A field experience is when a teacher leaves the traditional school setting and engages students in the actual physical locations that bring classroom learning alive.
Whether it is a trip to the local city park to measure seasonal shade distribution or arranging an experience at Minidoka National Historic Site to examine the realities of America’s past, getting kids into the field, even on short excursions, is a necessary component of hardwired learning.
Think back to your own childhood, and I bet you remember every “field trip” you ever went on. These “trips” were more than fun events that were earned through exceptional classroom performance.
Yes, it was nice that all my fellow fourth-grade classmates and I completed our Idaho History Scrapbooks, but our reward of climbing Easter Hill near Paris, Idaho, not only gave me a sense of accomplishment but a sense that every step of this journey was accompanied by Mr. Rich telling us of the local history of one of Idaho’s oldest towns.
This I remember and genuinely value.
As I enter my 30th year of teaching, I can confidently say that field experiences are a necessary component of each student’s educational and mental welfare.
On June 11, I hit my 300th day in the field with the amazing youth of the Rigby and Rexburg communities. We were traveling by train from Berlin to Warsaw on our extensive trip of Central Europe to study the Holocaust.
As I reflected on this moment, I couldn’t think of one time I regretted taking kids into the field. From field studies in Yellowstone National Park to conducting water studies at the local community lake, I have loved each experience.
Many kids have been so inspired that they entered a related profession that the study sites introduced to them. I have also become more engaged as my tenure has grown. As mentioned, I now network with rival schools to travel abroad to master the learning that only visiting places such as the Warsaw Ghetto wall can achieve.
I can teach the most inspiring lessons and guide students in their research, but when one touches the remnants of the wall, one becomes not only a student, but a witness to these stories.
We owe it to our kids to give them experiences that will create lifelong working knowledge that develops an individual who always strives to learn more. If a financially strapped admin informs you, “We just do not have the funds,’ you have options. Develop a partnership by making a few calls or writing a grant that shows the need to better provide for your classroom of eager-to-learn kids.
By doing this, you will increase your passion for teaching, and you will genuinely give each kid a seed that will develop into working knowledge.
Remember: what we study usually takes place outside the traditional classroom, so take your kids to the place where our teaching material happens – you will not regret it.
Laron Johnson is Idaho’s 2026 CapEd Credit Union Teacher of the Year.
