Don’t Overlook the Idea of Overnight Field Trips

The night before a field trip is always the most exciting. Knowing that you are about to be immersed in a unique educational experience for a day is enough to make students actually look forward to learning, but what if this incredible experience could last beyond a single day?

I vividly remember the laughter and lessons learned during my trip with the Pennridge Highschool Music Department to Walt Disney World two years ago. This was a great experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world. To many, it may have seemed like nothing more than a fun vacation, but to those who were able to enjoy this trip, it was much more than that. It was a once in lifetime learning adventure that we got to experience with our teachers and peers that far exceeded the confinements of our classrooms. While there was, of course, an aspect to the trip that was just meant for our pure enjoyment, a lot of the trip was focused on enhancing our abilities as performers. “My favorite part of the trip was being able to have a studio session with a professional Disney singer as a choir and being taught new singing and recording techniques,” says senior Emily Jo, who was also in attendance. Although she discussed her enjoyment of the theme park and hanging out with her friends, her most valued memory from the trip was the educational aspect of it, which I would have to agree to be my favorite part as well. The skills which we learned and the experiences we gained are lessons that are impossible to mimic in a traditional one-day field trip setting. According to the Youth Hostel Association of Australia, having students stay overnight for field trips allows them to become more engaged in the content they are learning as opposed to when trying to cram an educational field trip into a single day.

Devin Mcgowen, a senior who attended the Pennridge Ski Club’s overnight field trip to Kellington, VT, also agrees with the aforementioned advantages of overnight school excursions. “It gave me a chance to interact with my teachers outside of school and to learn from them in a new setting,” she states. When students spend long periods of time with teachers and peers whom they usually only see for seven hours of the day, it allows them to build better connections with them. This is especially true when it comes to teachers whom students depend on for their academic knowledge. Overnight field trips can allow the knowledge shared between teacher and student to extend beyond academics and into real-world advice which students can carry with them in everything that they do.

While there are strikingly beneficial reasons to partake in overnight field trips, there are also many concerns that students, parents, and teachers all share. The biggest of these concerns is that of safety. This is a valid worry, but one that can be quickly calmed. Security and safety procedures of overnight field trips tend to exceed those of normal one-day field trips. “I felt like the supervision was good. It was clear when we had to check-in and there were lots of attendance checks in the parks as well as hotel room checks every night,” says Jo on security procedures for the Disney trip. Although the security procedures are air-tight, leaving little room for mishaps, there is always space for students to learn independence. “There was a good balance between our independent time as students and security checks,” Jo clarifies. While the COVID-19 Pandemic hinders Pennridge’s ability to provide students with trips like these, there is always hope for the future. The lessons learned and memories made by students during overnight field trips are unlike any other, and I am happy to say that I was able to experience this firsthand.