(ARA) - Teaching is now competing with testing, leaving less classroom time for hands-on, experienced-based learning. With record debt -- upwards of $200 billion -- and school funding dependent on compliance and performance, programs promoting creative thinking have become unaffordable luxuries.

“It’s not just P.E. hours and pencil allotments being cut,” says Susan Singer, president and founder of Field Trip Factory (FTF), a company which provides free, experiential learning adventures to U.S. schools. “We’re seeing less active learning in classrooms despite research showing a direct correlation between the learner’s involvement and learning retention.” Studies have demonstrated 40 to 60 percent increases in retention when students have an opportunity to test previously learned facts and theories, revise assumptions, and derive new and first-hand knowledge.

The growing success of Singer’s company is a testament to the overwhelming demand for creative, affordable ways to reinforce curriculums and engage all kinds of learners. Last year, Field Trip Factory took 200,000 pre-K through 8th grade students out of the classroom -- into the field -- to teach lessons in nutrition, fitness, creative problem-solving, teamwork, eye science, biology, recycling and geography.

Students were able to taste their way up the Food Pyramid, suit up with sports safety gear, plan birthday parties using time and budget allotments, examine the similarities linking living beings, and much more. According to Chicago public school teacher and field trip participant, Mee Soohoo, “The interaction between the students and the community professionals on-the-job had a real impact on students’ learning and behavior.” In a survey done following a recent nutrition field trip, student participants reported eating 38 percent healthier and increasing their consumption of nutritious foods by 12 to 18 percent.

This past spring, 600 schools signed-up for FTF’s new in-school Creative Break program, which promotes self-expression and creative problem-solving, while supporting cross-curricular instruction. Teachers embraced the Break’s art-based, “no wrong answer” activities and students eagerly exchanged their number two pencils for colored markers.

Interest in experiential learning has ebbed and flowed since the late 19th century, but is growing by leaps and bounds today. Cost has always been a consideration but now Singer and Field Trip Factory have taken that consideration off the table. Educational psychologists support hands-on learning not only for learners who’d be left behind by traditional classroom instruction, but for all students. In an ever-changing, highly competitive global market, children must be readied to apply flexible, creative strategies to practical, real-world problems.

For more information about any of Field Trip Factory’s programs, call (800) 987-6409 or visit the website at: www.fieldtripfactory.com. Courtesy of ARA Content

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