For Boston University professor Robert Schoch, textbooks are not enough for his classes. Instead of reading pages and looking at pictures about Egypt, his students travel there to see the real deal.

A College of General Studies natural science professor, Schoch will be traveling with students to Egypt this Spring Break. He said he wants students to look at Egypt’s ancient structures to figure out how they were made and find out “what’s real and what’s fake.”

Schoch, who has worked at BU since 1984, travels to different parts of the world during Spring Break — including visits to ancient structures in Egypt and Mexico — and encourages students to join him.

“The students go there and come back saying it was a life-changing experience,” said CGS assistant dean Stacy Godnick.

The nine-day itinerary to Egypt, from March 10 to 18, includes visits to cities, including Cairo and Giza, as well as visits to the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx. The group will also visit the Luxor Temple, a large ancient Egyptian temple, and take a cruise down the Nile River, where students can see natives’ homes and workplaces on its banks.

Schoch began taking students with him to Egypt in 1990 after a student expressed interest in traveling with him. The trip ranges in price from $3,519 to $4,389 and is open to anybody interested in the trip, Schoch said.

“There are limits as to how many people I can take,” he said, “You don’t want too few, but you don’t want too many.”

BU does not subsidize the trip designed for students to “see different sites,” but is not solely a research trip, Schoch said.

“In a perfect world, maybe future alumnae or a corporation would set up a fund,” he said.

Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences senior Natalie Grigorian, who attended an Egypt trip her freshman year, said she decided to go because she loved traveling and learning about new cultures.

“I knew Dr. Schoch is a world-renowned Egyptologist and never thought I would have another opportunity like this again,” she said.

While some students go on the trips to fulfill directed study credits, others go simply to travel to a new area, Schoch said. Directed study is a course in which a student pursues independent research for academic credit under a faculty member’s guidance. Schoch’s directed study allows students to earn two credits in their chosen field after a curriculum is mapped out with him beforehand.

Schoch said he plans the directed study with a student, tailoring it to the student’s interests that go beyond the classroom.

With a directed study emphasized on “Anthropological Perspective of Interactions Between Tourists and Citizens of Egypt,” Grigorian said she took note of Egyptian influences during her trip.

CGS natural science chairman Peter Busher said Schoch is an “engaging” professor whose current research on the geology of sites in Egypt, Japan and Peru is interesting for many students.

“They enjoy having him there as an intellectual guide and mentor . . . learning, experiencing the important, historical sites with him,” he said. “My impression is that they all learn a great deal and enjoy the trip.”

Godnick said Schoch “is the type of professor who students love,” and he gets great evaluations.

“[Schoch’s] love of teaching science is contagious [because it] affects colleagues inside and outside of his department, as well as his students,” he said.

CGS freshman Morgan Moretz, who will be completing a directed study on ancient Egyptian medicine and medical practices, is looking forward to her upcoming trip.

“I can’t wait to see all these magnificent buildings that I’ve heard so much about,” she said. “It’s going to be pretty surreal.”