Embedded Files
Take your students to places they may never visit all within the confines of your classroom.
Google + with Hangouts On Air
Virtual Field Trips connects cultural institutions like museums, zoos and aquariums with schools and non-profits around the country via Google+ Hangouts On Air. Hangouts On Air allow institutions to share universal access to unique cultural and educational experiences regardless of geographical and financial restrictions.
The Basics of Using Google Hangouts and Hangouts On Air in the Classroom
Set Up Your Google+ Page to Get Notifications for Community Postings
Periscope
First: Join Twitter on a computer/Chromebook
Second: Download the Twitter app on your phone/iPad & sign in
Third: Follow these people on Twitter
Kari Espin @kariespin
Jaime Donally @jaimedonally
Mandy Vasek @mandyvasek
Sarah Thomas @sarahdateechur
Laura Gilchrist @lauragilchrist4
Starr Sackstein @mssackstein
Fourth:Download the Periscope app on your phone/iPad & sign in with your Twitter account
Digital and Virtual Field Trips Resource Site
Discovery Education: North America
The Teacher's Guide for Virtual Tours
Pinterest on Virtual Field Trips
iPad Apps for Virtual Field Trips
WHERE CAN YOU GO ON A VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP?
On a virtual field trip, you and your students can go just about anywhere on Earth -- or even into the solar system.
For a trip to another galaxy, check out The Nine Planets. An engineer who has a great love of the solar system put this site together. The star buffs in your classroom will love it, too.
For a trip to another environment, how about Live from Antarctica 2? Students can follow a team of explorers through every step of their trip across the frozen continent. The site includes activities, researcher questions and answers, links to related sites, and more.
Maybe you'd like to take your city kids someplace they might not get the chance to visit on their own. Then check out one of the six virtual tours at 4-H Virtual Farm. Here, students can visit a horse farm, a beef or dairy farm, a poultry farm, and a wheat farm. There's even a fish farm.
You can learn more about virtual field trips with these links to field trips:
- John Muir Exhibit This exhibit by the Sierra Club offers the concise story of Muir's life, writings, and works. It includes sounds, video, and text.
- Secrets of Easter Island This is a beautiful Web site put together by Nova and PBS. It includes a tour of the island and the game Move a Megalith.
- Explore the Estuary If your students are studying the tides, ocean, or water dwellers, this is an excellent site. It includes video tours.
- The JASON Project This many-faceted site hopes to "put the thrill of discovery back into the classroom." It offers several different trips, including one that follows a crew living aboard the space station.
- Reach the World Sail around the world on a 43-foot sailboat, and meet the crew who did it. You'll find separate centers for teachers and students.
- PolarHusky.com This site chronicles the dogsledding expeditions made especially to educate the children of the world.
- GOALS: Global Online Adventure Learning Educators developed this Web site to "intrigue you with the adventures, the sciences, the technologies and the underlying laws of nature that make them possible."
- Virtual Field Trips If you're looking for a museum trip, here's a list of several available on the Web.
- Virtual Field Trips Here's another site where you can create your own field trip or try out other teachers' efforts.
(Virtual field trips are listed in alphabetical order.)
Free to the entire K-12 community, this programming uses the allure of Arctic dogsled expeditions and Arctic research as the vehicle through which K-12 teachers and students gain an understanding of natural and social sciences while they experience the cultures of the Arctic. Since 2000, these adventurous learning expeditions have circumnavigated the Arctic to observe, experience, and document traditional ecological knowledge and collect previously unknown in-situ environmental realities–while collaborating with K-12 students and teachers in state-of-the-art online learning environments. Standard-aligned curricula are also available.
2. Global Trek
This adventure from Scholastic looks like Expedia or Travelocity, but is created for students eager to explore the world … from their computer. Student can choose from a list of countries and will be asked to keep a travel journal to write about different topics during their online trip.
