School Field Trips

Field trips give children opportunities to personally connect with nature, while the hands-on experience makes learning fun and brings scientific concepts to life. Time outdoors makes them happier, healthier and more likely to become adults who are motivated to care for our world. 

Why Take Education Outdoors?

Children and nature are a perfect match. Children have boundless energy and curiosity, and the out-of-doors provides them with an unscripted landscape to explore and discover. Not only is it fun, it’s the antidote to what ails a large proportion of children and adults. Both populations are experiencing increasing rates of depression and obesity, and a growing body of research indicates that these maladies decline when people spend time outside being active. 

Children also learn more, are more cooperative and creative and are less likely to exhibit attention-deficit-and-hyperactivity disorder. The hands-on nature of field trips helps reinforce concepts learned in the classroom and make them real.

OUR EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY

Our field trips, designed for pre-school through 8th grade students, correspond with grade level academic standards for Ohio.    

The Brown Family Environmental Center offers a safe environment where students can connect with and develop a relationship with nature.  Whether we are teaching school children, families or adults, we aim to incorporate the following pedagogical principles into our programs:

• Hands-on
• Experiential
• Total immersion
• Small group experiences
• Our instructors are facilitators, not lecturers
• Structured and safe environment to explore the outdoors
• Encourage students to think for themselves

We try to do what classroom teachers cannot easily d0: take students into the prairie, forest, river, or wetlands; and provide activities that incorporate kinesthetic and fine motor skills. 

In an effort to create well-rounded programs, we use a three-tiered approach when we  design our lessons.  In each lesson, we aspire to integrate the following concepts: 

• Natural History:  name the local flora and fauna, and provide “fun facts” for each
• Ecology:  show relationships between flora and fauna, between abiotic and biotic factors, and how humans fit in
• Sustainability:  consider simple changes that we can make in our behavior so that our actions have a positive impact on ecosystems and wildlife instead of a negative impact

Become a Field Trip Volunteer!

The BFEC field trip program would not be possible without exceptional volunteers from our community and Kenyon College. Part of what makes volunteering fun is re-experiencing the natural world through the eyes of a child. Volunteers attend training sessions before field trips begin, and typically commit 3 or 4 hours per week to the program during spring and fall seasons.   

We want to expand our field trip program, but we need your help to do that! New volunteers are always welcome! Please contact Jill Kerkhoff at kerkhoffj@kenyon.edu to sign up.