A field trip, which may also be termed as an instructional trip, school excursion, or school journey, is a school or class trip with an educational intent, in which students interact with the setting, displays, and exhibits to gain an experiential connection to the ideas, concepts, and subject matter. Field trips are also student experiences outside of the classroom at interactive locations designed for educational purposes.

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Field trips take students to locations that are unique and cannot be duplicated in the classroom. Each student observes natural settings and creates personally relevant meaning to the experience. Interactive exhibits help students play with concepts, activities often not possible in the classroom. Earlier course content suddenly becomes relevant as students assimilate and accommodate new understanding and cognition. The connection between the field trip venue and the classroom links the field trip’s experiential learning with prior experiences and learning from the classroom. Field trips are experiential, authentic social events that create a new way of knowing an object, concept, or operation. Quality experiences lead to deeper learning and interest development.
FIELD TRIPS
A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment. Field trips provide alternative educational opportunities for children and can benefit the community if they include some type of community service. Field trips also provide students the opportunity to take a break from their normal routine and experience more hands on learning.
Field trips have always been an important means of teaching, as evidence of a long tradition in the history of education. Field trips are usually arranged by schools, have educational purposes, and take place in an interactive setting all of which have been shown to increase learning. Field trips as complex learning settings enable binding the curriculum to the environment and combining cognitive and affective aspects of learning. The field trip allows using observations, conducting short investigations and group discussion in an informal learning environment.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic achievement or academic performance is also the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement.
Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.
FIELD TRIPS MAY BE PLANNED FOR FIVE PURPOSES
1) To provide firsthand experience
2) To stimulate interest and motivation in science
3) To add relevance to learning and interrelationships
4) To strengthen observation and perception skills, and
5) To promote personal (social) development
FIELD TRIPS AND LEARNERS PERFORMANCE
Today's students are visual learners and a field trip lets them touch, feel, and listen to what they're learning about, [which helps them] build on classroom instruction, gain a better understanding of topics, build cultural understanding and tolerance, and expose them to worlds outside their own.
The use of field trip in teaching and learning helps to bring about effective and efficient learning. Field trip is a group excursion away from the normal education environment for firsthand experience of an historic site or place of special interest. Each student observes natural settings and creates personally relevant meaning to the experience. Interactive exhibits help students play with concepts, activities often not possible in the classroom. Earlier course content suddenly becomes relevant as students assimilate and accommodate new understanding and cognition which in turn improves learning and academic performance.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the outcome of an experience depends on a person’s interests, motivation, life circumstances at that time, needs, and prior experiences and knowledge. Field trips offer an opportunity to motivate and connect students to appreciate and understand classroom concepts, which increase a student’s knowledge foundation, promoting further learning and higher level thinking strategies. With understanding comes confidence and intrinsic motivation. A successful and quality field trip requires teacher preparation and interaction. Some factors should be addressed before the trip. The experience needs to be planned. The teacher should pre-visit the venue to meet the staff and arrange the activities, and then prepare the students by orienting them to the venue’s layout, activities, and expectations. Student groupings should be set up prior to arrival at the venue. Chaperones need to be trained. The trip needs to connect to the curriculum, students should be actively engaged, and all students should be able to take part in the trip regardless of financial, physical or intellectual status. Teachers need to consider safety issues and should prepare to embrace the unexpected.
Campus field trips provide a cost-free alternative, while retaining the benefits of traditional field trips. Outside, students might explore around the school grounds, focused on a specific topic or concept. In the classroom, students might create their own classroom museum exhibits, or a local university or science museum might share mobile exhibits with the school. No matter whether the school is urban, suburban, or rural, ecology is everywhere. There is much to be learned from a vacant lot, the edge of a parking lot, a puddle, or a bush. Field trips can stimulate new learning, increased attitude towards science, trigger interest development, and provide many rewards to both the teacher and the students.