Table Of ContentA GUIDEBOOK OP FIELD TRIPS IN
LOS ANGELES FOR SCIENCE IN THE SIXTH GRADE
A Project
Presented to
the Faculty of the School of Education
The U niversity of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillm ent
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science in Education
by
Norman Levine
June 1950
UMI Number: EP45932
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This project report, written under the direction
of the candidate’s adviser and approved by him,
has been presented to and accepted by the Faculty
of the School of Education in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Master of
Science in Education.
Date ......
Adviser
Dean
/
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION.............................................................. 1
LA BREA TAR PITS-HANCOCK PARK . . . . 6
Background ......................................................... 6
Points of in terest en route . . . 6
Conveniences available .......................... 8
Clothing to be taken . . . . . . . 8
Equipment to be taken ..................... 8
Suggested Vocabulary Prior to the
V isit ................................................................... 10
Suggested Readings Prior to the V isit 12
Guide Questions ............................................. 14
Description of Things to See . . . . 16
Possible Follow-up A ctiv ities . . . 21
GRIFFITH PARK OBSERVATORY AND
PLANETARIUM ......................................................... 23
B ack grou n d .............................. 23
Points of in terest en route . . . 24
Conveniences a v a i l a b l e ......................... 26
Clothing to be t a k e n ............................... 27
Equipment to be taken .......................... 27
Suggested Vocabulary Prior to the
V isit ................................................................... 29
Suggested Readings Prior to the V isit 31
Guide Questions .............................................. 33
i i
PAGE
Description of Things to See . . . . . . . 35
Possible Follow-Up A ctiv ities .......................... 46
EXPOSITION PARK-HALL OF THE NORTH AMERICAN
MAMMAL....................................................................................... 48
Background ................................... 48
Points of in terest en route .......................... 49
Conveniences available .......................................... 50
Clothing to be t a k e n ............................................. 51
Equipment to be taken . . . . . . . . . 51
Suggested Vocabulary Prior to the V isit . . 53
Suggested Readings Prior to the V isit . . . 54
Guide Questions ........................................................ . 55
Descriptions of Things to See ......................... 56
Possible Follow-Up A ctiv ities . . . . . . 60
EXPOSITION PARK-HANCOCK HALL-RANCHO LA BREA . 62
Background .............................. 62
Points of in terest en route ......................... 63
Conveniences available . . . .......................... 64
Clothing to be t a k e n .............................. 65
Equipment to be taken ........................................ 65
Suggested Vocabulary Prior to the V isit . . 67
Suggested Readings Prior to the V isit 69
Guide Questions ............................................. 71
Descriptions of Things to See .......................... 73
Possible Follow-Up A ctiv ities .......................... 84
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . ......................................................... 87
INTRODUCTION
Experience is the "best teacher. Hardly anyone w ill
disagree with th is tried and true adage, lea st of all. the
school teacher. Yet, i t is the school teacher who often
ignores this principle en tirely.
In the school, as in most learning situ ation s, the
pupils learn better what they do and see than what they hear.
I t is upon this premise that the b e lie f of the importance of
the fie ld trip in education is based. Yet, there is a dearth
of use of th is important technique of instruction. The
reason is two-fold.
F irst is the matter of transportation. This is
quite a problem in some schools which do not have a bus sy s
tem for transporting children. The teacher can always a3k
the parents to cooperate by providing transportation, but
this is not always desirable as the teacher loses direct
control of the group and the trip becomes merely another
outing.
Second is the matter of preparation. The field trip
lik e any lesson should be planned w ell in advance so as to
have some real educational value. This requires quite a b it
of time for ordinary classroom. But planning for a field
trip en tails at lea st one preliminary v i s i t , arrangements
for transportation, and the legal d etails of parent releases.
This great amount of planning which is involved in a worth
while trip has been quite a deterrent to it s popular use by
the schools.
