General Instructions for Field Trips
To the teacher:
General guidelines
Educational field trips to plants are of great importance for chemistry students.
For them, this is chemistry in action!
The field trip to a plant has various objectives:
1.
To concretize for the students the application of the basic principles
of chemistry they have learned, and to give them a sense of the true
integration between science and technology;
2.
To illustrate the relevance of science to everyday life;
3.
To expose the students to the social and ecological aspects of
science and technology;
4.
To provide the students with knowledge of the chemical industry in
Israel, particularly phosphate, which is among the country’s principal
natural resources. There are also a number of additional objectives that
are not exclusive to a field trip to a chemical plant, but which are relevant
to any study trip;
5.
To arouse the students’ curiosity and develop their investigative
instincts.
6.
To develop the students’ critical thought;
7.
To develop in the student the ability to identify problems and
propose alternative solutions.
We seek to turn the field trip into an experience in which the student will be
active, communicate directly with its content, ask questions, think, and
endeavor to find solutions. We think that the learning experience will be of
greater significance if the students are moved away from the field trip in its
frontal form.
A field trip to a chemical plant involves organizational and financial effort on
the part of the school and, of course, on the part of the plant itself. The
success of the trip and turning it into a meaningful learning experience is
dependent upon appropriate preparation.
The field trip can be broken down into three parts:
[FLOW CHART]
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Preparation of the trip:
(a)
In class;
(b)
Coordination with the plant.
The trip
Summary of the trip in class (including feedback)
[FLOW CHART ENDS]
The success of the field trip is conditional to each of these three stages.
Preparation of the field trip
Suitable preparation of the students is of great importance. Studies have
shown that the novelty space in which the student finds himself bears a
considerable influence on learning efficacy during the trip.
The novelty space the student encounters in an extramural environment is
comprised of three main components: cognitive novelty, psychological novelty
and geographical novelty.
Cognitive novelty relates to the student’s degree of familiarity with the skills
and basic concepts of which he will make use during the field trip. In other
words, when the student reaches the various learning stations, he must be
completely familiar with the concepts and skills required to accomplish the
learning tasks.
Reducing this novelty can be accomplished through class preparation that
focuses on basic concepts and skills relevant to the trip which can be
inculcated concretely in the classroom and laboratory with the help of
discussions, group work, individual work, and laboratory experiments.
Psychological novelty relates to the gap between the student’s expectations
from the trip and the reality he will encounter during its course. For example,
if the student expected a “day out” based on social experiences, and he is
suddenly faced with a lecture, enthralling though it might be, this situation of
novelty will not enable him to concentrate and function in an appropriate way.
Reduction of this novelty can be accomplished through class preparation that
focuses on the transfer of very detailed information on the expected event,
such as its objectives, a schedule that is as precise as possible, the way in
2
which the activity will be conducted, and work tools and tasks for summarizing
the event.
Geographical novelty relates to the student’s degree of familiarity with the
physical environment, or the place in which he finds himself. In an unfamiliar
environment, the student will invest his energy in a “dialogue” with the
environment and will be hindered in his learning task.
This novelty can be reduced before the trip begins by the presentation of
pictures, transparencies, video films and work with a map presenting the
details of the route to be taken and the area in which the trip will take place.
[DIAGRAM]
[CENTER]
novelty space
[LEFT]
psychological novelty
[RIGHT]
geographical space
[BOTTOM]
cognitive space
It has been found that students, whose preparation before an extramural
event focused on the reduction of the three components of novelty space,
demonstrated significant learning to a greater degree than those who were
only partially prepared, and that the latter demonstrated significant learning to
a greater degree than those who were not prepared at all and who went out to
an extramural environment with a high novelty space.
It should be noted that it is not our intention that the students should know all
the minute details of what they will see and experience on the field trip.
Turning the trip into a genuine experience also calls for leaving room for
curiosity, inquiring minds, surprises, and new subjects that will be
revealed to them.
Organization prior to the field trip
The class should be divided into groups before the trip. The groups should
comprise 4-5 students, one of whom should be elected group leader. Each
group should prepare questions beforehand that it wishes to pose to the plant
staff.
During the trip, each group will focus on one prearranged subject, such as:
1.
Raw materials.
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2.
Transportation of materials.
3.
Chemical principles.
4.
Technology.
5.
Structural materials.
6.
Ecology and the environment.
7.
The products and their uses.
8.
Manpower.
The field trip
The teacher also has an extremely important role during the course of the trip:
(a)
Keeping to the schedule.
(b)
Distribution of task sheets and guiding the students in their work.
(c)
Encouraging the students to ask questions.
(d)
Maintaining student discipline and behavior.
It is important that for every 15-20 students there should be one
accompanying adult who can help during the trip.
Summarizing the trip
Summarizing the trip in class is of prime importance. The summary should
include detailed reports from the various groups, discussion of findings in the
field, and unresolved problems.
The field trip to a plant must be part of the learning continuum in the class and
should not be artificially planted in it.
The following pages show a proposal for preparation activity in class before a
field trip to the Rotem-Ampart plant, work sheets for the trip itself, and its
summary in class.
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