Brit Reacts to What a SCHOOL FIELD TRIP IN AMERICA is Like..??! 

A field trip in the US is not just an outing. The purpose of a field trip is to give the students the chance to learn something new outside of school. It’s meant to spark curiosity and passion in the hopes of creating the habit of putting learning into their lives.

Field trips can be anything, museums, music, zoo, science, historical places, etc.

When a teacher wants a field trip, they ask and justify the trip with school administrators. Then, they send permission forms home with the students for their parents to sign. This way the field trip is justified academically and the parent are aware of the student’s presence off campus. Additionally, a parent is sometimes invited to assist with herding students around the venue.

In America, when you are out of the office or out of the classroom, you are considered to be "In the field". So a field trip is really anywhere you go outside of your normal environs.

Also notice that this is APES (Advanced Placement Environmental Science). Advanced Placement are classes in High School that also earn you University credit

As a child…school field trips were the best and I looked forward to them every year. There was also field day. Also, very fun. My town also had the Little Olympics where we competed in track and field events against other schools.

Any trip AWAY from school is a field trip. The "field" is everything outside of the school.

A school field trip in the US is the same as a school trip in the UK. The use of the word "field" indicates work done outside of the classroom or learning something outside of the classroom. This could be a visit to a museum for historical, scientific, or fine art study, a zoo or aquarium for biological study, or even a multi-day trip to historical or scientific venues-- a school trip to Washington, D.C., for example, is common. Occasionally, a school field trip is purely for fun-- to an amusement park, for example. The kids in this video are actually doing biological research in the "field" for a class assignment.

Field trip here means actual field trip but sometimes museums, historical buildings in the area. This looks like a learning trip since they have tasks to complete

We once had a week long "field trip". We camped out in the woods. During the day we learned map/compass reading and land navigation, field first aid, plant identification, animal track identification, survival shelter construction, and so much more. It was a fantastic trip, even if it was our entire spring break.

I'm 73 yrs old. Some of my field trips were, 1. 6th grade. A trip to the famous Griffith Park Observatory, 2. 5th grade. The Shrine Auditorium to see the opera "Hansel and Gretel". 3. 3rd grade. Olvera Street. The oldest street & Pueblo in California. Pretty much ground zero of where the city of Los Angeles began. So, you could say, each trip was to learn something I would've never had the chance to learn about, otherwise. Looking back, I'm so greatful for each field trip I was lucky enough to experience. Thankful for my teachers who were willing to take the HUGE resposibility for so many young kids.❤

Hi Millie A field trip usually implies an educational experience. A historical site , museum (art, science, history, culture), or practical science like the one in the video. A trip for fun is often called a school trip or class trip.

Field trips when I was in school were always for the purpose of learning. Sometimes it was a museum or such while other times, for a science class, it was similar to the one in the video.

Anything you do off school grounds together, like go to a museum, is a field trip. The trip you saw might be a field trip if they had to take a bus to get there, but if the creek is on school grounds, it's just class outside. When the weather was good in rural schools, we'd occasionally sit on the ground outside and have class.

There are playgrounds on the school grounds. That's just recess. Field Trips are educational trips to a place where students can enhance their study through a more hands-on or visual-type of learning. It counts as schooling. If students are learning about marine life, they might go to an aquarium. If they are learning about the American Old West, they may go to an old fort town or a Native American ruins. If they are learning about astronomy, they might go to a planetarium. You're going out in the field of interest, basically.

A field trip is basically an educational trip somewhere off of school grounds during school hours. The "field" versus the classroom is one way of looking at it. I'm 66, so my school years were roughly from the mid 60s - mid 70s. Various field trips we took were to a local dairy (I remember them giving us all chocolate milk), an old Spanish mission, an observatory, the beach (I grew up in So. Cal), etc.

It's Natural Science. In this field trip, they are learning scientific method, sampling, identification, test procedures, safety measures, both for the environment and themselves, and just how much of their everyday world is stuff you tend to ignore, that might be really interesting. Other subjects would have other kinds of field trips that could be at museums or restaurants, or grocery stores, depending on what the topics are.

I lived near Chicago, all of our field trips were to museums there. We packed our own lunches, always packed a soda/pop…. The only time you can drink that during school

Anytime you have a field trip in school here in the USA there is a point of learning involved. Way back when my kids were in high school, I was one of the parents who drove a car load of kids down to Six Flags Amusement Park in San Jose CA. Yes, the kids had a blast riding the coasters, but at the end of the day, they had to figure out velocity, G-force and several different things relating to physics and how the different rides work. They never go out just to play, there is always a lesson that has to be learned. We went out in my advanced biology science class to the local park to learn how to properly identify plants, flowers and insects. We also went to the local State University Anatomy department to see and learn from a cadaver. Always learning.

