L.O.T.C. |
School Excursions
They'll want to remember this... For most people, some of their most vivid memories of school aren’t just what happened in the classroom – they’re as likely to be about a trip or excursion outside the school gates and into the real world: visiting a museum or a marae, tramping in the bush, sailing a dinghy or watching a live performance. Each and all of these – and more – epitomise Education Outside The Classroom (EOTC): curriculum-based teaching and learning activities that reach beyond the classroom. Yet while EOTC occurs, as the name suggests, ‘outside the classroom’, its purpose is very much to complement and enhance what students are studying within the school walls; it reinforces students’ learning by allowing them to make connections between what they may only have read about in a book or seen in a video with the real thing, out there in the real world. For example, students who are
learning about pollution and waste and recycling through the traditional methods of the classroom can have this learning enriched by a visit to a local recycling plant (where, indeed, they’ll be better able to understand how they themselves impact on their own local environment). Or if a class is studying oceans or the marine environment, then
a trip to an aquarium or to the seaside itself can bring to life the incredible flora and fauna they would otherwise only ever see ‘second-hand’ as an image on a page or on a screen. Imagine how much more excited and engaged students will become if they saw a real hermit crab scuttling across a rock pool or watched a real shark gliding past only inches away behind nothing but aquarium glass.
Experiencing marine life at first hand School excursions to Kelly Tarlton’s let students experience marine environments first hand. Learning about sharks, for example, through videos or books is one thing, but seeing one swim overhead, or holding a real shark’s jaw offers an experience you cannot replicate in any other way. At Kelly Tarlton’s, students get up close to ocean creatures and learn about them from marine experts. Students see animals that only avid scuba divers ever encounter, and have the opportunity to
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handle and touch real marine artefacts. In addition, the educational experience at Kelly Tarlton’s is more meaningful because of its true-to-life setting: seeing these animals first-hand generates greater appreciation and genuine interest, with learning becoming fun and fascinating. Different groups have specific needs and interests, so we offer an array of lessons on diverse topics to suit the particular requirements of any class. The qualified staff throughout the centre are also happy to answer students’ questions.
The relationship between inclassroom learning and the EOTC experience is also in line with The New Zealand Curriculum/ Te Marautanga o Aotearoa guidelines that encourage schools to develop school curricula and related learning programmes that “reflect the learning needs of their students; build on their previous experiences; and, have meaning for their students because the learning relates to their lives”.
