While most students were dozing through Friday morning recitations two weeks ago, College sophomore Cameron Clark and his classmates were exploring African and Native American Art artifacts.
The excursion was a required field trip for his World History Class to the University of Pennsylvania Museum.
From museums and walking tours to archeology digs and trips abroad, Penn courses are taking inventive routes to give students experience they can't glean from textbooks or lectures.
"You can learn an enormous amount about a period and place by seeing its material culture, being able to look at the art, everyday objects, textiles and religious objects used for worship," History professor Lynn Hollen Lees said. "History doesn't just come from reading books."
She added that most students enjoyed the trip, and those who had been to the museum before were able to discover new exhibits.
Students in Introduction to Human Evolution may also visit the University Museum, or they can chose to attend the Philadelphia Zoo or the Mummers Museum. College freshman Maddie Stolper said she looks forward to visiting the zoo in April.
"It's practical application of what you learn in class, and it's a fun activity to keep you interested," she said.
Stolper added that because the trips take place on weekends, they do not disrupt her schedule.
While class excursions aim to expand on traditional instruction, some students feel their time could be better spent.
Clark said he didn't take away much from his trip to the museum - which took the place of a recitation section - that he couldn't have learned in class.
"There's only so much we could accomplish with 40 minutes," he said.
Other classes involve larger time commitments - and larger rewards.
For College junior Lauren Davis's Anthropology course last semester, she and her classmates conducted digs at historical sites in Vineland, N.J. every Friday.
The weekly nine-hour trip and early morning wake-ups were exhausting, she said, but she gained experience she wouldn't find elsewhere.
"It's not until you're out there, shoveling dirt or sweeping it away with a paintbrush that you understand all the intricacies that make up excavating and preservation," she wrote in an e-mail.
Some extracurricular experiences do more than enhance what students learn in class.
Students taking Introduction to Experimental Psychology are required to participate in four hours of experiments.
Head TA and Psychology graduate student Nuwan Jayawickreme wrote in an e-mail that experiments give students a sense of how the science of psychology is conducted and how subjects in experiments they study might have felt.
But their participation also helps graduate students and professors perform research.
"The undergrads offer an easy means of obtaining subjects for their experiments," Jayawickreme said.
But whether traveling to the zoo, the dig site or the laboratory, most students are just glad for the experience.
"The fact that I got to learn so much while really enjoying myself is what made the class worth it," Davis wrote.