As a kid we did a lot of learning, and experiments on field trips. But we also had fun ones where we went and just had a blast. Picnic, and the beach at Metro parks, Detroit Zoo, Niagara falls, Henry Ford Village, and Upland Hills Farms. Most of the fun ones where end of year ones.

Field trip are to any where. My son has gone to the park, movies, nature preserves, concerts, and so much more. It's just a trip away from school. My son is going into middle school thus next school year. The 1st bell rings at 7:35 am.

there are trips that are mostly for fun, but with a little learning too. like touring places (factories, museums, government buildings)

We went to a lot of plays, museums,we toured a large bread factory and went to a large state park where they had people doing history reenactments.

As a high school student, we went to study farming. We went to a poultry ranch, hog farm, a dairy farm and a crop farm. But that was in the 1970s.

Yes,for the kids to learn about more things outside the classroom.

I grew up on Long Island in the 1960's about thirty miles east of New York City. My class had three field trips into NYC to see the Museum of Natural History, a Circle Line boat tour around Manhattan, and we heard the NY Philharmonic perform at Lincoln Center. Closer to home on Long Island, we visited two nature preserves, saw quite a few movies, and visited the Grumman factory where they were building the LEM which would land on the moon on the Apollo 11 mission. All in all I was on some pretty neat field trips.

School field trips can be anywhere. To a farm, to the fire station, to a zoo, a museum, etc. Gets them out of the class for a day and let's them learn real life. I remember going to a farm when I was little and we made butter from scratch. It was great. I still remember it decades later.

“Field” is a used for going “out” or “journey”. Field trip or for work Field visit

Field trips in the US can be anything from museums, plays at a theater, sometimes cinema, zoo, arts centers, science centers, and even sometimes amusement parks. Also for 11th and 12th grade students, they go to college visits/tours. Like for a couple examples. -My class one year went to the movie theater to see the movie ‘Selma’. -We have done a college visit to Pennsylvania State University. -We went to a local amusement park called Kennywood. -We went to a theatre to see a play called ‘Miss Saigon’. -We went one year to the Heinz History Center -We went to college fairs to gather information on universities. In my elementary and middle school years, we went on field trips to playgrounds, the zoo, to see plays, children’s museum, science center.

No. Our school field trips are completely structured around learning unless you’re on an “end of the year senior trip” which is a reward for graduating high school. Unless you’re me… Then any field trip was turned into just a fun trip. Anyone else do the same as me??? LOL 😂

We never had field trips like that when I was in school. We went to zoos, museums, plays, movies and nature centers

For those who may be curious, this is a high school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

One of my favorite field trips in high school was going to our local symphony orchestra venue. They were appearing with a French Symphony and our assignment for our French teacher was to speak to their musicians in French at a reception after the concert.

This was a high school class in a public school (state school in Britain). A US public school is paid for through taxes and government grants and is free to the public (everyone in Kindergarten through 12th Grade-- ages 5 - 18, usually). Private school is similar to public school, but families pay for tuition and sometimes books and supplies (free in public school). While there are some very good public schools in the US, they tend to be in more affluent areas where residents pay higher property taxes (which fund public schools). You still have to pay property tax (sometimes appropriately called school tax) if you have no children in school or choose to pay tuition to send your kids to private school. Frequently, private school is more academically challenging than public school. The US does have private boarding schools like the UK has, but they are far rarer in the US. About 83% of American children attend traditional public schools, 7% attend charter schools (independent public schools), and 10% attend private schools (including boarding schools). Only about 35 thousand of US children attend boarding schools out of approximately 50 million total.

When I was in elementary school in the early 1970s we went on field trips to places like different museums, the main library downtown, historical places, the zoo, and stuff like that. When I was in high school in the early 1980s we didn't go on any field trips.

As a kid I went on field trips to the zoo and the museum.. very fun and opened my mind to the venues of education and learning outside of the class room

Field trip just means an outing. Museums, parks, historical landmarks are common places.

I volunteered to chaperon on a few of my son's field trips when he was in school (this was around 20 years ago). One all day trip was to visit a couple of museums in a city about 150 miles away riding on school buses to get there, this included a kids science museum, and art museum, and a stop at a wildlife park / zoo in another smaller city about 70 miles away on the trip back. I also chaperoned on an overnight field trip to the state capitol, this one included a visit to the new (1930's construction) state capital building, the historic old (18th century) state capital building / museum, a historic civil war battlefield, a historic plantation, visiting both the historic and the modern Governors mansion and spending the night aboard a WW2 museum ship (USS Kidd)

Some schools have their own forests, back in the day ours bought an 80 acre parcel, made trails etc.

