Revisiting Geography Field Trips: A Treasure Hunt Experience

Abstract

This Teacher’s Notebook documents an alternative way of designing geography field trips. It relies upon a treasure hunt, which is designed to foster students’ active participation in identifying relevant places as well as discovering and making sense of these places. The treasure hunt is fun and challenging and encourages students to think critically and creatively. The activity documented here is an assignment for an undergraduate class on the human dimension of disasters at The University of Auckland in New Zealand. However, it may well be applied in other settings for any geography classes.

Keywords:

• geographic education
• field-courses
• active learning
• competition

Additional information

Notes on contributors

J. C. Gaillard

J. C. Gaillard is associate professor at the School of Environment of The University of Auckland, New Zealand. His teaching, research, and community work focus on disaster risk reduction in Asia and the Pacific.

Alice McSherry

Alice McSherry is a postgraduate student and teaching assistant at the School of Environment of The University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her B.A. Honours dissertation focused on music videos and disaster risk reduction.