Nature Foundation covers field trip transportation costs for Will County's Title I schools
Field trips are a quintessential rite of passage for students, a break from the monotony of the school day and a way for teachers to provide hands-on learning opportunities to supplement lessons in the classroom.
For many schools, however, cost can be prohibitive when it comes to scheduling field trips. To help ease that burden, The Nature Foundation of Will County can cover transportation costs associated with field trips to Forest Preserve District of Will County facilities through the Connecting Kids With Nature Bus Scholarship Program.
The goal of the bus scholarship program is to remove barriers high-poverty schools face in offering outdoor field trip experiences to students, said Tara Neff, executive director of The Nature Foundation. All Will County schools with a Title I designation can apply for scholarship funds of up to $750 per calendar year to cover field trip transportation costs, and the funds are reimbursed to schools after a field trip visit.
The idea to offer the scholarships came from Jessica Prince, the facility supervisor at the Forest Preserve’s Plum Creek Nature Center near Beecher. She said other government agencies have offered similar funding programs and offering it at the Forest Preserve makes sense because field trips are such an integral part of the learning process for many kids.
“I’ve always been a champion of it,” she said.
In the 2023-2024 school year, a handful of schools took advantage of funding from the bus scholarship program. Both Neff and Prince hope to see even more schools apply this school year.
Now that the program is in its second year, Prince said she and other facility supervisors are making a concerted effort to reach out to eligible schools to ensure they are aware the funding is available. She is also working to get the information into the right hands in other ways as well.
The cost of bus transportation for field trips may be nominal for many families and schools, but not universally so, Neff said. The goal of the bus scholarships is to ease the financial stress of providing these unique opportunities to expand on classroom learning.
The monetary constraints of field trips may be felt more at Title I schools, which are schools with a high number of students from low-income households. These schools receive federal funding to help students from low-income households achieve academic standards.
For students, field trips are an opportunity for a different kind of learning, Prince said.
“The teachers are the customers, but it’s the students who are the benefactors,” she said.
Teachers schedule field trips for many reasons, including the opportunity for hands-on learning and to allow for engaging lessons that supplement the classroom curriculum.
Educators consider the Forest Preserve staff who facilitate the field trips the experts in the field, allowing students to learn while tapping into a new resource.
“There is no duplicating the experience of being outside in the preserves and having those hands-on experiences,” Prince said, adding some students do their best learning in these types of non-traditional environments.
Getting outside of the classroom allows for new and different kinds of learning, Neff said.
“The kids get to experience with their senses,” she said. “You can touch, you can smell, you can feel. You’re engaging all your senses while you’re learning, which makes it more memorable.”
Funding for the program comes to the Foundation from Pembina, a pipeline company with operations in Will County and the surrounding area. In 2023, Pembina has made a three-year, $40,000 commitment to The Nature Foundation that includes money to fund the bus scholarship program, materials for STEM and STEAM activities at Forest Preserve visitor centers and natural area restoration at Four Rivers Environmental Education Center.