Most schools in the US start at 8 and end at 3. Some field trips take the kids to a local farm or a museum or some other place of interest, depending on what the class is, you're going out in the "field".

any trip that students take from school during school hours is a field trip, whether it's just going to the zoo,theater, etc..

We used to go on 2 or 3 day trips every school year starting when we were about 8 or 9. We would go to the library or museum or to a dairy, a boat building company, the San Diego Zoo, the observatory, etc. For some poorer kids this allowed them to get outside of their immediate area and be exposed to new places. For others, it was a time to learn about new things.

They are taking their book knowledge and learning to apply it in real life. In elementary they are more just for fun, once you are in Middle school and High School it’s still fun, but learning can be fun! Yes, this is an Advanced Placement/Honors Science course which you can earn college credits for.

On the different field trips I took as a kid we went to a wide array of places. A animal rescue that took in injured mountain lions, a cookie factory, Six Flags amusement park a few times, the beach, ironically a 1st grade school trip was to the jail, another was to Sutter’s Fort, the Old Sacramento Train Museum, we also had events where every school in the county would go and compete in various competitions

In the Washington DC area there is a High School called, "School with out walls." Everyday they have school at a different location around the area or take a trip to some location outside the area. It's an advanced school and very competitive to get accepted.

My daughter had a class called Outdoor Adventures. Her winter field trip was camping in the Boundary Waters in February.

Field trips are perfect for visual learners and for those who like to get hands on.

This is more of a science class learning school trip. In my day, we had trips to museums, The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Washington D.C. places that you could learn stuff but not always directly related to a specific class although some were, like The Trenton Barracks Museum, Monmouth Battlefield Park that you usually had to write 2 or more paragraphs on what you learned.

Field trips cover a wide range of experiences, at least in metro areas. The term came about in the days of rural schools and to leave the classroom you would go out in the "field" to explore nature. Any time the class then leaves the school grounds for a class experience is a field trip. When I used to teach, I took many a class on these things, but since I live in a huge metro area, it was generally a thirty minute to an hour bus ride and did them with 1st graders to seniors in high school.

The white school bus, it is possible that it’s an old bus that the school sold off to a private company, and the new owners painted it white. This private company then hires out to whomever needs them, sometimes for a church outing, or school field trips, or political rallies, lots of things.

Activity buses are usually different colors to the yellow school buses. They could be white, beige, or perhaps a color that is part of the school's identity. If I remember correctly, my high school's activity buses were navy blue like our sport teams color.

This is a true "field trip".. whenever the trip is for the purpose of learning something it's officially a "field trip".. now, that's not to say sometimes they were fun too, but most of the time it was a learning thing, at least when I was in school, that is.

This looks like an introduction to Limnology trip. The study of streams, lakes and rivers. The area around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is quite rural. Many high schools will offer Limnology courses. They will identify some pet waterways and often take weekly trips to judge the health of local streams. Figure out what's living there (plants, fish, insects) and the general health of the water shed. Small clean up projects and restoration projects happen with the help of the State. Pretty cool when a bunch of high schooler identify run off from construction projects that might harm the stream they are monitoring. Also monitoring farm run off for chemical changes to protect the water way.

My 8 year old granddaughter starts school at 7:30 and my grandson leaves for school at 7am and gets home at 5:30 after a 45 minute bus ride . To be able to start at 9am would be heaven,

Most of the time, field trips are meant to show students the things they've only ever seen on a screen - to actually get out and turn the theory into practice. They get out and actually do the work themselves.

That "baby" fish may be adult size. That was small group for a field trip. Most of my grade school ones had 60-80 kids. They varied from: seeing how coke a cola was bottled, boxing ice cream, cheese making, to fossil hunting, rock formations, to seeing a 110 species birds in the wild in one day. (most in area about the size of Jersey)

When I was in 8th grade we had a school trip coming up and our teacher was trying to do something fun for us because we were about to graduate. However, it HAD to be educational. So he took us to a local college that had already closed for the summer. To make it educational we toured the college for like 20 minutes, then spent the rest of the day at their pool and baseball diamond.

When you said this is a really big class, this field trip doesn't necessarily mean that all of those kids are in a giant classroom together. A lot of times, the teacher in charge of the field trip could teach several sessions of the same class, and therefore kids from multiple class periods will be on the field trip. Other times a field trip can be an entire grade level of students, or everyone that is in a science class.

A field trip in the US is basically a "educational outing" ; although back when I was a student during the k-12 years of my schooling, for me it was a day outside of the school building for a change of scenery and a chance to take some cool photos on a disposable camera.

