Some people still scoff at the educational importance of field trips and off-campus excursions. In the UK study tours focusing on all aspects of history and geography can be found around every corner and their benefits to a class curriculum have been proven. However, it can be difficult to find a suitable school trip that concentrates entirely on maths. So, how do you engage your students in the power of equations outside the classroom? Head to Blackpool of course!
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is one of the top amusement park destinations in the UK. Study tours to the home of the UK’s tallest rollercoaster may seem ridiculous at first until you begin to look for the applicable opportunities. The 42-acre pleasure park sits on the Flyde coast in Lancashire and has been known to see 5.5 million visitors per year.
Hoping to capture the school travel market’s interest, the amusement park has embraced its own educational potential. By utilising a dedicated school travel company, teachers can coordinate a highly educational and fun trip for their pupils with the park, offering assistance to tailor the experience to the relevant learning level.
Numbers Everywhere
It has been categorically proven that children absorb information best when it is presented in relation to ‘real world’ situations. Even the phrasing of many maths questions on the curriculum these days refer to scenarios that play out in the supermarket or on the football field. Capturing children’s imaginations and making maths relatable is the key to increased understanding of concepts and processes.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is a unique destination for students. Even as the trip is only in the planning stage the learning can begin! Equations based on the distance of the park from the school and the time is will take to get there already lends itself to Mathematical conceptual thinking and can lead into numerous other relatable situational problems to be solved.
Park Assistance
The amusement park, in collaboration with teachers have already prepared for this event. Appropriate year-level worksheets can be printed off Blackpool Pleasure Park’s website in anticipation of a class trip making half the job already done. For example, these real-life maths problems for Key Stage 2:
•Assume a map of the park has a scale of 5cm to 100m. If it is 10cm from The Big One to the Big Dipper, and 25cm from the Big Dipper to Ice Blast, what is the total distance in metres?
And this question for GCSE students:
•Assume the Dodgem track is a rectangle. The width equals x+5 and the length equals x+1. Express the area of the rectangle in terms of x.
Right on Our Own Doorstep
Blackpool Pleasure Park could not be more convenient as a school trip destination. As the home of numerous thrilling rides and the first looping rollercoaster in the UK, study tours of the park will certainly be memorable. As any teacher will tell you, connecting with a student and bring learning out of the abstract is half the battle when it comes to retention of information.
The headache of planning and organising a class trip can be simplified by staying in the UK. Study tours of the park can be efficiently and easily handled by a dedicated school travel company. Every detail from transportation, accommodation (if needed) and scheduling can be taken care of for you. Harness the excited energy that a visit to Blackpool Pleasure Park will generate in your students and you’ll also be making memories for them that will last a lifetime.
John Gardiner is the Managing Director of The School Travel Company, a tour operator specialising in educational travel for school and youth groups. Whether you’re planning a UK study tour, an Iceland geography trip or a trekking expedition to India, you can trust both the educational and economic value of their itineraries, whether ready-made or specifically designed to suit the needs of your group.
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