Our recent field trip

Taking a field trip is fun for students. They get to spend time outside the classroom, do exploring activities, hang out with friends and get to learn something new! Who does not like taking a field trip? Most public schools have a couple of field trips integrated as learning activities in the curriculum, and a calendar is shared with parents at the beginning of the school year or semester. An educational field trip may also be called an excursion, made by a teacher and students for purposes of firsthand observation, where students visit an outside area of the normal classroom.

There are different types of field trips that can be taken: Elementary school field trips, Middle school excursions, High school field trips, college visits, and club trips. Some examples may include visiting zoo, aquarium, museum, symphony, nature centers, community agencies such as fire stations and hospitals, government agencies, local businesses, amusement parks, science museums, and factories.

In this post, I am writing about a field trip taken with my students to visit 3 state universities and the State Capitol building. We also visited a museum in lieu of Alamo as we did not visit the city due to the Coronavirus pandemic. We were also scheduled to visit a university explore day but that was also canceled.

For many of our students, it was their 1st 2 nights trip away from home for an educational field trip and all of them were excited. We left our school on Friday at 9 am on a coach bus. Our 1st stop was Sam Houston State University. We reached around 10 am and spent an hour exploring the campus. The university is named after Sam Houston who was Texas’ greatest hero. Sam Houston State University, which was opened in 1879, continually strives to honor its historical roots through academic excellence. For more than 140 years, SHSU has been preparing students & is considered a small campus with about 22,0000 students.

Fun facts about SHSU:

• Over 90 bachelor’s degree programs
• More than 60 master’s degree programs
• 10 doctoral programs
• Includes the nation’s first Ph.D. in Forensic Science
• SHSU is also considered a great employer. For the past eight years, The Chronicle of Education has named SHSU a “Great College to Work For.”

We had lunch at Chick-fil-A on campus and left to go to Texas A&M next. We did the college tour with a junior and she was very informative, fun and enthusiastic to answer all our students’ questions!

• Total Enrollment (Fall 2019): 69,465
• Student Organizations: 1,100+
• Undergraduates: 54,476
• Graduate & Professional: 14,989
• First-generation Students: 25%
• Former Students: about 509,000+
• College Station Campus: 64,300
• Corps of Cadets: 2,311
• Master’s degree programs: 175
• Doctoral degree programs: 92
• First professional degree programs: 5
• Study Abroad: 5,865 students to 103 countries each year
• Total Faculty: 3,950
• 133+ Undergraduate Degree Programs
• 260+ Graduate Degree Programs

Some other fun facts we learned about Texas A&M:

• A&M stands for agriculture and mechanical. When Texas A&M opened on Oct. 4, 1876, as the state’s first public institution of higher education, it was called the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, or “A&M” for short.
• The university is spread over 5200 acres and has more than 65,000 students.
• The replica of liberty bell is from World War II, which was given as a gratitude to the university when 70% of all students (all males only university at that time) went to fight in the war. 
• #1 study abroad program in the state with 5000 students studying abroad per year in about 110 countries
• We learned about the century tree, the statue of 1 the previous presidents of the university, the academic seal, the replica of the liberty bell, corps of cadets, the ring, and the yell leaders!

Our students enjoyed doing the yell and few said they really liked the community feel and would plan to shortlist it for their college choices. We left College Station to go to our hotel and after dinner from Wingstop ended the day with reflection in the explore guide journal.

The next day was Saturday and our stops were the State Capitol building and Texas State University. We did the guided tour at the Capitol and learned about the history of the building, and visited the chambers of the Texas House of Representatives as well as the Texas Senate.

Fun facts about Capitol building:

• The building is 132 years old
• The ceiling is 218 feet high
• The star on the ceiling is 8 feet wide
• The longest world record of debate is from 1977, with 43 1/2 hours (no food, drink, restroom breaks & standing the entire time!)

After the State Capitol building tour, we also spent little less than an hour exploring the Texas State History Museum. Then after lunch from Subway, we went to the Texas State University at San Marcos. The university has about 38,000 students and offers bachelor, master and doctoral programs. It was opened in 1899 and students choose from more than 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs — from biology to music to business to geography and more. It is also the only university in Texas to have graduated a U.S. president!

Fun facts about Texas State University:

• Students come from 73 countries and all 50 states
• 52% of students are minorities
• #1 in Tier 2 research institutions in the military-friendly schools: Top 10 award
• Classified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education

After dinner at Gatty’s, it was reflection time as usual and we got ready for the last day of the tour which would be the Gonzalez museum the next day.

We started from our hotel all packed and ready by 9 am on Sunday and spent some time learning about Texas history at the Gonzalez museum which is housed in a small town of Gonzalez, Texas. The Gonzales Memorial Museum is a Centennial Historical Memorial Museum that commemorates the Immortal 32 who died in the Alamo. The Come and Take It, Cannon which fired the first shot for Texas Independence on October 2, 1835, is prominently displayed. Other exhibits inside the museum include period rifles, ammunition, uniforms, and more. The lunch was packed & picked up from Whataburger, which we ate in the park just opposite to the museum.

Finally, it was time to drive back 2 1/2 hours to return back to our school, where parents were already lined up to pick up their students. Overall it was a learning and joyful experience for the kids!

I do this yearly out-of-town trip with my students, and every year it’s a slightly different experience getting to bond with them outside of school setting. These are great kids; we always get compliments from our hotel, restaurant &/or university staff about how well behaved they are! During such trips, you also get to know your colleagues a little better & share some insights. Finally, being a vegetarian was no issue at all as all the meals were taken care of: Chick-fil-A got me a veggie burger (which I think is unheard of), cheese fries from Wingstop, veggie sub from Subway & grilled cheese sandwich from Whataburger. Of course, French fries was a side with most meals, which I relish! I talked to my family every night and my kids actually got to have a fun time with their dad, while I was gone:)

Do you have a favorite or memorable field trip experience with your students? Or if you are a parent, does your child have an all-time favorite field trip? If yes, please share by commenting below or sending an email to nishtha@dawnandhope.com