When I was in school a field trip was mostly for learning purposes but once and a while it was just for fun like if we all did really well on a government test day we all would be treated to a field trip to the movies or the bowling alley. I loved it when we would go to the theater to see a play or go to the museums or the zoo etc. even though you would have paperwork to do,it was fun still. Like in world religion class we got to different places of worship like a Greek orthodox church. We also got to see a Mormon church and ask questions about their religions beliefs and how the it all works. And when in field biology class we get to go to the state park and see if we could find animals and identify the different tree types. Loved it

I remember one time in high school. I was taking vocational education classes at junior College and I was taking auto body and fender repair and our instructor took us on a field trip to a GMC motor factory

growing up i had field trips to farms, zoos, museums, and aquariums. i also had one to an amusement park but that was more of a senior fun day type of field trip. So i feel that as long as there can be educational value in it it is allowed by the school. From North Carolina

My school field trips were never like this we went to the movies, museums, zoos, plays and stuff like that. Most school field trips in America aren’t like what you seen in this video.

My favorite trip was when I was in middle school and they took us to New York City (from Massachusetts) and let us walk around, see sights, visit shops. We were able to split up in groups and go visit stores we wanted to go to so the entire group didn't all have to go to one place at a time together. Trips can be educational or just to see something you wouldn't otherwise have a chance to see. Depends on the trip. I had both fun trips and educational trips.

Field trips are for learning. One of my favorite one's I went on was to a dairy farm. We got a tour of the facility, saw how they milked the cows and processed the various milk products. Some went into Milk, they made chocolate milk, some was used for cream and some for butter. I think this dairy was operated by Borden. Which is a milk/dairy product brand here in the US.

🌸 A teacher could justify a field trip to a different playground - teaches those young children to use those stay in line skills, buddy system skills, following directions, etc.

This is a science class field trip.......however, field trips usually mean when all classes go to a museum, some historical site etc.

My freshman year I went to a fine arts field trip and we actually went to a few places, it was a 2-day field trip. We went to a museum, restaurant, and a play. We stayed at a hotel to sleep and went to Hershey park the next day. So one day we learned and the next day had fun, we got back to the school and got picked up by our parents/guardians at around 10:30 on a Saturday night.

A field trip can be almost anything. In 4th grade we chartered buses and drove several hours to Plymouth Plantation a replica of the Pilgrims first village in America. In 6th grade we chartered buses and went to NYC to the UN. When I was teaching we did shorter less expensive trips. A field trip is anything off school property which by law requires permission slips signed by parents.

Generally, a field trip is any trip off of the school grounds or other pre-approved locations. It's a "field" trip in the sense academics use "field" studies -- it takes place outside the normal, controlled educational setting.

Recently my granddaughter a first grader went on a field trip to a local park as they had been studying bugs, so they were given a magnifying glass and a butterfly net. Earlier in the school year here older sister went to a local museum because they had been studying dinosaurs. She said they got to touch a dinosaur bone while there.

When I was in school, we used to go on field trips to the museum or one time we went camping as a class and literally all over the place

A field trip is not referring to a field in the countryside. It is referring to the field of study. As in studying in the field versus academic or classroom study. Field study is hands on in the environment where the learning is natural.

School “Field” trips in the US are generally any trip to a location outside of school that provides an opportunity for further learning. It can be to a museum, a park (like this video), theaters, etc. They are not just to outdoor field/parks. I have heard of “field” trips to amusement/water parks, but not when I was in school. You just have to convince the school board and parents to pay for and give permission for the trip.

Field trips vary by school district, age, school, location, etc.

Its been my experience from 60 yrs ago , that a Field Trip could be any of the above...It can be educational or just for fun. So far It looks like a science or a conservation class....measuring the pollution etc.

Most big city kids don’t get field trips like these. This is Durham, North Carolina. My field trips in high school consisted of museums, Broadway and other theater shows. We also had weekend trips to historical cities. I also had a non-school sanctioned trip to London during the Christmas holiday break of my 10th year. It was organized by 2 of the English teachers. I visited Stratford on Avon, Piccadilly Circus, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle and saw 2 West End shows.

The first bug is a hellgrammite. The larva of a Dobson fly.

I hope you guys are feeling better. You guys have a blessed day and may God. Bless all three of you

Field Trips, in my experience were always educational. If we went to a Museum it was with the Art class, or when we went to the park next to our High School for Biology class, we did a lot of these tests and collected pond water to look at the algae and single celled animals in our. A couple kids ended up with tadpoles, tiny fish larvae and snails. We each had a mason jar of water that we had to collect and then watched it over the next few months. Our Choir class had more outings than anyone as we went to competitions and certain performances. Public Schools often have classes of around 30-40 students, where private Schools have class sizes of 15-25 usually.

