Field Trips as Authentic Learning Experience by Rose-Ann Smith

One of the things I valued while I was a student of Geography was our field trip activities. I realised from very early that I learned best when I was doing. I was one of those students whose eyes may be on you, but my mind was elsewhere. I often found myself zoning out if I was stuck in a lecture room simply listening. I learned best by participating and doing. When I began lecturing at the university level, and prior to becoming a trained educator, my own experience would have caused me to identify with these different types of learners. Teaching Disaster Risk Management (DRM) required this. DRM is about DOING!

I usually tell my students that even though I lecture in DRM I consider myself to be a DRM practitioner and my duty is to prepare them to be practitioners. My students value this. Have you ever heard students complain that they do not see the connection between what they are being taught and real life? Theory vs reality! Students value authentic learning experiences and disaster education must encapsulate and promote these. How do we do this at the Department of Geography and Geology, University of the West Indies, Mona campus?

For our DRM course, our students are engaged in discussion activities, group work, practical classes, and field trips. All of these are important and help to provide a rounded approach to DRM learning, but the most valued are the field trips.

What are our field trips like?

• Students get to observe an environment that might be impacted by a hazard/disaster. They assess the impact and the underlying vulnerabilities by conducting surveys with community members.
• Students might be asked to map areas of vulnerabilities with a community using a participatory approach that involve them speaking to community members
• Students might be asked to assess the capacities or coping strategies of a community for a specific hazard
• Finally, students are given skills in report writing where they are gain useful skills in presenting and explaining their data. As part of this report, students are often asked to develop a strategy to improve the conditions or reduce the vulnerabilities of the specific community. 

Over the years, I have read poems, jingles, and short stories aimed at increasing public awareness or changing a community's perception of their risk and I have gotten great input that can be added to policy briefs. 

While I intend to create a gallery on the blog to capture field trips that have been done over the years, here are a few photos and a short video of my students in the field. The students were taken to Port Royal, Kingston Jamaica which was devastated by an earthquake in 1907. This earthquake liquefied the sand spit resulting in the destruction of the city.  It also tilted the Giddy House, which was an artillery storage room built c. 1880. Today, it is included as part of the tourism products of the community which boasts a rich history. The students examined social vulnerability earthquake including the community's perception of their risk. 

Here is a video of the students touring the Giddy House and beneath it are pictures of students on the field trip.

Enjoying a short game with the tour guide in the Giddy House

Leaning on the Giddy House waiting to enter

Tired after a long day doing fulfilling fieldwork

Waiting and watching y for the bus while jotting down a few extra field notes