Create an Enrichment Experience in your own Classroom: Part 1
CategoriesGain a deeper understanding of forecasting the weather. Go on a trek through the Arctic Tundra. Learn about STEM careers in the United States Navy on board the USS Nimitz. All of these things are possible without even leaving the classroom through the use of Virtual Field Trips (VFTs)!
Teachers are often faced with figuring out just how to engage their students throughout the 180-day school year. How do we gain our students’ interest as we push through each lesson in each unit? Is there something we are missing – like a truly unique experience that may capture the attention of students in a more meaningful way than merely discussing a new topic in order to activate background knowledge?
The use of Virtual Field Trips is something that teachers may not even know is available to them. I was in a professional development seminar about Discovery Education over the summer when I first heard about the opportunity to use VFTs in my own classroom. If you are like me, sometimes I am skeptical when I hear about things like this. Allow me to explain the possibilities for a VFT through the following scenarios:
- A whole class goes on a “field trip” where students stay in their desks and view a presentation through the projector. As the virtual field trip is taking place, students may be taking notes in order to complete an assignment that was discussed before the field trip started. This assignment will be to write an informative essay about the topic of the VFT.
- As students move through a rotational instruction model, the students who are at the computer station will participate in a pre-selected VFT as a group. Again, they will be made aware of an assignment to be completed. Each group will go on a different field trip than the other groups. The assignment here is to create a PowerPoint presentation that will be presented to the class as a whole in the coming days.
- Students will use individual laptops or tablets to go on a field trip all their own. This can easily be turned into an assignment where they will be allowed to do a presentation to their class. A part of this assignment, which is given out during a holiday/celebration week, will be to do a presentation while being dressed up as someone during the holiday/celebration who is living in whatever time period or location they choose to visit on their field trip.
All of these scenarios are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to utilizing VFTs in your classroom. They can also be used for building background knowledge before starting a new unit about a topic that may be foreign to many students. Teachers who instruct English Language Learners (ELLs) may use VFTs on a more scaled-down level on a daily or weekly basis in order to make the content more accessible to ELLs. Providing VFTs for these students can be effective as they will benefit from having visuals along with an auditory explanation of the content.
There are many resources and avenues to take for VFTs. Nearpod, Discovery Education, and Google Earth are all ways to integrate VFTs into your lessons. The Connecting Link offers a non-credit (15 clock hour) course in creating Virtual Field Trips. This course walks the learner through what a VFT is, the various ways to create a VFT, and how VFTs can be used in the classroom.
Check out The Connecting Link’s Virtual Field Trip Course
Here are a few classes related to this topic:
Teaching in a Multicultural Classroom
Strategies to Support ADHD Students in the Classroom
Introduction to the Differentiated Classroom