I grew up in Jacksonville, FL. Some of the field trips I went on in school were Tallahassee (capital of FL) to see the Capital Building, St Augustine (oldest continuously inhabited city in the US), Museum of Science & History, MarineLand, Talbot Island State Park, & Ft Caroline. Educational stuff.

We toured a donut factory, visited a famous downtown market with international food, guide dog school, zoos, museums, tidepools, overnight camping, grunion hunting, overnight marine biology boat trips. etc. Grew up in the sixties and seventies.

A field trip can be to a museum or city facility. Or it can be to an actual field, nature center, farm, etc. This looks like a biology or earth science class.

A school trip could be about just anything. A field trip usually includes something pertinent to subject matter like going to the sight of a battle (or state capital) for a History class or Government class. In this case a waterway (creek) biology trip to measure the indicators in an ecosystem (i,e, salinity/ph, fauna, stream flow, water temp, etc.). The White Bus is called a people mover and is also used by the military to move adults. The Yellow Bus is the typical school bus. Two buses indicate probably a couple of Science Classes together which would be common to minimize time taken and costs. Schools develop curriculum to make subject matter applicable and tactile, e.g. 'hands on.'

This is the kind of learning I could do. I was terrible at book learning.

Our field trips range in educational value depending on what school you're in, and what state. Lots are decently educational, though trips like this are a bit more than what most teachers do. This seems like something that we would've done at my charter high school in Tennessee.

The kid said that they returned to the ACE Lab - that means he's in an accelerated science class that may also count for college credits. Looks like they had fun!!!!

When I'm at school we went on the field trip to a glass factory where is a blew glass. A field trip in America can mean a lot of different things. I helped the sister field trip one time to six flags amusement park.

I think we had more field trips in elementary school than in high school. I grew up between Austin & San Antonio, and we went to the state capital in Austin, the Alamo, LBJ's ranch, the San Antonio zoo, museum, etc... We even took a field trip to the park & swam in a pool one year. I went to school in the 70s/80s and it was probably more to just get us out of school for a day back then because we didn't have to do stuff like that.

We went on field trips when I was in school , but not like this . Because I grew up out in the country , stuff like this was what did all of the time on our own .

Alot of field trips have to have some type of educational reasoning because the kids are in school and the point of school is to learn. So in order to use school resources to pay for the field trip then there needs to be an educational reason. If its non educational then each kid usually has to pay money to go on the field trip. Also have to get a signed piece of paper from parent/guardian. Any kid who doesnt pay or signed paper has to stay behind.

All ages do this usually there are some parents and teachers with them, and a school bus is the means of travel to these places. They are meant to be educational. And they can be museums, historical places, or perhaps something related to a career young adults would choose.

That does look like a single class, but field trips are often several classes combined, not always, but usually.

We didn't have anything like that, it was basic trips to the zoo, local auditorium, nature preserves, until I changed schools in 6th grade. My new teacher informed me the class was soon going on a cross country skiing trip at a local skiing area! She also took us to Chicago which was 95 miles away to visit some museums. Then the next year 7th and 8th graders got to go to a Six Flags amusement park at the end of the year, that was even a bit farther away. Funny though, I don't recall a single field trip in high school.

We had field trips to museums in nyc or even Washington DC. Some school trips even went to Europe during school breaks.

Field trips I had in school were to the Enrico Ferme nuclear power plant (science), a mattress factory to see how mattresses and box springs are made (home economics), the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum (drawing and painting class), Greenfield Village in Dearborn is see early locomotives, cars, and artifacts & homes of famous Americans (history). Vernor’s Ginger Ale plant (manufacturing and use of assembly lines for business class) and the Detroit Zoo (biology).

the younger kids do field trips like you said the older ones go to museums and places like that

Depending on the level of school...high school, jr high, or elementary. They start at different times. Mostly for the schools transportation. There's only so many students per bus so it's all about timing. The buses will deliver all the elementary students than go and make another round for HS students. So basically 7:15, 8:15, and 9:15. Is when each grade level gets bussed in the famous yellow school buses. Unless you live within a mile of the school, then you have to walk or ride a bike.

When I was in third grade the class went outside, walked down the road, crossed the highway, crossed the railroad track then down the road some more to a guys house where out back in his shed we watched him slaughter a hog. Then we walked back. That was my first field trip. It was pretty cool.

This video made my 43 year old self feel sooo old. The last field trip I've been on was in early 1990s.... Ty 😂