Do pre-visit preparation and post-visit activities improve student outcomes on field trips?

Abstract

Studies of individual environmental education (EE) field trip programs have found that pre-visit preparation and post-visit follow-up activities can enhance desired student outcomes. We examined these relationships across a broad sample of single-day EE field trip programs for adolescent youth (grades 5-8) across the United States. We measured student outcomes, reflecting environmental literacy, 21^st century skills, positive youth development, and student learning, through end-of-visit retrospective student surveys and follow-up surveys with visiting teachers two weeks after the field trip. Pre-visit logistical preparation as well as both pre-visit preparation and post-visit follow-up related to the subject matter were each associated with more positive student outcomes. The study provides further evidence across a large sample of programs that pre-visit preparation and post-visit follow-up can have meaningful impacts on student outcomes for EE field trips. We discuss the implications of the findings and provide examples and guidance for future programming efforts.

Keywords:

• Field trips
• experiential learning cycle
• evaluation
• preparation
• follow-up

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Seven teachers provided feedback on follow-up activities for different subsets of students attending the same field trip program.

2 We conducted an additional analysis to control for grade level and the racial make-up of the student groups. Controlling for these elements, the results are not meaningfully different from those reported here. See the online supplemental material for the specific results.

3 To account for potential unequal weighting of the items measured as change scores (which had lower means), we also calculated a standardized EE21 score using the z-scores of each subscale and re-ran all analyses. The results of all statistical tests did not change. The standardized EE21 index comprised of z-scores of the subscales was almost perfectly correlated with the original measure (r = 0.99). For simplicity’s sake, and to enhance the ease of potential replicability of the study, we used the non-transformed EE21 index in the analyses reported herein.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by the National Science Foundation's Advancing Informal STEM Learning program (DRL 1612416) and a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (MG-10-16-0057-16).

Notes on contributors

Hannah Lee

Hannah Lee completed her Master of Science degree in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech in May 2019 with a specialization in Environmental Education. She is now a science teacher at the International School of Lyon in Lyon, France.

Marc J. Stern

Marc J. Stern is a professor in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech where he teaches courses in environmental education and interpretation, social science research methods, sustainability, and the human dimensions of natural resource management. His research focuses on human behavior within the contexts of natural resource planning and management, and environmental education, communications, and interpretation.

Robert B. Powell

Robert B. Powell is the George B. Hartzog, JR. Endowed Professor in Philosophy, Parks, and Environmental Ethics in the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at Clemson University. He is also the Director of the Institute for Parks, an interdisciplinary institute focused on providing research, training, and outreach to support park and protected area management. His research and outreach program focuses on environmental education/interpretation, ecotourism, and protected area management.