Integrating the Site Visit into the Course
Sometimes, individuals who set up a field trip are not the hosts or, even if they are, they often forget why the group is coming or what the course is about. One of the ways I help the host of the site visit is to provide the individual with a syllabus and other information about the course ahead of time when I am making the arrangements so that he or she can understand how the visit relates to the rest of the course. In addition, when the students and I arrive at a site, I introduce the group, revisit the reasons for the visit and discuss the ways it integrates into the course. Still, I have found that hosts are often unprepared and use the opportunity to encourage students to join the industry even though the students have already declared their commitment to the field and are majoring in the area. I also remind the host about the assignment that students will be completing after the visit.

Preparing Students for the Field Trip
One of the most critical aspects of making a field trip productive involves getting students oriented to observe and learn from their experience. One way to do that is to require students to produce a list of questions that they want to ask the host of the field trip. Collecting them ahead of time ensures that the students really think about the questions they want to ask. Often and if there is time, I will send the questions to the host at the site. Using this technique, I also bring the list of questions to the field trip so that I can prompt students to ask them or remind them of the questions that they produced.

I also remind students to wear professional dress, to arrive at the location early (because arriving on time is late in this industry) and come prepared to act professionally.

Another way is to discuss what to look for; in taking students into a commercial kitchen, provide a checklist of items to notice. In a commercial kitchen, you might ask them to look for the location of hand sinks, HACCP notebooks or recording devices, recycling bins, layout of the hot line, location of the cold station, employee lockers—items that students might not consider. In a dining-room or restaurant visit, the checklist might include ambience, layout of the tables, dress code or uniforms of the staff, lighting patterns and location of rest rooms and side stations. I also encourage them to consider how they would organize the space differently.

Homework Assignments
After a field trip, most faculty members require students to complete a range of assignments, the most common of which is a reaction or reflection paper, the difference being an emotion or intellectual reaction. One effective way to structure the assignment involves providing a series of questions for students to answer. Some of those questions might include:

• What did you expect to see?

• How was what you saw different or the same from what you expected?

• What was most unusual about this site visit?

• How would you organize the layout of the room differently?

• What needs to be changed and why?

• What works the most effectively and why?

• What struck you about the visit?

• How did the staff react to you?

• What advice would you provide to the chef or dining-room manager?

• In what ways did you see things that contradict concepts and models that we have been reading about and discussing in the course?

• For what purposes would you recommend this site visit to other students?

In addition to the paper assignment, I require students to send hand-written thank-you notes and they submit photocopies of the notes that they send. It often provides a great teaching moment about grammar, language, business etiquette and networking.

Site visits, or field trips, are great educational experiences. They provide students with an industry perspective that we cannot provide in our classrooms. If you are not doing them now, I encourage you to try them.

Summary
Thank you for reading this column about using field trips effectively. If you have other ideas or suggestions about field trips and ways in which you have used them, send them to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I will include them in future "Mayo's Clinics." Next month, we will talk about professional development.

Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT, is a clinical professor at New York University and a frequent presenter at CAFÉ events nationwide.