Academic achievement is boosted by access to artifacts and resources not available in the classroom. Staff at museums and science centers have specialist knowledge. Children remember information better when it is attached to a vivid memory of an enjoyable or interesting event. Visits excite, inspire and enthuse. Visits benefit different learning styles. Not every child learns well in a lecture situation. Some are visual or experiential learners. For them, visits and opportunities for practical learning are especially beneficial.
Historical concepts and situations they have never experienced can be hard for children to understand. Museum artifacts, re-enactments or historic buildings help give the past greater realism. Geographic understanding can be broadened by visiting geographic features. Science and environmental topics are often better understood when seen in context. Such visits can provide opportunities for students to apply their classroom learning to a practical situation. Trips may provide opportunities for problem solving, decision making, cooperation and teamwork. According to the English Outdoor Living Council and to teachers who contribute to the U.K.'s Cumbria Grid For Learning, students also gain heightened aesthetic, sensory, ecological and spiritual awareness.
Visits provide glimpses of other cultures and lifestyles. Urban children may never have explored a green space. Rural children may never have seen the city. Children from low-income families are more likely than their wealthier peers never to have visited a museum, watched live theater, or heard an orchestra. Educational visits can address some of these missing experiences. They can also provide opportunities to learn new skills or to participate in adventurous sports.
According to Dr. Alan Peacock, a researcher at the University of Exeter, England, children almost universally report enjoying educational visits. Teachers and students see improvements in students' social and leadership skills and interpersonal relationships. Visits allow students to mix with adults other than their teachers. Seeing their teachers in a different setting can deepen students' respect for them. Visits often provide lasting, happy memories. They increase children's independence, helping them become comfortable with unfamiliar settings and situations. Teachers interviewed by Peacock found these benefits particularly evident in disadvantaged or disabled students -- in one case study students with learning disability and autism had been encouraged to attender higher education through their empowering field trip experience.
Field trips offer opportunities for civic engagement and environmental responsibility. According to the Nevada Natural Resource Education Council, using the environment and community as a basis for learning improved attendance, motivation and behavior. Dr. Peacock's research and the Scottish Government's 2010 "Curriculum for Excellence" suggested participation in outdoor, experiential education reduced truancy, drug and alcohol use and disciplinary problems. Students gained focus and motivation and began making better choices. The Scottish document even suggests children grow up "wealthier and fairer," since experiences beyond the classroom "lead to profound changes in life expectations and success."