What makes a decent field trip?
September 17th 2006 01:06
The joy of a science degree is the countless number of field trips one can go on. In my 2 years of Uni, I have been everywhere from Mud flats to tropical islands, with various subjects, doing various tasks.
No doubt, field trips give a student taste of real work- once we are out of uni and in the real world, what we can actually be doing with our life- collecting samples, travelling around, solving problems in the environment etc. But is this such a good thing?
One of my subjects this semester is a geology course. As we have no other practicals for this course, the field trip held a high weighting on our overall mark. Dragging my arse to uni at 7.45am on a saturday, my fellow classmates and i piled onto a pus and headed down to our location of study. What followed was 8 hours of driving, stopping, looking at sediments, and then more driving. Ok, so some samples were collected in this time, but with no real idea of what we were to do with these sediments.
8.30 on the sunday, in other words today, the class met up in the labs and proceeded to attempt to analyse the samples. Can we say disaster? Too many people, too many samples and not enough machinery meant that most of us left after 2 hours having acheived nothing, except to have vented a lot of frustration on the non-functional coke machine.
I left feeling that, while appearing useful from the outside, Field trips are just frustrating and irritating. In order to shake myself out of this negative thought frame i have decided to glance back at previous trips and decide what makes a worthwhile field trip.
1. While getting dirty on a field trip is fun, all well and good, forcing us to squish around for 3 hours in mud looking at organisms on a hot afternoon is not. Thus I suggest banning muddy areas from field trips. After all, Mud cakes onto our clothes and shoes, dries and becomes a pain in the arse (or a mess on the arse if, like me, you are prone to falling over on every field trip).
2. Afternoon trips. Yep this is where they try and squeeze a field trip into the three hour time slot nornally allocated for pracs. This means we take not only our usual junk to uni for lectures in the morning, but we must remember any additional material for the prac. This usually also involves leaving half an hour or so earlier than usual starting time (oops, there goes my lunch break...) and getting back late (...and there goes my bus). They're usually poorly organised and the majority of us don't want to be there- especially if they involve mud or standing around in the hot sun. Make it a full day and make it worthwhile.
3. Some of the more enjoyable trips i have been on have involved an overnight stay. The first of which was an actual camping trip- tents and all. Overnight stays, while they may be inconvienient for the lecturer, anyone with children and those who work, allow bonding, friendships to grow within the class and more time for work to be spread out over the weekend. If trips are well organised, booze and decent food are brought by students and an enjoyable night around a cabin table, or camp fire is enjoyed by all.
4. A carefree attitude and willingness to joke around by the authority figures. This may seem small, but if one gets forced into the outback/mangroves/ onto an island for a few hours, or several days with a dragon of a lecturuer, it will not be pleasant. By connecting with their students, and having fun, the lecturer gains respect and cooperation from his or her pupils. Some examples I have in my memory bank includes a very drunk subject coordinator doing the Haka, and many a rowdy card game with my chem professor.
5. I can't stress it enough, ORGANISATION is the key. No matter how great the field trip may sound on paper, if the class ends up sitting around for hours waiting for something to happen, or the lecturer forgets some key point, nobody is going to enjoy themselves.
No doubt, field trips give a student taste of real work- once we are out of uni and in the real world, what we can actually be doing with our life- collecting samples, travelling around, solving problems in the environment etc. But is this such a good thing?
One of my subjects this semester is a geology course. As we have no other practicals for this course, the field trip held a high weighting on our overall mark. Dragging my arse to uni at 7.45am on a saturday, my fellow classmates and i piled onto a pus and headed down to our location of study. What followed was 8 hours of driving, stopping, looking at sediments, and then more driving. Ok, so some samples were collected in this time, but with no real idea of what we were to do with these sediments.
8.30 on the sunday, in other words today, the class met up in the labs and proceeded to attempt to analyse the samples. Can we say disaster? Too many people, too many samples and not enough machinery meant that most of us left after 2 hours having acheived nothing, except to have vented a lot of frustration on the non-functional coke machine.
I left feeling that, while appearing useful from the outside, Field trips are just frustrating and irritating. In order to shake myself out of this negative thought frame i have decided to glance back at previous trips and decide what makes a worthwhile field trip.
Students doing Invertebrate Zoology scouring through some rather tidy looking mud flats
1. While getting dirty on a field trip is fun, all well and good, forcing us to squish around for 3 hours in mud looking at organisms on a hot afternoon is not. Thus I suggest banning muddy areas from field trips. After all, Mud cakes onto our clothes and shoes, dries and becomes a pain in the arse (or a mess on the arse if, like me, you are prone to falling over on every field trip).
This is more what I'd look like.
2. Afternoon trips. Yep this is where they try and squeeze a field trip into the three hour time slot nornally allocated for pracs. This means we take not only our usual junk to uni for lectures in the morning, but we must remember any additional material for the prac. This usually also involves leaving half an hour or so earlier than usual starting time (oops, there goes my lunch break...) and getting back late (...and there goes my bus). They're usually poorly organised and the majority of us don't want to be there- especially if they involve mud or standing around in the hot sun. Make it a full day and make it worthwhile.
3. Some of the more enjoyable trips i have been on have involved an overnight stay. The first of which was an actual camping trip- tents and all. Overnight stays, while they may be inconvienient for the lecturer, anyone with children and those who work, allow bonding, friendships to grow within the class and more time for work to be spread out over the weekend. If trips are well organised, booze and decent food are brought by students and an enjoyable night around a cabin table, or camp fire is enjoyed by all.
Orpheus island- one of the more ideal field trip destinations.
4. A carefree attitude and willingness to joke around by the authority figures. This may seem small, but if one gets forced into the outback/mangroves/ onto an island for a few hours, or several days with a dragon of a lecturuer, it will not be pleasant. By connecting with their students, and having fun, the lecturer gains respect and cooperation from his or her pupils. Some examples I have in my memory bank includes a very drunk subject coordinator doing the Haka, and many a rowdy card game with my chem professor.
5. I can't stress it enough, ORGANISATION is the key. No matter how great the field trip may sound on paper, if the class ends up sitting around for hours waiting for something to happen, or the lecturer forgets some key point, nobody is going to enjoy themselves.
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