Experiential learning provides students the time and space to participate in the process of learning by engaging in real, modern situations. Via hands on activities and reflection, students are able to assimilate new experiences with previous ones, and it has been repeatedly shown to improve student learning. We assessed how ten days of experiential learning in Tanzania, Africa affected student understanding and retainment of fundamental concepts in evolution, ecology, and ethology. We assessed 25 college students (n = 12 biology majors, n = 13 non-biology majors) with a pre- and post-test. The pre-test was announced to the students and given before travel, and a nearly identical post-test was unannounced and given four weeks after travel. Non-biology majors performed at least ~15-30% higher on their post-exam compared to their pre-exam, and biology majors performed 5-10% higher on their post-exam compared to their pre-exam. The success of our interdisciplinary course can partially be attributed to experiential learning, and our results suggest that experiential learning has a particular value to non-majors.