Digital Field Trips

Facilitator(s): Miguel Guhlin (@mglearn) | http://ly.tcea.org/dft

Session Description

Digital field trips provide informal learning experiences for students that can connect their prior knowledge to on-the-go learning.

Virtual field trips can show us the world, can make us think, can help us to both question and understand others. And because there is little to no cost and no travel time required, our students can experience many more of them than they could in the old-fashioned way.

In addition, virtual field trips allow us to visit places that are impossible without the technology. Want to meet George Washington, walk across a glacier, follow a monarch butterfly migration, or see stops along the Silk Road? All easy to do with technology.

I really enjoyed today's virtual field trip lunch & learn. I've already shared with so many of my coworkers and family! Yes, I'm getting ready to go to Dallas or Houston Zoo - virtually!

Thank you so very much!!!

session outline

Oh, The Places You Can Go!

ZooCams, Field Trips, and Exhibits, Oh My!

More Field Trips

Space Trips, Anyone?

Planning a Successful Trip

Resources

Links Shared via the Lunch and Learn Session

Oh, The Places You Can Go!

There are lots of trips available these days. Here are just a few, most of which are free:

ZooCams, Field Trips, and Exhibits, Oh My!

Houston Zoo Live Cams

Visit the Houston Zoo live cams to see elephants, giraffes, rhinos, flamingos, and more. Every weekday at 11 a.m. CST, the zoo is hosting a Facebook Livestream, offering viewers a glimpse into the animals’ daily lives. A few more zoo cams:

Here’s a list of all the zoos with webcams to explore.

Blanton Museum of Art Online Collections

The Blanton Museum of Art is one of the foremost university art museums in the country and holds the largest public collection in Central Texas.

The LBJ Presidential Library Online Exhibits

A few collections exhibited at the LBJ Presidential Library have been digitized. Photos, telephone conversations, oral histories, and more can be found in the collections.

Johnson Space Center

Boeing and Discovery Education have partnered to give an exclusive virtual field trip to the historic Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Be sure to download the activity that goes along with the tour.


Check out Texas specific events via the Connect 2 Texas Events page. You can search and find a wide variety of events organized by grade level. Some recent events:

  • Mavericks, Dogies, and Drovers--Cattle Drives

  • Texas History Tuesdays Livestream: La Belle--The Ship that Changed History

  • The Museum Guide to the Pacific War

More Field Trips

360Cities.net is a great resource for 360-degree videos or panoramic photos.

  1. Inside a Red Apple Tree – Looking out from inside the tree covered in bright red apples.

  2. The Big Apple Farm – Harvesting apples

  3. Pumpkin on Vine – Foliage and a pumpkin still on the vine

  4. Pumpkins Ready for Harvest – The foliage has died back and pumpkins are laying right where they grew

  5. Halloween Hide and Seek – Over 30 Halloween-themed items are hidden in this panorama for your students to find. Don’t forget to look up!

YouTube 360 videos lets you search for a plethora of immersive videos on all different topics. They can be used with VR goggles or you can drag the screen on a laptop.

Google Earth – Go anywhere in the world and chances are there is a 360 street view. Google also has Google Voyager, which showcases 360-degree pictures with a theme.

  • Voyager – Thanksgiving Traditions – This tour takes you from Plymouth Rock to the Lincoln Memorial and explains how the Thanksgiving tradition evolved in America.

  • Voyager – World War I Memorials around the world – With Veterans Day approaching, this is a great tour of ten different World War I memorials around the world.

Space TripS, anyone?

“Traveling to Pluto” falls squarely into the “not physically possible” category of potential field trips. But as a virtual field trip? There’s no end to what you can do!

Planning a Successful Trip

Align the trip to the content being studied.

Although there are times when a just-for-fun field trip can be great (like visiting with Santa Claus at Christmas with TCEA or touring the Spy Museum), most of them should be tied to the curriculum to provide enrichment and depth to student learning.

Share the learning objectives with the students so that they are clear on the trip’s objectives.

Engage them with pre-trip activities.

Just as we ourselves might do some research before going on a trip overseas, plan activities that get the students thinking about who and what they will be meeting on their virtual experience. Have them jigsaw the answers to some questions that the students pose about the trip.

Use a map to show students where they have been and where they will be going.

Challenge them (and yourself) to see how many different states or countries they can visit this year.

Schedule them frequently as they fit the content.

One field trip a year doesn’t really broaden a student’s perspective. Instead, take time to set up a calendar with a virtual trip every month or six weeks at a minimum.

Include discussion and reflection after the trip.

To cement the learning from their voyage, make sure you have students discuss what they experienced with each other. Give them specific but open-ended questions to discuss in small groups and then ask them to write a short reflection on what they learned.

Possible questions include:

  • What have you learned today?

  • What surprised you about today’s trip?

  • How are you and the people in the trip the same? How are you different?

  • What other questions do you have after the trip?)

Perhaps have them keep a field trip journal that might include a map of each place they visit along with how it impacted them.

More Exciting Resources

To see more field trips, visit the list of Virtual Tours in Texas Google document and download it. If you know of a place that can be added to the list, make sure to mention it in the comments below.

For additional information about virtual field trips, read Exciting Students with Virtual Reality Field Trips and Taking the Learning Outside the Classroom.

Finally, check out this exhaustive list of virtual tours

Shared Links from the Audience

Thanks to all who participated in the Lunch and Learn held live on May 13, 2020. Although we can't share everything that was discussed in the chat, you can find some of the links.

TCEA Shared Links

Audience Member Links

Some Ideas Shared in Chat

  • Flipgrid would make it easy for students to give voice to their planning and experiences.

  • Mardalee B: 8th grade used it for plate tectonics In math, you can use it for Pythagorean theorem and distance formulas

  • From Andrea H. : also a project with mapping out travel

  • From anntierno : The 360 site is very cool. I discovered the lighthouse in Maine where Forrest Gump filmed.

  • Make a digital passport with electronic stamps/badges that kids could use to keep track of their virtual travels.