In the sprit of not violating copyright laws, I am not posting the worksheet article you asked me to post (however, you can always find a hard copy in my office). Instead, here’s a free to post, shorter article that discusses similar ideas. This article has a good, concise overview of field trips research that I think you’ll find interesting.
http://www.astc.org/resource/education/bailey.htm
If you think you’d like time during training to read this or the other full article, let me know and we’ll set aside some time.Enjoy!
I thought an especially interesting part of the article is when Bailey says, “that teachers may behave in this manner because they are uncomfortable with their ability to manage their students in an unfamiliar environment. She feels that teachers are perhaps ignorant of, or unable to understand many of the premises of learning in informal environments, such as learning through play and direct involvement with phenomena.”
While I don’t want to take the condescending tone that the author displays in this quotation, I think she makes a good point. The other day I saw a worksheet that was like a checklist with about 20 spaces for students to ‘name an exhibit that spins’ and ‘name an exhibit that feels cold’. And while this worksheet didn’t ask impossible or obscure questions, I wondered – What was the point? Couldn’t the teacher trust that the exhibits would naturally engage the students? And do the teachers really want their students missing out on experiencing the museum while searching for ‘an exhibit that has a mirror”?
I’m curious to hear other’s experiences with various types of worksheets and if anyone has asked a teacher “what do you want to accomplish with this worksheet?”
By the way, I thought that people might like to check out the worksheets that our program offers for teachers. They’re definitely not perfect, but they give some interesting examples of “more productive” types of worksheets.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/pathways/index.html