Description:
Excursions, or field trips, are a common component of early childhood programs, seen as a means of enriching the curriculum by providing experiences with people, places, and things in the community. Although excursions have been used as a framework for research on children’s memory development, research on the efficacy of excursions in terms of their potential to extend young children’s learning is rare. This article discusses 4-year-old children’s knowledge and inquiry resulting from an excursion to an “Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World.” Children’s knowledge and interest in sea creatures and penguins, features of the excursion setting’s construction, learning orientations toward science and technology, and further inquiry stimulated by the excursion are illustrated. Dialogue opportunities and children’s and teachers’ subject content knowledge are highlighted as contributors to meaningful learning resulting from the excursion experience.