IMPACT OF FIELD TRIPS ON STUDENT LEARNING

The world of education in the 21^st Century is bombarded with pressures from budget shortfalls and liability issues. Extras such as field trips are being eliminated. Universities are not immune to these types of pressures. Surveyed MSU alumni supported the need and continuation of laboratory and field trip/field work experiences within the undergraduate geology program. However, no information has been gathered from the current student perspective. I am studying the influence a one day, optional, field trip in the MSU Geology 110 course, has on student learning using qualitative and quantitative research. The anonymous survey consists of five questions, two of them open ended. Since the survey is given to all students, diversity issues are expected to surface from student’s answers as well as strategies that can be applied to ensure participation from all, especially minority and disadvantaged students. Preliminary results have shown that the majority of students believe that the field trip is important to the course and either helped (for those that did attend) or would have made a difference if they had been able to attend. The overwhelming reason why students did not attend the field trip was scheduling conflicts, mostly due to employment.