History teachers are perhaps more concerned than those in other disciplines to make their classroom material "come alive." Students tend to perceive that learning history means memorizing facts, more so than in other disciplines. Historians consequently use a range of active learning pedagogies--handling unique archival sources, role playing, debates, screening feature films, or, as described in this article, field trips--to enhance students' engagement with the course material to boost their mastery of it. But questions remain about the educational effectiveness of the time spent--a full day--on field trips. What are students learning? More to the point, what kinds of learning are supported by the field trip? And finally, do field trips have measurable long-term impacts beyond the course itself? To answer these questions, this paper draws especially on the work done by biologists, geographers, and geologists on field learning, which show that, with careful preparation, field trips can enhance classroom learning and have a long-term impact. The findings help craft a model of field trip pedagogies for students in history courses, at different age levels, and at different kinds of field sites.