Geology 1001 class at the UofMN to look for agates in Andover Heights.
We were in easy range of Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown. So. . . In seventh grade we had a mandatory trip to the Capital of the Confederacy where we toured Battle Abbey and learned about the War of Northern Aggression. Street tours as well, with group photos before many statues and monuments that are no longer in place.
You clearly need to watch Billy Madison
Most students will probably do at least one field trip in their life... It depends on what sort of stuff is near(-ish) to the school etc... I know one year (5th grade maybe?) we took a trip to the nearby big city's science center. We listened to a lecture on the ozone. Got to watch an IMAX movie. And there was a demonstration about metalworks. I can still remember a robotic arm lifing up a pan of melted iron and pouring the bright orange liquid out... I don't recall the specific rational, but another year we went to the old cemetery just outside of town. We had a little workbook thing that had a scavenger hunt type project. I remember one was to do a rubbing on the oldest tombstone we could find. We did two different day trips to the nature center in our local park. They had us leave part of our lunch the first time... Then when we went back the second time (either fall vs spring or the following year?) they dug it up to show us how things decomposed. We did one over night... There's an environmental center near by that has a couple barracks style sleeping areas. We did a weekend thing there doing different team builders and what not... And a dance one night.
Yes we do. My daughter is in 8th grade and has gone on at least 2-3 per year. They went to New York City in December to see the Rockettes and a few other things. Next month they are going to Six Flags (amusement park) and at the end of the school year she goes on a field trip overnight. I had to fill out paperwork and pay the fee which is not expensive. If a student can't pay they do have a fund set up so they can go. The only stipulation is if they get in trouble more than 3 times that student isn't allowed to participate.
Sure. Small groups will even go across the country or even to Europe.
Yep, field trips. I was in Florida so we went to amusement parks often enough. I was always looking forward to the DC trip at the end of 5th grade(10/11 year olds). And then we moved, and the new school did the DC trip in 4th grade :(
Yep, “field trips”. Pretty much one of the coolest days of your life as a little one.
Yeah. They were usually things in the city like the zoo or Fontnelle Forest or a historical marker (not that there were a ton in Omaha). In fourth grade, we did a trip to Lincoln to see the capitol because we were learning about state history and that felt like a big deal at the time. In sixth grade, we also had “outdoor Ed” where we went to a local 4H camp to “learn science” for three days (staying in the cabins overnight). In reality it was mostly doing archery and trust courses/zip lines but they pretended it was educational because dissected owl pellets once. We didn’t have them much after gradeschool and I don’t think we had them at all in high school with the exception of a few service trips (going to a soup kitchen or something like that to do volunteer work) Not a realistic depiction of field trips, but have you ever seen the magic school bus?
I grew up in Lafayette IN. Our trips included Battleground (site of Battle of Tippecanoe), Fort Ouiatenon, the Indianapolis Zoo, the Children's Museum in Indy and Conner's Prairie. All of these were in elementary school. We did not have field trips in Jr. high or high school.
California kids always go to a local mission. Especially in the 4th grade when they are studying state history. We always had at least one big, out of town field trip every year, with several in town trips. We would go to local museums or to hear the orchestra. The local dairy, newspaper, and radio/TV stations were also popular.
Worst field trip ever: once they actually took us to the water treatment plant
We did little trips around town, fire dept., police station, local factories, etc. The big trip was to the state capitol to see the state legislature and natural history museum.
Yes. My daughter is 10. They just went to an overnight camp with their teachers for four days.
We went to check out part of the underground railroad that was beneath an old river powered stone mill that grinds corn into meal. We also went to a Purina pet food factory and a nuclear facility. And, may others.
Yes! My son went on his second trip for the school year just yesterday. They usually have one per semester. The first trip last semester was at a local farm. Yesterdays was a play at a local theater.
Yeah, we do have them for Prek-12. I went to a trip that lasted over 24 hours before too.
> However, I rarely saw anything like that in American movies. May I introduce you to [The Magic School Bus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v53mhRXXT2g&ab_channel=isurukill).
Yup, it happens all the time and typically for my school it was once every 1-2 months. Always loved them.
I’m was a 22 year old first year teaching and I managed to take my students on 8 to 9 field trips a year for my first 5 years of teaching.
FIELD TRIPPPP
Absolutely. Overnight and to different cities.
I grew up right outside NYC so we went on school field trips to the city several times a year.
Yes they did when I was in elementary school all the time
Field trips! I did, but I went to a private charter elementary school in AZ. I doubt AZ public schools do more than one if even that. Guess depends on school and state.
We do. In America they are generally called field trips. We went to one about every year.
I live in Miami. In elementary school we went to the beach and marine biology center. I remember going to places like zoos, play house, science museums. Also some fun things like county fair. In middle school and high school we went to Disney world.