For generations, field trips have sparked curiosity and helped students connect classroom lessons to the world around them. Today, California State Parks and our partners provide a modern, 21st-century model to make sure every student feels welcome and inspired by California’s natural wonders.
Through passPORTS, a blended learning model built on the Parks Online Resources for Teachers and Students — PORTS — program, students begin their journey long before setting foot in a park. By combining virtual learning with in-person experiences, passPORTS is helping create deeper connections to California’s public lands while removing barriers that historically have prevented many students from participating.
Building curiosity before the visit
The experience starts in the classroom.
“We learn by being exposed to information more than once,” said Casey Dexter-Lee, State Parks interpreter. “Kids that come on a field trip without any pre-visit information don’t retain that information as well as students that have been exposed to the history or natural history information a couple times in that learning process.”
Through live virtual programs led by California State Parks interpreters, students can meet park staff, ask questions and begin exploring topics ranging from history and ecology to climate and conservation. These sessions help students become familiar with the places they eventually will visit and turn curiosity into excitement.
So when students arrive, it doesn’t feel like their first visit. Instead, they’re returning to a place that already feels familiar and welcoming.
Removing barriers to access
For many schools and families, transportation, cost and logistics can make field trips difficult to coordinate.
That’s where partnerships make all the difference.
“There’s a real benefit to having a pre-trip meeting where parks staff are able to talk to students about what that field trip experience looks like, what the transpiration looks like and students can begin to see how they’ll get there and what the trip will look like,” said Gabriel Kahn, teacher with Oakland Unified School District. “That familiarity does increase turnout.”
By working together, California State Parks, Oakland Goes Outdoors and the California Association for Leading Innovation in Education — CALIE — are helping students and educators connect with California’s outdoors in new and meaningful ways, supporting creative approaches that meet the needs of today’s classrooms.
Together, we’re building a new model for outdoor education that opens up access and creates meaningful experiences for even more students across California.
Learning comes to life
Recently, students from Oakland experienced this journey for themselves with a visit to Angel Island State Park.
After meeting park interpreters online, students traveled by public transportation and ferry to the island, where they explored the landscape, asked questions and discovered the powerful stories inside the Immigration Station and Detention Barracks Museum.
What could have been just a single-day field trip or a short in-class learning module came full circle, becoming the start of an ongoing journey of learning and discovery.
Creating lasting connections
For teachers, this blended approach brings learning to life beyond the classroom. For park interpreters, it’s a chance to inspire students in new ways. And for students, it’s about building memories and connections to nature that can last a lifetime.
Programs like passPORTS help shape a new vision for outdoor education, blending technology with real-world experiences to meet the needs of today’s students and inspire the next generation of park stewards.
By working together, California State Parks, Oakland Goes Outdoors, CALIE and Parks California, are helping more students discover that California’s public lands are theirs to explore, love and protect.
“Partners are key to our success,” said Brad Krey, statewide program manager for California State Parks. “We have partners in the education space, nonprofits and private companies. All these partners bring together the aspects that are needed to have students actually visit a state park and have a meaningful experience while they’re there.”
Because building lasting connections through learning, exploration and discovery starts long before you reach the park gate.
It begins with curiosity.
Check out our new video to see how this 21st-century field trip model is helping students build lasting connections from the classroom all the way to California’s state parks.