Field Visits

Preparing Your Students

RESOURCE: This teacher's guide may help if you or a partner teacher need a refresh on teaching outdoors and includes preparation tips.

RESOURCE: This tip sheet on creating and restoring order may be helpful for you or to share with partners and volunteers.

Community Partners Communication

RESOURCE: Here is an Example "Master" Communication Email for communicating with partners and volunteers before heading to the field.

Field Visit Chaperones & Volunteers

RESOURCE: In addition to your district's volunteer/student contact requirements, encouraging community partners or volunteers to complete the MSU Extension Volunteer Selection Process adds a layer of protection for your students. Learn more here.

Permission Slips & Student Groups

RESOURCE: Example Permission Form and Field Schedule for Home

RESOURCE: Example Student Groups and Field Day Schedule

Student Groups

Best practices for field visit group sizing are:

Grades K-1: 6-8 students, Grades 2-5: 8-10 students, Grades 6+: 10-12 students

Supplies

RESOURCE: Check out NEMIGLSI's lendable educational kits and equipment.

Scheduling

RESOURCE: Doodle Poll : a great tool for getting everyone in the same place at the same time. This short tutorial video will help if you've never used it!

RESOURCE: Wheels to Woods and Michigan Nature Association can provide busing funds to get your students to their field site.

Safety

RESOURCE: This safety reminder sheet includes basic outdoors safety reminders as well as identification tips for poison ivy and poison sumac.

RESOURCE: Learn more about Michigan's snakes on the Michigan DNR website.

Rotating Groups: An Issue Sampler Platter

A little taste of everything! If you are already familiar with your field site location, working with community partners to predetermine a group of rotating stations that highlight different natural resource issues at that site is a way to expose students to several issues at once.

After they have made observations and collected data, they will be better equipped to make a choice which issue is most important for them to take action on.

Below are three example scenarios for a field visit with rotating stations based on site location.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CONNECTION: For some students, a field experience through school may be their only time to connect with natural resources in this way. Having fun and building an appreciation for a natural place are just as valid goals as conducting a habitat audit. For each of the above examples, Station 4 outlines ways to have fun and build connections to nature.