Here are some of the best questions for an elementary school student survey about a field trip experience, plus practical tips on crafting them. If you want to build an interactive, conversational survey like this in seconds, you can generate it with Specific anytime.
Best open-ended questions for field trip experience surveys
Open-ended questions let students share detailed feedback in their own words, making them great for uncovering meaningful insights—especially when we want to understand how kids truly felt or what stood out to them. However, as research shows, open-ended formats sometimes lead to higher rates of skipped answers compared to closed-ended questions (sometimes over 18% nonresponse rate) [1]. So it pays to keep questions clear and focused, and to use them when depth matters most.
Here are 10 of the best open-ended questions we use with elementary school students after a field trip:
What was your favorite part of the field trip?
Did you learn something new? Tell us what it was!
How did you feel during the field trip?
If you could change one thing about the field trip, what would it be?
Was there anything that surprised you? What happened?
Who did you spend most of your time with, and what did you do together?
Describe something funny or interesting you saw on the trip.
Was there a time on the trip when you felt confused or needed help? What happened?
Is there anything else you want to tell us about your day?
Would you like to go on a similar field trip again? Why or why not?
Studies indicate these types of questions may generate richer and more helpful feedback—sometimes “very useful” for improving activities and future trips [2]. Plus, when we use dynamic follow-up prompts that adapt to each student’s answer, as research suggests, we see longer and more thoughtful replies [3].
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for field trip surveys
Single-select multiple-choice questions are great when we need to quickly quantify responses—like measuring overall satisfaction or preferences. For younger students, it’s often easier to pick from a set of short, clear options rather than writing out a full answer. These questions can also start the conversation, and then we dig deeper with follow-up prompts.
Here are three practical examples:
Question: How much did you like the field trip?
Loved it
It was good
It was okay
Didn’t like it
Question: Which activity did you enjoy most?
The guided tour
The workshop
Lunch/picnic
Playing with friends
Other
Question: Would you want to go on another field trip with your class?
Yes
No
Not sure
When to follow up with "why?" After any multiple-choice response, it’s smart to add a “why?” follow-up—this helps us understand the reasons behind a student’s choice. For example, if a student answers “Didn’t like it,” we can ask: “Can you tell me what didn’t work for you?” This closes the loop between quantitative and qualitative feedback, giving us actionable insights and helping us understand unspoken needs.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Adding an “Other” option (especially for activities or preferences) uncovers answers we may not have thought of—and lets students share unique perspectives. A follow-up question (“What did you choose for 'Other'?”) can lead to surprising ideas that would otherwise be missed.
NPS questions for student field trip experiences
Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for adults or businesses—we can use a student-friendly NPS question to learn how likely kids are to recommend a field trip to their friends. It’s a simple, powerful way to quantify sentiment, spot passionate supporters, and find areas for improvement. The typical NPS question for kids can be: “How likely are you to tell your friends to go on a field trip like this?” followed by a rating scale (usually with smiley faces or numbers), and a “Why did you choose that?” follow-up. You can automatically build this format with our NPS survey generator—with best-practice follow-ups and analysis included.
The power of follow-up questions
Automated follow-ups turn a survey from a list of static questions into a real conversation. These intelligent probes adapt based on each student’s previous answer, clarifying meaning, digging into motivations, and surfacing unexpected issues—thanks to AI-powered follow-up question technology.
Specific uses AI to ask these on-the-fly follow-ups like a skilled interviewer. That means clearer, more actionable responses with less work for you. If you’re used to sending emails after a confusing reply, automated follow-ups eliminate that extra step, and the feedback feels natural—more like chatting with a teacher or mentor.
Student: “I didn’t like it.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share what you didn’t like about it?”
Student: “Lunch was weird.”
AI follow-up: “What do you mean by weird? Was it the food or something that happened?”
How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, 2-3 follow-ups are enough to get the whole story—while letting kids skip ahead if they’ve already explained what matters. Specific lets you control this with a simple setting, so you can tune the balance between depth and attention span.
This makes it a conversational survey: Respondents feel like they’re having a real back-and-forth chat—not just filling out a form.
Easy analysis with AI—no matter how much (or little) text you gather: Even if you get a pile of free-form responses, AI survey response analysis makes it easy to instantly summarize and search for key themes. See how it works in action with Specific’s response analyzer.
Automated follow-ups are a new concept for a lot of folks. If you’re curious, generate a field trip survey and experience this style—students (and teachers) love the clarity it brings.
How to write better prompts for survey question generation
When using ChatGPT (or any other GPT-based AI) to brainstorm questions, your prompt matters. A basic example is:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for elementary school student survey about field trip experience.
You’ll always get better results by adding more detail: who you are, your specific goals, and what you want to learn. For example:
We are conducting a survey for elementary school students after a science museum field trip. Our goal is to understand what students liked, what they learned, if there were any challenges, and ideas for making future trips better. Suggest 10 open-ended questions suitable for kids ages 7-11, using clear and positive language.
Once you have a list of questions, the next prompt could be:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
From here, review the categories, pick the areas you want to explore, and prompt the AI again:
Generate 10 questions for the categories: learning, enjoyment, group activities.
This approach delivers more focused, relevant question sets—and helps ensure you cover the topics that matter most to your goals and your students’ experiences.
What is a conversational survey? How AI survey generation compares to traditional surveys
Conversational surveys feel like an interactive chat—where the AI adapts to the respondent in real time, probing deeper as needed and clarifying confusion. This is a big leap from the usual static forms or checklists students are used to. With AI-generated surveys, you can:
Create complete, high-quality surveys almost instantly
Automatically adapt questions and follow-ups based on responses
Keep students engaged—especially those who struggle with long forms
Manual surveys | AI-generated surveys |
---|---|
Handwritten or pre-set questions | Customized, dynamic questions generated by AI |
No real-time follow-ups | Smart follow-up questions adapt live in response to each answer |
Analysis is manual (slow, subjective) | AI analysis distills insights instantly |
Difficult to keep kids engaged | Feels like a fun, familiar chat conversation |
Why use AI for elementary student surveys? The AI survey example approach shines here: it removes the friction and bias that can come from hand-building every question, ensures kids get questions designed for their age, and collects deeper, richer responses. As Specific’s user experience proves, this keeps both survey creators and young respondents engaged from start to finish.
If you want to learn step-by-step how to create an elementary school field trip survey, we’ve got a practical guide too.
See this field trip experience survey example now
Try building your own elementary school field trip survey with AI—get richer insights, smarter follow-ups, and effortless analysis in just minutes. See how Specific makes conversational feedback easy and engaging for everyone involved.