In the words of the California Department of Education, the Content Standards define the knowledge, concepts and skills that students should acquire at each grade level. These PDF documents list the standards that relate most closely to some of our most popular destinations, and to TransitPeople trips in general.
Some important notes and qualifications:
• These documents are intended to give teachers ideas. That's all they're intended to do. A teacher may ignore them, design a lesson around one or several, or use a trip to teach a standard that isn't listed here. Please also note that the design and implementation of these lessons will be the teacher's responsibility: the staff members of the venues we visit shouldn't be expected to provide lessons addressing specific standards. (Teachers, you're on your own!)
• In some cases, a small change of wording or focus is responsible for inclusion or exclusion of a standard from the list.
An example: Speaking Applications is listed for Grade 4 aquarium trips because Grade 4 narrative presentations should relate ideas, observations or recollections about an event or experience. An aquarium trip is certainly an experience. But in Grade 5, the Speaking Applications standard indicates that students should deliver narrative presentations that establish a situation or plot. That seems a bit of a stretch for an aquarium trip.
• In general, fewer standards are listed for upper grades, as curricular standards become more specific and advanced. According to the CDE, for instance, first graders should be able to identify letters, words and sentences. A teacher can teach, or reinforce, this lesson with signs or placards almost anywhere. In fifth grade, students are supposed to be able to explain the figurative and metaphorical use of words in context. That's a lesson for the classroom, not for a field trip.
• Look for more standards to be listed for other popular trip destinations in the future.