2
With the growth of many school d istr ic ts and the
amalgamation of smaller units into greater ones, i t has be
come a practice for these school systems to provide the
necessary transportation for the important field trip .
With the acceptance by these school d istr ic ts of the
transportation problems, there remained only one other ob
stacle to the popular use of the fie ld trip . This was the
matter of the preliminary v is it .
The Los Angeles City School D istr ic t has been a t
tempting to do something towards eradicating this obstacle.
An effo rt has been produced in the form of their publication,
It *s Worth £ Vislt^ prepared by the Curriculum D ivision.
This publication is a l i s t of places that the teacher can
take her class and be r e la tiv e ly sure that the trip w ill not
be a waste of time educationally.
For each v is it i t gives the follow ing information*
Name of Firm
Address
Nature of A ctivity
Restricted to
Time of V isits
Length of V isits
Croup Size
This Information is helpful to the teacher by saving
her the time and effo rt of locating places and trying to
Curriculum D ivision, Los Angeles City School D is
tr ic ts . Xt*s Worth A V is it . Catalog of School Journeys in
the Los Angeles Metropolitan area for the Elementary Schools,
Los Angeles City School D istr ic ts, 1946.
arrange an appointment for the class. But the amount of in
formation must go a step further in order to he of real help
to the teacher in the planning of her trip . She might need
to know such things as where the r e st rooms are, where can
the class eat lunch and what would be the appropriate ap-
pareli This supplementary information, then, is the primary
purpose of this paper. I t is hoped that after reading this
paper about the particular trip in mind, the teacherfs pre
liminary trip would be more fr u itfu l and, therefore, resu lt
in a more worthwhile educational experience for the class.
These particular fie ld trips have been chosen be
cause these places offer more in the way of real educational
value than many of the other trip s.
£11 a teacher in the Los Angeles City Schools has
to do to make an arrangement for a fie ld trip is look through
the catalog, I t 1s Worth A V is it , se lec t a place that might
further the learning situ ation , telephone the Transportation
Section or have the clerk c a ll, te llin g them of the desired
place, and in time the teacher w ill receive confirmation of
the trip and for what date it has been arranged. This paper
w ill not deal with any of the mechanical d eta ils of a trip
as these are handled autom atically by the Transportation
Section.
2
According to H. C. Atyec , there are three major
2
Atyec, H. C ., The Excursion as a Teaching Tech
nique. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia,
New York., 1939.
aspects of a fie ld trips (1) planning, (2) conducting, and
(3) the retrospective use of the trip .
He expands the planning phase by te llin g that it
must include the creation in pupils of an awareness of its
need and a d efin ite formulation of its purpose. This phase
must also include planning of the mechanical d eta ils and
preparation of the class for the trip . Conducting of the
trip includes the mechanical control of the children, en
courages pupils to observe more keenly, and encourages stu
dents to ask questions when they have the opportunity.
Atyec*s idea of retrospective use of the trip in
cludes such things as class discussion, oral reports, w rit
ten reports, le tte r s of appreciation for courtesies, ac
counts of the trip for a school paper, and individual proj
ects .
Elim inating the mechanical planning which is being
handled for the teacher by the School System, this paper
has taken most of the suggestions of Atyec and put these
broad general terms into sp ec ific information for these four
fie ld trip s.
This does not mean, however, that the teacher w ill
not need to do some planning. She w ill have to prepare the
class to accept the trip as a learning a c tiv ity . Xt is
s t i l l up to the teacher to make sure the class conducts i t
s e lf w ell in public. The class and a ll its a c tiv ity at
school and away from school s t i l l are the resp on sib ility of
the teacher.
The purpose, then, of this paper is to help the
teacher in the planning of a fie ld trip toy a ssistin g her in
the preliminary plans and possibly give suggestions for ac
t iv it ie s which she may use or use these suggestions as a
springboard for ideas of her own.
This paper is more or less a handbook or catalogue
which has gone a step further towards aiding the teacher do
a better job of teaching.
