Hands-on Learning

• One of the reasons field trips are useful is that they give students the opportunity for hands-on learning in a new environment. Field trips can make learning much more accessible to students who learn visually and physically, as well as generally helping students retain information through experience. Having a physical experience to correspond with a body of knowledge often results in the student remembering more of what he learned later on.
  
  

Application Outside of the Classroom

• Another major benefit to field trips is how they show students their knowledge in action, putting a real-world face to concepts they have learned abstractly in the classroom. Field trips to science museums, art galleries, farms, historical sites and government buildings allow students to see how what they learn in school is used in the real world by people every day. Many field trips give students the chance to try out some aspect of the site and let them see how they could someday put their knowledge to work in the same way.
  
  

Bring Learning to Life

• Getting kids to take an interest in a dry subject is challenging at the best of times, and scheduling a field trip that really makes a subject come alive is a way to get kids fired up about learning. Many historical sites have reenactors and docents whose job it is to give students an idea of what life was like during a historical period. Similarly, science museums and field sites let students see how their learning is used every day by real people.
  
  

Spark Deeper Interests

• An enduring benefit of field trips is how they often spark an interest in lifelong learning for a student. Seeing the real-world applications of knowledge can start a desire to learn more about a subject, which could blossom into a passion or even career. Many professionals credit their success in their field to seeing examples of people in their field at a young age and being inspired to pursue a dream.