As spring arrives, students across Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) are trading classrooms for buses, as many teachers plan a variety of on- and off-Island field trips. From urban museums to local landmarks, field trips provide students with experiential learning and opportunities to engage with the curriculum — and one another — in new ways.
At least eight field trips are planned for the month of May alone. One of these took place last week, when students from Corinne Kurtz and Leigh Fairchild-Coppoletti’s history classes traveled to the Harvard Art Museum.
“I thought it was a really great experience. The kids were awesome, and they got a decent amount out of the art museum,” said Ms. Kurtz.
Ms. Fairchild-Coppoletti also feels passionately about the importance of field trips. “They inspire students to make important connections between classroom learning and life. And because students acknowledge a field trip’s specialness, they often approach the experience with more interest than they might a typical classroom assignment,” she said.
Junior Nick Silva is a student in English teacher Christine Ferrone’s “Psychology of Happiness” class. In this class, students have taken four trips to Stillpoint, an education-focused center located in West Tisbury. The group has relaxed during sound baths, listened to improvisational piano, and grown closer to one another during each trip. “I like how, when we go to Stillpoint, we always have fun, and there’s always stuff to do. It’s never the same activities,” Nick said.
English teacher Jessica Russell took students enrolled in her “Wampanoag Writers” course to the Aquinnah Cliffs. In her class, students read tribal texts that have been translated into English, analyze precolonial writing, and examine works written in Wampanoag. At the Cliffs, students received a tour from Brad Lopes, a tribal member and the education and public programs manager at the Aquinnah Cultural Center.
Ms. Russell said, “This has actually been the first field trip I took, because I found the process [of taking students off-campus] to be very intimidating, but I thought it was important to actually go out and be on the land.”
The experience turned out to be a positive one. “I’m really glad we did it. It was a really nice bonding experience for everybody, and just time to hang out and be with each other,” said Ms. Russell.
History teachers Scott Boddery and Amy Jacques took their senior civics classes up to Boston, where they toured the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, which provids students in their final semester of high school an interactive opportunity to learn more about the role of government and the process of lawmaking.
Senior Freya Stearns thought the activities were an impactful addition to the topics they learned about in class. “We did a sort of mock trial, and it was really cool because we were able to see how laws were passed and how that affects people in a real way. It felt really realistic, and was interactive, which definitely made the concepts more memorable for me.”
Sophomore Allicia Guimaraes is a member of the First Generation Club, which explores college opportunities and facilitates college visits for students who will be the first in their families to attend college. On April 27, the club took a trip up to UMass Amherst. While being on this trip, students received lots of freedom to explore what the school has to offer. “UMass is the school I want to go to,” said Allicia, “and I think it will be pretty cool if I go. We walked around campus, and we got the chance to listen to a Portuguese session that was really awesome.”
Ms. Kurtz reiterated the value of leaving the classroom, saying, “The classroom is not the only place to learn. You can’t put a price tag on a field trip.”