For elementary students, field trips are one of the most exciting parts of the school year. Students look forward to leaving the school building, riding a school bus with their classmates, and exploring new places. Regardless of destination, the novelty of a new environment and break in routine bring energy and enthusiasm to the day. That natural excitement also creates opportunities for meaningful learning. Field trips allow students to learn through seeing, touching, asking questions, and doing, connecting classroom learning to the world around them. 

Because field trips give students opportunities to experience places, meet people, and see careers beyond the school building, they can also provide a valuable opportunity for students to learn about careers. A few small additions to field trip planning and preparation can turn any field trip into a meaningful career-learning opportunity. 

Getting Ready to Wonder

For any field trip or learning opportunity outside of the classroom, previewing what students will see, hear, and do can help students to get the most out of the experience. Sharing ahead of time what students will experience on the field trip not only helps students feel prepared for a non-routine day, it can spark their thinking and wondering, giving them an opportunity to become curious and brainstorm questions. 

That sense of curiosity can continue to grow once students arrive at the field trip location. When the experience includes time and space to pause, notice, and ask questions, students can engage more deeply in what is happening around them. Small pockets of time to slow down and make connections can lead to meaningful discoveries. Sometimes, the most memorable aspects of a trip are those that are unplanned and unexpected. 

Learning to Notice

As students begin to explore new places and follow their curiosity, they can also learn to pay attention to the people, work, and careers they encounter. Early elementary students are naturally curious about the people and places around them, making field trips a great opportunity for building career awareness. Helping students to know what to look for, giving them language to describe what they see, and practicing how to ask questions can help them to engage with new experiences. These simple shifts, outlined below, can help students move from simply attending a field trip to noticing the people, tools, and jobs that make their community work.

• Read books that introduce or illustrate careers students will see on the trip. While reading, pause to notice and discuss pictures, tools, uniforms, workplaces, and other career-related details. These literacy-based conversations help build students’ schema and give them multiple ways to understand what a career looks like and what people in that career do each day. When students encounter those same tools, settings, roles on the field trip, they have a connection that makes their observations more meaningful. It can even turn into a natural “I Spy” experience as students begin spotting the things they recognize from the books. 
• Introduce vocabulary connected to the field trip experience and related careers. As you read books, watch videos, or talk about the field trip, introduce students to words they are likely to hear or use during the experience. Consider the names of tools and equipment, job titles, workplace terminology, and other career-specific vocabulary. Previewing language not only supports students’ learning during the field trip, it can give them the words they need to ask questions, describe what they notice, and engage in conversations with workers they meet.  
• Prepare and practice questions. Invite students to think and talk about what they hope to learn on the field trip. Brainstorm questions as a class, group questions into categories, and then assign a question or two to student volunteers. Empower students to ask the questions, record the answers, and share what they learn with the class after the field trip. Students should also practice their question-asking skills. Remind them to speak clearly, wait for a  response, and listen carefully. Students might even prepare a follow-up question or comment. Practicing these conversations ahead of time can make asking questions feel more approachable and help students gather more valuable information. Students might ask:
  
  • What do you do during a typical day?
  • What is your favorite part of your job?
  • What is one tool that you use?
  • What is something that surprised you about this career?
• Model curiosity. Take question-asking one step further by modeling what it looks like to be curious. Once students have had an opportunity to ask their own questions, ask additional questions of your own. Look closely at things. Point out details. Wonder aloud. Demonstrating curiosity in real time can be powerful— helping students to realize that field trips can be about noticing, wondering, and discovering.
• Create opportunities to reflect. Reflect with a drawing. After the field trip, encourage students to draw someone they met on the field trip, complete with tools, uniforms, and even speech bubbles for things they might have said. Have students say if they would or would not like that job, either in writing or while sharing with classmates. This activity serves as a reflection on the experience and further reinforces the questions that students should continually ask themselves: What do I like? What do I find interesting? What do I not like? 

Making Career Connections

Whether students take trips to fire stations, community gardens, wildlife centers, or local businesses, the goal for any field trip is to help students make connections between their learning and the world around them. A few small, intentional shifts to field trip planning and preparation can help students get even more out of the experience. By integrating career conversations and connections before, during, and after field trips, students are primed to notice the people, skills, tools, and workplaces that make their communities work—building their understanding of how careers connect to their everyday lives and showing them some of the many career possibilities available for their future.