By Joanna Domson

Sentry Staff Reporter

Fourth Quarter is known as the perfect time of year for class field trips.  Beautiful weather and the end of the school year causes teachers to plan educational field trips so that their students can apply the knowledge that they learned in class.  This spring, the physics classes went to a Bowie Baysox baseball game; the Madrigals, the guitar classes and the band went to Nashville; the government classes visited the Capitol; the Advanced Placement Biology classes saw the Natural History museum; and the Advanced Placement European History students took a trip to the International Spy Museum.

Each of the trips targeted a specific part of each class’s curriculum and gave the students access to activities that directly correlated with their units of study.   The AP Biology students, for example, saw evolution exhibits that solidified the somewhat abstract concept that fit into their ecology unit.

Christian Gilbertson, a senior in AP Government, felt that his class’s field trip to the Capitol and the State Department was a success.

“It grounded the curriculum. It made the class material more tangible and allowed for a good opportunity to meet current government employees and draw connections to current events,” said Gilbertson.

Thomas Lenihan’s AP European History class took a trip to the International Spy Museum to participate in a Cuban Missile Crisis simulation.  Lenihan also emphasized the importance of letting students explore on their own rather that simply completing a worksheet.

During the physics field trip, students collected and analyzed data with regards to practically everything happening at the baseball game.  They explored the physics behind pitching, stealing bases, and even the circular motion of the merry-go-round in the park.  Deborah Waldron, a physics teacher, wanted her students to see the use physics has outside the classroom.

“We want them to see that physics isn’t just the stuff we do in our classroom, that everything that happens around them is physics.  And that they are capable, in a year of a high school physics course, of analyzing a lot of the stuff that they see on a daily basis,” said Waldron.

The guitar class, the Madrigals and the band went to Nashville, not just to see the sights, but also to compete in the Heritage Festival. At this festival, students performed and were judged and given advice by top music experts.  Ellen Nye, a junior, is enrolled in guitar class and really enjoyed the time she spent in Tennessee.

“It was so fun and we had the opportunity to have clinics from great, experienced musical directors who taught us a lot,” said Nye.

Unfortunately, field trips always come with difficulties.  Not only do they take a large amount of preparation, but things do not always go as planned.  Bad traffic, late buses, and suboptimal weather are all trials that teachers and their classes might face when on a field trip.

“Planning a field trip is a lot of work because you have to collect money and coordinate with the school buses and you have to let the school know,” said Lenihan.

Field trips can also be detrimental to students when they miss all of their classes for that day.  Recently, the school’s block schedule was rearranged in order to accommodate the many students attending the physics field trip.

“We know that [taking kids out of school] is disruptive for the rest of the school,” said Waldron.

However, both teachers and students can agree that the experiences that field trips give to students cannot be replicated in the classroom.

“Overall the pros outweigh the cons.  The feedback I got from my students was that they enjoyed it, they learned some stuff, it reinforced stuff that we are either studying in class or will be studying,” said Lenihan.

Mary Cowden, a senior in AP Biology, feels the same way.

“I totally think the school should condone field trips. They are such a good way to get students out of the classroom to learn,” said Cowden.

Although they may be a pain to plan, field trips can successfully augment a student’s knowledge about a particular subject.  They certainly have a place in the school year, even though so many days have been lost to snow.  Teachers should be commended for spending the extra time to show their students a new way of looking at the information they are teaching.