Club Field Trips

Club Field Trips
Sam Grus
12-16-2013  1:26 pm

OWENSVILLE, MO-In my four years at Owensville High School, I have only been on three field trips. One was for a class, and that was to, Missouri State Penitentiary. Another was to the St. Louis Zoo with the Spanish Club and the final one was to Busch Stadium with DECA. Two of the three field trips were actually helpful with the sponsoring class or club.

The trip to the Missouri State Penitentiary was helpful because we were tested on what we learned there. The trip was for the Advanced American History class taught by Rebecca Giallongo. We learned what an important role the prison had played in American History, and that it was the bloodiest prison in the United States, Alcatraz was not even close. That field trip was not a waste of time for the class; it was actually helpful to what we were learning about at the time.

The Spanish Club field trip to the St. Louis Zoo was, and still is, the biggest waste of student, school, and taxpayer money. Going to the zoo has absolutely nothing to do with what was being learned in the class. The trip is sponsored by Spanish Club, but the majority of the people in the club joined it for the pointless field trip. So in this case, the field trip was pointless.

The last field trip that I attended was the DECA trip to the Cardinals game at Busch Stadium. The main purpose of the trip is prior to the game there is a guest speaker who talks about the different sides of business. That is what DECA is all about: the different sides of business. Plus, if you are in Mrs. Whelan’s advertising or marketing class, you can see how companies like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s are advertising their brands at St. Louis Cardinal’s games.

So in two of the three cases, the field trips were helpful. One of the contributing factors to how helpful or how much of a waste of time the trip is would be the sponsor. The Spanish Club has a terrible sponsor, so therefore the field trip is a waste of time. Meanwhile DECA has two fantastic sponsors in Mrs. Moritz and Mrs. Whelan, so the trip is meaningful to the class, as well as the club. So, in conclusion, field trips can either be helpful, or a waste of time, it just depends on how you look at them.