Digital and Virtual Field Trips

What kinds of virtual field trips are available online?

What trips can I explore with my students?

How can I integrate virtual field trips into my classroom?

map Although you'd love to take your class to Antarctica or Hawaii, it's not realistic. Instead, take your students on a virtual field trip. Use the following resources to locate virtual field trips. You can also do a search in Google for topics such as "wetlands virtual field trip".

What's a Virtual Field Trip? It's a way to visit a place you can't go to in real life. Go to the Michigan 4-H Children's Garden Kid's Tour for a great example.

Many of these tours now include mapping tools such as Google Maps. Go to Trans-Siberian Railway Tour for an example.

Be sure to check out the Virtual Adventures project to learn more about exploring, using, adapting, and creating virtual field trips.

Read the article Get Outta Class With Virtual Field Trips from Education World.

Keep in mind that you can use tools such as Google Maps and Google Earth to build your own exciting virtual field trips. Check out an example by high school teacher Angela Cunningham.

Read Let's Go! Google Earth.

Some educators and librarians are creating subject areas tours using Google Earth. Explore some examples:

Many websites provide panorama images or other ways to fly over places. Explore examples below:

Integrating Virtual Field Trips into the Classroom

There are lots of cool ways to use virtual field trips in the classroom. Apple Learning Interchange has lots of great examples.

Choose one of the following three virtual field trips to examine:

Explore This Old Habitat.
Explore Great Barrier Reef Virtual Drive.
Explore Tour of Monticello.

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Specific Places

CARE
http://www.careusa.org/features/vfts.asp
Follow CARE workers on adventures around the world

Constitutional Walking Tour of Philadelphia
http://www.theconstitutional.com/tour.php

Estuary Field Trip
http://www.estuarylive.org/

Expeditions @ Field Museum
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/expeditions/

The First Thanksgiving
http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/
Follows the voyage of the Mayflower and like in America.

Geology of Mojave National Preserve
http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/mojave/index.html

Iditarod
http://www.iditarod.com

JASON Project - no longer free (now subscription-based).

Journey North
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/

Lower Eastside Tenement Museum Virtual Tour
http://www.tenement.org/Virtual_Tour/index_virtual.html
http://www.thirteen.org/tenement/
Tour the history of this area of New York.

National Geographic Expeditions Online - dozens of online adventures

Interactive Learning Museum: Xpedition Hall

NASA Quest

Online Expeditions from GlobalSchoolHouse
http://www.globalschoolhouse.org/expeditions/

Passport to Knowledge

PBS

Plimoth Plantation
http://plimoth.org/education/olc/intro.html

This Old Habitat
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/thisoldhabitat/
Visit habitats and learn about ecology.

US Trek - follow trekkers who explore history, culture, and current events

World War II Remembers
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwii/ahf/life/index.htm
Explore life during World War II

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Virtual Exhibition and Museum Tours

If you can't visit a particular museum, check to see if the exhibits are online. Some websites have virtual tours and others have photographs of the exhibits and additional information.

American Museum of Natural History
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/

Colonial Williamsburg
http://www.history.org/history/museums/online_exhibits.cfm

National Gallery of Air Online Tours
http://www.nga.gov/onlinetours/index.shtm

Museo Galileo
http://www.museogalileo.it/en/explore/virtualmuseum.html

Natural History Museum
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/art-nature-imaging/collections/index.html

Roman Open Air Museum
http://www.villa-rustica.de/tour/toure.html

Links to Virtual Field Trip Websites

100 Virtual Tours
http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2010/01/100-incredible-educational-virtual-tours-you-dont-want-to-miss/

GeologyLink
http://college.hmco.com/geology/resources/geologylink/fieldtrips.html
Links to geology virtual field trips around the world

Internet Field Trips from Scholastic
http://teacher.scholastic.com/fieldtrp/science.htm
Topical approach to using Internet resources.
Also, check out Online Activities from Scholastic

Homework Spot Field Trips
http://www.homeworkspot.com/fieldtrip/

Tramline
http://www.field-guides.com/trips.htm
website focusing on virtual field guides and field trips (not really "field trips" more like pathfinders

Virtual Field Trips from Utah Link
http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/
Take a trip or create a trip. (some are field trips and others are just pathfinders)
How to Create a Virtual Tour - shows how to use their tools for building one

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Explore Virtual Field Trips

Explore online virtual field trips. Brainstorm how you could create your own field trip.

For lots of ideas, go to 100 Virtual Tours.