It’s undeniable that today’s students are deeply attached to their smartphones. TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat… they flip through content endlessly, often learning about the world from a 6-inch screen. However, something remarkable happens when you take them out of the classroom and drop them into a place like Washington, D.C. They stop scrolling and they start seeing.
At Student Adventures, this is a recurring observation. To the Lincoln Memorial, a bus full of noisy middle school students, previously engrossed in their phones, unexpectedly fell silent upon arrival.They snap a selfie at the White House, certainly but they also gaze in wonder at the Changing of the Guard at Arlington. History feels different when you’re standing in it.
Turning TikTok Curiosity Into IRL Curiosity
These students have heard of the Capitol Building, but to see it in the flesh, to draw it towering up into the sky, brings it to life. It’s not just a slide in a PowerPoint it’s a memory they keep for life, and yes, they’ll take photos. Nevertheless, that may actually be a good thing because, at least this time, those photos won’t be just for likes. They’ll be for memories.
Phones are a constant in students’ lives, and their use extends beyond mere distraction, especially during educational trips like this D.C. visit. Instead of just scrolling, students are actively engaging with their experiences: capturing group photos at the Smithsonian to share, recording informative videos at the Holocaust Museum, and broadly documenting their learning in real-time. You’re turning screen time into something meaningful. Even better? And parents back home get a kick out of watching these moments play out in the moment.
This is Experiential Learning
You can have a lesson in a classroom about World War II, but it hits home in a different way when a student stands among 400,000 white headstones lined up in perfect order at Arlington. You can discuss democracy, but to stand inside the Capitol Building breathes life into the concept.
For a lot of kids, it’s their first time out of their state. It’s their first time eating dinner in a restaurant without parents. It’s the first time they’ve seen something that causes them to stop and ponder, that’s precisely why we do it.
Why Sponsors Like This Approach
Sponsors of trips say this to us all the time:
“I was astonished by how much the kids changed on the trip.”
You’ll also see students blossom in ways you weren’t expecting them to. So you will hear profound questions during museum tours. And you’ll witness the pride they feel when they return home and relay to their family everything they saw and did.
A Trip with Ontology (and Selfies)
We aren’t trying to take the phones away. Clearly the technologies still matter and are worth understanding and experimenting with, but as teachers, we are simply helping students learn to use these technologies differently, creatively, socially and reflectively.
For the most important pictures aren’t the ones they post right away. They’re the ones who years from now will look back and say, “I felt like I was starting to care about something bigger than me.”
Let’s take them there. Together.