Virtually Possible: Field Trips, Guest Speakers, and Using the Web to Connect
Mrs. Culver’s students present projects to their classmates.
I have always found that great learning occurs when students can experience new places and new ideas through field trips and guest speakers, and I have enjoyed seeing students study the world around them through first-hand experiences. After the spring of 2020, taking a large group of students to sites in-person, or bringing outside speakers into the classroom, was not always a feasible possibility. So, instead of letting that stop us, we just switched to virtual field trips and guest speakers, and it has been a success.
Creating Online Opportunities
In my high school economics course, I decided our spring 2021 semester should have a strong tie to agriculture and economics, bringing together aspects of our local agricultural community to the larger world. This required a number of virtual guest speakers and virtual field trips. I asked our local Franklin County Cooperative Extension Office if they could put together a presentation for my students about agriculture and economics, and they absolutely delivered a marvelous product. Our county extension agent spoke to students by Zoom with a wonderful presentation he put together, detailing the ins and outs of all things Arkansas, agriculture, and economics. You can find your county extension office at https://www.uaex.edu/counties/; county extension agencies are glad to help out with educational activities. From this Cooperative Extension Office Zoom, students created great presentations about the ways in which agri and econ go together, and they did these presentations in a virtual format as well.
Virtual Games & Activities
A student plays an online game that connects to classroom learning topics.
We also spent time on a virtual farm field trip, becoming virtual farmers through games and websites, including the National Geographic “Chocolate Challenge Game” (learn how to produce chocolate) at https://planetfood.education.nationalgeographic.com/choc-badge-1, and the National Geographic “Top Crop” virtual farming game (grow your own online farm) at https://www.nationalgeographic.org/interactive/top-crop. We were “virtually” farming! Consider all the ways students can still experience the world around them (even farming), using online resources. If you are interested in becoming a National Geographic Certified Educator (as they have wonderful resources for teachers), find out more at https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/professional-development/educator-certification/. Students also had a virtual visit from Heifer Village, which is dedicated to agriculture, the environment, sustainability, and economics. You can find more about Little Rock’s Heifer Village at https://www.heifer.org/visit-heifer/index.html, where they can put you in touch with your own virtual guest speaker and virtual field trip. Heifer Village gave us more information about agri, econ, sustainability, and the value of resources.
International Collaborative Classrooms
We had previously joined, in the fall of 2020, with the US Embassy School Election Project (which you can read about at https://www.teachaboutus.org/); my German partner teacher and I decided to continue this online learning community in the spring of 2021 by creating a virtual classroom project that involved students from both Germany and the US learning about the environment, agriculture, economics, and sustainability, all through a virtual partnership. We virtually visited with our new peers in Germany, with a group of my students putting together a major project, entitled “Sustainability and Cooperation First”, and participating in virtual guest speaking with experts from the US and overseas. This virtual partnership led to us being named winners in the Goethe Institut’s “Our Sustainable Future 2020-2021” competition, and all of this was done virtually, with students halfway around the world from each other. You can view more about the Goethe Institut’s virtual possibilities, and about the “Our Sustainable Future” contest, at https://www.goethe.de/prj/stg/en/nac/unz.html. For this upcoming school year, we have joined the Goethe Institut’s German American Virtual Exchange (GAVE), continuing to learn virtually through online partnerships with a classroom in Germany; you can read about the GAVE and GAPP (German American Partnership Program) at https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/m/spr/unt/com/gpp/vir.html. The online (and free) tool Padlet, at https://padlet.com/, allowed us to connect to the classroom in Germany virtually. In fact, we had previously used Padlet to virtually visit with, and learn from, a classroom in New Jersey during the 2020 election cycle; I was able to virtually connect with this classroom in Germany through my time as a 2020-2021 Fulbright Teacher for Global Classrooms, which also has resources for teachers and students at https://www.fulbrightteacherexchanges.org/programs/tgc/.
Connecting Arkansas Agriculture to Economics
Senator John Boozman visits with Jessica Culver’s Economics and Civics students.
Once the end of the 2021 school year rolled around, we were able to take a few in-person field trips in our local area, so we decided to keep the connection between agri and econ going; we planted flowers at every school in our district, and at our town’s community center, after also planting our own flowers and plants in the school greenhouse (and taking seeds to plant at home as well). We then went to our local elementary school and read picture books about the connections between agri and econ, presenting every student with flower seeds they could plant at their own home, all in an effort to keep the connection going. Our work in bringing together agri and econ resulted in my receiving, in spring of 2021, the Arkansas Ag in the Classroom Award, being named as the Arkansas Farm Bureau Arkansas Ag in the Classroom Outstanding Teacher of the Year. This award is for non-agriculture teachers who make agriculture part of the classroom learning experience, and you can read about how you can apply at https://www.arfb.com/pages/education/aitc-outstanding-teacher/. We were also fortunate to have Senator John Boozman visit our classroom, in-person, to talk about our work in bringing together agri and economics, near the end of the school year.
Virtual College Tours & Field Trips
Ozark High School students connected virtually with a partner school in Germany.
Other virtual speakers and trips we used throughout the 2020-2021 school year were National History Day Zooms with a professor from UCA, as well as another Zoom with the Director of Education at the US Marshal’s Museum (also about National History Day); if you are interested in National History Day, visit https://www.nhd.org/; their events and ceremonies were virtual field trips themselves last year. We also took a virtual field of the University of Arkansas Fort Smith, through a guest speaker, and you can schedule this by visiting https://uafs.edu/. My students virtually toured both Arkansas Tech University Russellville and Arkansas Tech University Ozark, with these virtual field trips involving guest speakers as well; visit https://www.atu.edu/ and https://www.atu.edu/ozark/ to schedule your own virtual field trips. An archaeologist based out of the University of Arkansas Fort Smith did a great virtual field trip and guest speaking with students about prehistoric artifacts in our local area. We took a virtual field trip of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and you can schedule that at https://crystalbridges.org/. This year, we plan to continue to travel and learn virtually through many of these same virtual visits and speakers we have used in the past. As a 2021-2022 US Institute of Peace Teacher, I will also be virtually bringing government officials to students through virtual video messages, all to teach about the importance of peace; consider how you could reach out to your government officials to request virtual video messages or Zooms!
In Closing
By the end of the school year, my students traveled to a variety of college campuses and museums, as well as to an archaeology center, virtual farms, New Jersey, Germany, our County Extension Office, and more, all without ever leaving the classroom. We were fortunate that the end of the school year saw us able to visit some of people and places in-person, but virtually visiting sites and hearing from experts has helped us to grow and learn more about the world around us.
