Teachers and principals, we know you know a lot. But are you aware that there is an amazing teaching tool hiding in plain sight, just waiting to transform your favorite field trip haunt into a lively educational playground?
Watson Adventures has been creating unforgettable scavenger hunt field trips for educators since 1999. We scour museums and historic neighborhoods to find the most interesting items and places, then students and teachers work in teams to follow clues and answer tricky, fun questions about what they discover. Our staff sets up the game at the start, meets the teams for an interactive challenge during the game, and then scores and announces the results at the finish line. We’ve staged field trips for hundreds of students and educational institutions—and we’ve got the glowing report card to show for it!
Makes a Teacher’s Job Easy (Well… Easier)
Keeping students motivated, challenged, and engaged is a full-time job—yours. So, we figure ours is to lighten your load. “Your staff made it so easy!” is our clients’ constant refrain. Just imagine a small platoon of energized teaching assistants reporting for duty. Distributing and explaining the materials to your students. Interacting with them and motivating them along the way. And then wrapping it all up, with scoring and results at the end of the hunt. Hey, you brought the kids. Why shouldn’t we take care of the rest?
Super Organized, Excels at Time Management
More than any other type of clients, educators value the structured itinerary that Watson hunts provide. (Our museum partners appreciate this, too.) Your teaching time is precious, whether in the classroom or out in the world. Our hunts cut a path for discovery through a venue, bringing each museum (or neighborhood, or historic district) to life for students in a totally unique way. “My students were having so much fun,” said one teacher (a veteran of four scavenger hunt field trips in New York City), “they didn’t even realize how much they were learning in the process.”
Plays Well with Others
Educators tell us that of all the benefits to come out of our hunts, the teamwork that they foster may be the most valuable. Put together a group of students, as different in personality and learning style as they can be. Assign them team responsibilities that play to their individual strengths or nudge them out of their comfort zones. And, faster than you can say “gamification,” you’ll see them strategizing, cooperating, and collaborating to decipher clues, navigate mental mazes, and get the job done. “I am constantly stressing the importance of working as a team in the lab or the classroom,” one science teacher told us. “And it amazed me how quickly my students, some of whom didn’t really know each other, all bonded and started working together to succeed on the hunt. (Principals, take note: this works wonders for faculty team building, too!) Nothing like a little friendly competition—where everyone wins.
Connects the Dots, Across the Curriculum
The clues in our hunts have been described by fans as “fiendishly clever” and even “diabolical”—but rest assured that on a school trip, the challenges are grade-appropriate and designed to make kids (not to mention teachers and chaperones) look more closely, read more critically, navigate independently, and keep their eyes and minds open to new perspectives. “So many field trips are passive, in terms of the students following and listening to docents,” said one teacher client from Pennsylvania. “The hunt provided us an activity that was interactive and challenging.” A New York teacher, having recently done a hunt at the American Museum of Natural History, agreed, adding, “Many of your hunts could be applied to multiple curriculums. And one of the things we try to stress in our classes is the connection to other subjects.” Science, meet Social Studies. Art, say hello to your old friend History! The opportunities for in-class follow-up are virtually limitless. Why not, as one of our teacher clients suggested, have students research the history of your school and then create a hunt of their own?
Learn More and Get in the Game!
Start exploring by selecting your location from the Private Group Hunts menu below or click here.
Or contact us via our online form or call us at 877-946-4868, extension 111.
Check out more stories from the blog, including a preview of the new Sugar Rush Game at Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York and Chicago, and a look at the wildly successful hunt for kids we staged for Garden of Dreams and the New York Liberty of the WNBA.