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Here's today's feel-good story:
Quantifying the value of a school field trip is often difficult. Part of the educational experience or decades, field trips have intrinsic value in letting students develop socially outside of the classroom.
Amid the pandemic, school field trips declined as reported by many art venues, museums, and zoos. New research from BYU, Johns Hopkins University, and the Heritage Foundation shows us that students who participate in multiple field trips during the school year have better test scores, have increased cultural conscientiousness, and overall perform better in class.
“Contrary to practice where schools, facing accountability pressures, trade extracurriculars for increased seat time, we found that there’s no harm to academics by taking time out of the classroom. It’s possible to expose students to a broader world and have culturally enriching curriculum without sacrificing academic outcomes, and it may actually improve academic outcomes.” said the assistant professor of educational leadership at BYU and lead author of the study Heidi Holmes Erickson.