COVID-19 hit the Benilde-St. Margaret’s community hard in 2020. A predominant effect of the pandemic was the loss of field trips. With Covid winding down this year, the opportunity for field trips returned, giving students a renewed immersive learning experience.

English Teacher, Katie Belanger recently took the AP Literature class on a field trip to watch A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theatre. The trip is connected to the class’s study of Charles Dickens. For the past two years, however, it had been tweaked to watching an online performance by the Guthrie. This year, Belanger was glad to bring back the trip. Although it was a challenge to get students excused from classes, she hopes that, at the end of the day, it was a learning experience. “You hope that the learning experience of the field trip is worth the absence of a class period in the end… I think [it] helps change [the] perspective and shake things up, it’s also fun. It’s important to have fun,” Belanger said.

The Biomed AP Research class set off to the University of Minnesota to watch the Inspire Conference this year with science teacher, Mark Peterson. Learning new ways to ask questions, how to better research, and about unfamiliar jobs, stirred the class. Peterson believes expanding students’ views away from just the BSM filter is an important aspect of field trips. “When the students came back, several of them really were inspired…it certainly offered them a chance to think differently than sitting in a classroom,” Peterson said.

Stephanie Nitchals, senior high principal, oversees the organizing and approving of field trips. Nitchals explained that she is approving many field trips this year because she believes that it is good to have fun while learning, and with Covid having stopped it for a bit, it’s important for students to gain experience from the outside world. “If you’re passionate about being something, like a doctor, for example, to talk to another doctor is really helpful… I think that you can learn so much more by talking to people than reading about it,” Nitchals said.

Teachers at Benilde-St. Margaret’s vouch for the return of benefits on performance in class. The return of field trips allows students to get back into the world outside of BSM, allowing them to take knowledge from in the classroom and connect it to real life.