Google Lit Trips are free, downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth. At each location along the journey, there are placemarks with pop-up windows containing a variety of resources including relevant media, thought-provoking discussion starters, and links to supplementary information about “real world” references made in that particular portion of the story. According to their creator, Google Lit Trips “three-dimensionalize the reading experience by placing readers ‘inside the story’ traveling alongside the characters; looking through the windshield of that old jalopy in The Grapes of Wrath or waddling alongside Mr. and Mrs. Mallard’s duckling family inMake Way for Ducklings.”
Sometimes students just want to explore something cool, like chocolate. Thanks to step-by-step videos on its chocolate-making process, Hershey’s gives students a fun virtual field trip … even if it’s minus the smell and taste of chocolate!
5. Le Louvre
Take a virtual tour of the Louvre to experience a 360-degree panoramic view of many of the museum’s halls. The virtual tour web page offers different departments and architectural views of the museum. Tours currently include Egyptian Antiquities, Remains of the Louvre’s Moat, and Galerie d’Apollon, as well as many other rooms included in the museum (some are even closed to the public!).
6. Mt. Everest
From recent panoramas and photo galleries, to travel logs and fun facts, students can make their very own virtual climb of Mt. Everest.
This comprehensive virtual tour allows visitors using a desktop computer (Windows, Mac, Linux) or a mobile device (iPhone, iPad, Android) to take a virtual, self-guided, room-by-room walking tour of the whole museum. Students can browse a list of past exhibits, which is included on the ground floor map. Visitors can navigate from room to room by clicking map locations or by following blue arrow links on the floor that connect the rooms. The desktop version includes camera icons to indicate hotspots where the visitor can get a close-up view of a particular object or exhibit panel.
View high-definition panoramas from anywhere in the world, including snowy mountain tops and deep sea coral reefs, at 360 Cities, which contains one of the internet’s largest collection of uploaded panoramic images. Students can access to navigable views of cities, natural landscapes and much more. The site also offers tools for people to create their own panoramas. For more specific panoramas, check out the Seven Wonders of the World. This website has panoramic views of all Seven Wonders of the World, which include the Colosseum in Rome, The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, The Taj Mahal in India, Machu Picchu in Peru Christ Redeemer in Rio, and Chichén Itzá in Mexico.
9. Space
Take your younger students to the moon with these up-to-date, interactive resources from the Connections Academy Blog. Older students can explore Mars through NASA’s downloadable virtual field trip, an immersive multimedia application developed to support student and user exploration of areas on Earth that have been identified as analog sites to regions on Mars. Analog sites are those areas that share some common traits with sites on Mars and have been identified based on their significance and importance to NASA.
10. White House
“Inside the White House” is a good idea for older elementary and middle school students learning about government, as well as any civics or American history class. Students can watch videos or take an interactive tour through the West Wing, the South Lawn, the East Wing, and the Residence. There is also a slide show of the presidents and other historical information.
More Creative Field Trips
Google Cardboard - Check out this cool Augmented Reality on your phone! Get the apphere. Other apps are available.
Jaime Donally Google Cardboard Webmix
Google Expeditions - Google is looking for classrooms to pilot their latest educational endeavor. The form is available on website.
Virtual Tour of Mount Rushmore
Virtual Tour of Mount Rushmore
Visit the Mount Rushmore National Memorial with this awe-inspiring virtual tour created in partnership with the National Park Service. The tour includes narration, 360° images, maps, 3D laser scans and illustrations.
Freedom Stories
Freedom Stories
The Augmented Reality Freedom Stories highlight the activities of the participants from the Underground Railroad. Download and print in color the Freedom Stories cards from the Harriet Tubman Institute. Hint - click on one of the cards to download the entire series in PDF format. The app can also be downloaded from this site or theiTunes store.
The Tortoise and the Hare
The Tortoise and the Hare
Print the coloring pages, let the students color the two characters and then let them watch the fable come to life by using the The Tortoise and the Hare app on a device. There is an in-app purchase to unlock more levels of the story.
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