Field Experience Government class visits Public Works Department
Students in the Honors Government Field Experience class observe the process of making a traffic sign while on their field trip to Public Works.
Though most high school classes don’t incorporate student field trips into their schedule, this isn’t the case for Government Honors Field Experience, which was first added to the course list four years ago.
While it has the same curriculum as a regular Government Honors class, Government Honors Field Experience, taught by Jay Hook, features both a different class structure and additional learning opportunities for the 25 students.
“Roughly the first two-thirds of the year, [students] will do the classroom part of honors government. The last third of the year they will be out in groups working on a project for the city of Harrisonburg,” Hook said. “They’ll have a supervisor out in the community at that particular department that they’re working with. They will then present their project to city council at the end of May.”
Senior Domonique Rudd decided to take the class knowing that it would follow her preference for a hands-on learning style.
“[I signed up for this class] because I wanted to have a different type of class. The last history class I had was kind of a struggle for me, and since this one is more hands-on, I figured that it would be helpful and more beneficial for me. [I also knew] that I would learn a lot more things about Harrisonburg,” Rudd said.
In addition to creating and presenting an end-of-year project, the class will take about two field trips per month between September and February. Locations for these trips include the Emergency Communications Center, the Parks and Recreation department and the Harrisonburg Department of Public Transportation.
“The purpose [of doing this] is to make students more aware as citizens and help them choose what project they want to work on when we get to that portion of the class. But mainly it’s so that they get exposed to what city and local government does for them,” Hook said.
The class took their first field trip on Sep. 5 to the Public Works Department, where they had the opportunity to learn about topics pertaining to traffic, such as road signs and stop lights, the recycling center and the different maintenance trucks that help carry out specific functions in the city.
“[We took it] so that we could discover all of the things that they take care of for the city and how they do it. [We wanted to expose them to] all of the inner department things that they do and hopefully expose the students to a deeper appreciation of what the city actually does on a day-to-day basis for its citizens,” Hook said.
Rudd, who took special interest in learning about the different types of maintenance trucks, appreciated the opportunity to be able to participate in the field trip and sees the benefits that they can produce.
“I think experiences like this are really important because it helps us learn about our city. It also helps us expand our minds on what actually goes on, other than the fact that there are traffic signs and traffic lights and that they work,” Rudd said. “It’s just really helpful that we get to learn how our city works.”
Hook hopes that in providing his students with these opportunities, the class will not only cause the students to gain more interest in being involved now but also maintain that interest later on.
“They get involved in community service and get to be involved in their locality. Hopefully that will lead them to want to continue to be involved, whether that’s at the next school that they go to or whether that’s where they decide to live,” Hook said. “Hopefully by being involved at this age, it piques their interest and that continues.”
