In order for the students to benefit fully from a pedagogical activity, the teacher should prepare the students to the activity before and have a follow-up once back to the classroom. A method which seems to have met with success is the approach: pre-activity, activity, post-activity.
Once the context established, the teacher creates an atmosphere of anticipation by asking the students to state what they think they will see, what they think they will discover, what is its purpose, etc. The teacher notes the answers of the students on large mobile sheets, overhead transparencies so that the class can return to these lists once the one-day visit is over.
The idea is to render the activity more relevant for the students. They will pay more attention during the activity in order to be able to verify how accurate their answers were.
The teacher returns to the mobile sheets completed during the pre-activity; the class compares the observations they made during the activity with their comments made during the pre-activity.
Did they see what they had anticipated?
At the time of the follow-up, the teacher can probe further by asking why it was in correct to assume that …
NOTE: During the pre-activity, the teacher could integrate concepts of mathematics such as “probability”. He could use graphs (e.g. circular) during the post-activity.