It is Fall and a lot of schools are looking for things to do with the kids to break up the daily grind of classroom work and augment the educational process through a field trip. And there is nothing wrong with field trips! We all love taking trips to cool destinations. Trips to a Planetarium or the Zoo or a historical site all contribute mightily to a students education and can spark the imagination in countless ways.

However, there is a high cost with field trips.
Simply acquiring and paying for transportation can be a deal-breaker. In today’s economic downturn, a lot of schools are looking for alternatives to field trips that are just as exciting but less costly. School assembly programs provide the perfect answer. Take the examples above, a planetarium, the zoo, an a historical site. Instead of loading up buses and driving to a Planetarium, schools can arrange for the planetarium to come to them. A program such as Skydome Planetarium provides all the excitement and educational value of a field trip but with a far lower cost. Likewise, a trip to the zoo is great but if cost is a factor (and when is cost not a factor?) Why not have the zoo come to you? Schools on a budget can arrange a visit from Animals and the Environment and introduce their students to numerous "cool critters", without ever having to leave the school grounds. Finally, while a visit to Lincoln’s birth cabin may be really neat (although there is some doubt as to whether it really IS his cabin!), a visit from President Lincoln himself will stick in their minds for years to come.

All in all, schools on a budget need look no further than a good assembly program if they are seeking things to do instead of field trips.

Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fields of science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN