Traveling outside the four walls of the traditional classroom for field studies has its roots in ancient Greece with the teachings of Aristotle and Socrates. Field trips have been a part of education through the ages for good reasons. Effective field trip activities facilitate learning that is difficult to achieve in the regular classroom. Subjects like history and science jump off the pages of textbooks and come alive on field trips, taking on real-world relevance for students. Good field trips are multisensory, emphasize active learning and appeal to students with a variety of learning styles. They stimulate imagination and challenge students to think in new ways.
Field trips:
- Provide accurate, first-hand historical and scientific information
- Form a link between school and community
- Provide opportunities for citizenship education
- Help students establish a greater sense of pride in where they live
Field trips also help students make important personal connections with the cultural and natural resources that are part of our natural heritage. These connections are the first steps toward developing a conservation ethic and ultimately becoming stewards for our shared park lands.
TYPES OF FIELD TRIPS AVAILABLE
De Soto National Memorial has two primary types of field trips available:
1. Self-Guided
2. Guided
For all field trips, please make reservations at least 30 days in advance by calling De Soto National Memorial at (941)792-0458. All reservations are on a first come, first served basis. There are no fees for self-guided and First Encounters field trips.
Teachers and students should dress comfortably based upon the weather forecast. Always wear shoes to shield feet from sharp stones and shells. Arrive at the park at least ten minutes before the scheduled time of your field trip. When you arrive at the park, report first at the Visitor Center.
The park has restrooms and drinking fountain inside the Visitor Center. A picnic area capable of seating approximately 60 people is located adjacent to the parking lot. No food or drinks are allowed in the Visitor Center. Each group should provide at least one chaperon for every ten students.
SELF-GUIDED FIELD TRIPS
Self-guided field trips may include viewing the 22-minute movie and the exhibits in the Visitor Center, a trail walk, and--from mid-December through Easter Sunday--a visit to Camp Uzita. Reservations are necessary to make sure that the facilities are open and available to you during your visit, but no Ranger talks are available unless pre-requested. This request may be made when you make your reservation.
GUIDED FIELD TRIPS
Guided field trips are currently provided by two organizations:
1. The Environmental Education Program of Manatee District Schools.
2. Around the Bend Nature Tours.
Manatee District Schools provides tours only to area school children. Around the Bend Nature Tours provides environmental education tours to diverse audiences.
Pre-Visit Instruction
Pre-visit classroom instruction lays the foundation of content and skills necessary for on-site activities to be successful. Students also need to have a sense of where they are going and why in order to help accomplish on-site tasks.
“Destination: National Parks” Video: This 9 ½ minute video segment was developed with students from Loudoun County, Virginia. It is designed to motivate young people for learning on National Parks field trips. It highlights four national parks and briefly describes the purposes of the national park system as well as the conservation issues.
“Hernando DeSoto in America”: This 21-minute video depicts the four year, four thousand mile expedition of Hernando DeSoto. This will provide a concise background for your field study.
“Conviction of the Heart”: This 8-minute segment, created for the Rocky Mountain Region, captures the mission of the National Park Service and the importance of park resources and the global environment. It highlights the need for everyone to take responsibility to protect our shared resources.
National Park Service Lesson Plan: The lesson, “What is a National Park?” challenges students to discover the National Park Service’s preservation mission and explore the great variety of national parks in the system.
First Encounters Lesson Plans: Each First Encounters lesson plan contains pre-visit activities that relate specifically to the lesson’s on-site activities.
First Encounters Background Information: This guide contains background information on the following:
- The DeSoto Expedition
- Native Peoples at the Time of Contact
- Cultural Glossary
- Habitat Glossary
- Suggested Reference List
- First Encounters Trail Guide
Your Creativity & Teaching Expertise: Use the information from the workshops, this guide and your own knowledge and research to create additional classroom preparation activities appropriate for your students.
Field Trip Activities On-Site
This guide contains a wide variety of on-site lesson plans for you to use at DeSoto National Memorial. The lesson plans are designed to meet county and state curriculum objectives, be interactive and help students make personal connections with park resources while having fun. However, the lesson plans are only meant to be guides. Your knowledge, expertise, creativity, teaching style and energy will bring your personal touch to First Encounters lessons that you teach.
Planning a Successful First Encounters Field Trip
Learning in Unfamiliar Territory: Research shows that students are better able to concentrate on field trips if they know where they are, what they will be doing where the rest rooms are and where and when they will be eating lunch. Share the field trip itinerary, lesson plan objectives and park map with your students. Also, allow time for them to get oriented to the park site when they first arrive. If you carefully let your students discover the park on their own and answer all their logistical questions before you begin teaching, the lessons you lead will be more effective.
Follow-up Classroom Activities
Follow-up classroom instruction reinforces the concepts and skills taught on the trip, puts the trip activities in context with the curriculum you are teaching at school, provides an opportunity for reflection and allows you to assess learning that took place on the field trip. Follow-up activities are also useful for providing a good transition from the field trip to the next element of instruction you have planned.
The National Park Service lesson, “Create a National Park,” invites students to create their own national parks, advertise them to their friends, visit their new parks and balance preservation issues with public use.
