Can a child's life be changed by a school trip?
Can a one-day school trip to a nature reserve lead to lasting improvements in a child’s values and attitude towards the natural world?
The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) is pioneering research into the long-term effects on primary schoolchildren that visit our Wetland Centres, including here at WWT Washington.
To our knowledge, it’s the first time the subject has been explored in this way.
The research will catch up with the children and teachers once they return to the classroom, with follow-up discussions and activities drawing out subtle changes over time.
For example, how the children might remember the best bits of their day in a drawing, whether they did anything at home as result of the trip such as put up a bird feeder, and where and how long they play outdoors can indicate the values towards nature that are forming in their heads.
Researchers will compare the approaches taken by different schools on similar visits, which will reveal, for example, whether children are more inspired by things they are shown or those that they find for themselves.
The findings will help children get the most personal benefit from a school trip and maximise the odds of sparking the interest of the Sir David Attenboroughs of tomorrow.
WWT Learning Manager Lucy Hellier said: “This is a pioneering piece of research that could have implications for all school trips to the great outdoors.
“Over the years we’ve welcomed more than two million school kids to our Wetland Centres. We see them enjoy themselves and we dream that we’ve inspired each one.
“Other studies have asked adults why they became interested in nature. We’re coming at it from a different angle and speaking to children directly to narrow down what it was about a single school trip that could turn it into a life-changing event. As far as we know, no one has ever tried that before.”
A central part of WWT’s ethos is that immersing people in nature is the best way to encourage people to care about it and want to conserve it.
This echoes the experience of WWT founder Sir Peter Scott, whose love of nature was inspired by his father – Scott of the Antarctic – whose final letter to Scott’s mother before he died read “make the boy interested in natural history if you can”.
Nearly 2.5 million school children have been on a trip to a WWT Wetland Centre since the first opened in 1946. There are now eight WWT Wetland Centres that welcome school visits throughout the UK and WWT’s Inspiring Generations scheme helps schoolchildren in areas of high deprivation to visit for free.
