Recently the University of Minnesota conducted a Best Practices for Field Days workshop at Camp Camby Conference and Retreat Center attended by some 20 folks from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. The workshop concentrated on how to build a field trip/day so that the students gain an understanding of what you want and that it is a memorable experience. Relevance, continuity and experiential learning are key building blocks.

While perhaps obvious, the development of a short, catchy, simple sentence that states your theme or “mission statement” for the field day is of utmost importance. Next, and equally important, the theme needs to be integrated into the marketing and used by the organizers, presenters, teachers and volunteers to make the event successful.

Eagle Creek Watershed Alliance held its 3rd annual field day “I can make a difference in Eagle Creek watershed” at Eagle Creek Park this past Friday. Around 150 fifth grade students from Zionsville attended this field day consisting of 5 stations ranging from water testing, wildlife, invasive species, watersheds and water treatment. Each station demonstrated and discussed specific items related to the station where the kids could “make a difference” in the watershed.

By reinforcing the theme, “I can make a difference“, from station to station activities, the end of the day wrap up with the entire group of fifth graders – they eagerly volunteered many activities they each could do to improve water quality in the watershed.

Angie Tilton of Project WET coordinated the field day with help from IDNR, IDEM, the Eagle Creek Watershed Alliance, INDY Parks and Veolia Water NA to mention a few of the many volunteers. Angie was also instrumental in getting the “Best Practices for Field Days” workshop to Indiana and she is an excellent statewide resource. Additional program and evaluation resources can be found at the University of Minnesota and also the University of Wisconsin.