Assignment: Field Trip Notes

Taking notes on field trips will be a crucial piece in gathering and absorbing the learning that happens on them. The way you do it can play a large role in how successfully that gathering and absorbing happens.

It's all about leaving space.

That's true in both a literal and a figurative sense. It's important to leave physical space in your notebook. Then, as you create space to reflect back on the field trip, you have a physical space to capture your thoughts.

We recommend drawing a vertical line on each notebook page, giving yourself about 2/3 of the page for recording the live information that is being shared. The remaining 1/3 of the page is landing spot for a variety things.

Observe the examples at left:

Main part of the page

• Blue box: a bulleted list or traditional outline format is useful for simultaneously capturing information and sorting it into relevant categories.

• Red circle: an asterisk or something similar is useful for denoting something you'd like to follow up on as you look back through your notes later. In this case, I was interested to follow up on Bill Weeks and the rewriting of Indiana drainage law.

• Black box: page numbers are really helpful, especially if you have a well-kept table of contents.

• Purple box: keep track of who is speaking, and what their background/relevance is to the conversation.

Reserved part of the page

• Orange box: define terms and concepts used by the speaker. As you review notes, include reflective questions on these concepts.

• Green box: Write out questions directly related to the content of the conversation. These are useful both for your own reflection, as well as our field trip debrief discussions.

• Yellow box: note what is remarkable about a given speaker. These little notes can help you create and maintain a mental picture of the individual.

• Red box: make note of relevant technical specifications. In this case, I wanted to remember that 1 cubic foot per second (cfs) is equivalent to about 484 gallons per minute.