General Feedback

• Consider leaving adjacent pages blank. Take field notes and sketches only on one side of the page and use blank page for adding notes, interpretations, photos, and/or a summary of the field trip stops.
• Give yourself plenty of room to sketch and add labels.
• Be sure to label all sketches, illustrations, and samples
• Don't freak out over making sketches. Sketches can be very simple. For example, draw simple layers to represent the rocks in the side of A Mountain.
• When drawing sketches or diagrams, be sure to label as many features in your sketch as possible. Use numbers or lettering and arrows when describing features in your diagrams. Also, be sure to include a scale (ie how big of an area is the sketch showing) and something to orient the image (ie north arrow).
• Consider the following organization for your notebook:
  • Title each stop
  • Give location, time of day, weather conditions
  • Record your observations through text or sketches:
    • Observations on geology, ecology, plants, wildlife, human structures, ect...
    • Visual aids, such as sketches, pictures, samples, and diagrams from the handouts or other sources that can be added on the adjacent blank page later.
  • Interpretations of observations
    • Analyze your observations.
    • Discuss observations with fellow students and trip leaders.
    • Synthesize your ideas generated by your observations, discussions, and questions.
    • Record questions that come to mind and ask these questions when you have an opportunity or research the answer after the trip.
    • Record not only the question you or someone else asked but also the response/answer that was given.
    • Again, the adjacent blank page is an appropriate place to write the response/answers to questions.
  • Keep notes from group discussion
  • Summarize by highlighting most important points from the stop.
  • At the end of the field trip:
    • Summarize the field trip into one or two pages
    • Incorporate additional notes and info from handouts, photos, ect... into your notebook on adjacent blank pages.

Other considerations

• Distinguish between observations and interpretations of those observations.
• Look for patterns and accentuate those patterns in your drawings. Your drawings are effectively a type of interpretation.