Good planning must precede field trips, real or virtual. Before considering virtual field trips, read a discussion on the topic, "Why Take Field Trips."
Education World has two articles that you should read before you write your own virtual field trip.
Take a Museum Field Trip - Without Leaving Your Classroom! - When a field trip is out of the question, journey to a virtual museum! Join Education World as they visit science, art, and history museums around the world. This article is actually a virtual field trip itself.
North Carolina State University has a good discussion of four categories of virtual field trips that will present some ideas you might not have considered. You may wish to modify one of their suggestions and have your students produce a PowerPoint show to follow up their trip, rather than a HyperStudio stack.
SurfAquarium has a good set of Virtual Field Trip Guidelines, including a nice list of do's and don't's. One excellent suggestion of theirs is that the teacher should remember that they are taking the class outside the four walls of their classroom, albeit via cyberspace, and must provide just as much supervision and structure as they would on a traditional field trip.
Take a look at a permission
form posted by field-trips.org. This permission form
is a .pdf (portable document format) and will require Adobe
Acrobat Reader. The purpose of the form is to notify the parent
of the virtual excursions so that they might engage their child
in a discussion of their online journey. If you think that this
is a good idea, as I do, create your own permission form using
MS Word.
Online Field
Trips - from Thinkport; all areas, Lang, Math. Economics and more
OOPS (Our Overnight
Planning System) provides a long list of virtual field trips. At the
bottom of the page you will find four ideas for using virtual field
trips. One that I liked was having students create virtual postcards
using MS Word.
Tech Trekers
provides a long list of what they call virtual field trips. Some are
not, and they insist on using all caps, but you may find some jewels
here.
Virtually
Hawaii - All of the images in the Virtual Field Trips have accompanying
descriptive texts, and for many of the tours we have a short quiz that
you can take to see how much you have learned about Hawaii.
Virtual
Exhibits (scroll past their welcome screen to see the listing)
Ancient Egypt
- this British Museum site also has interactive games
Ancient
Stones of Scotland - ranging from the earliest
settlements (dating from about 3500 BC), through the stone circles and
standing stones, to the defense towers called brochs, built about 2000
years ago
Antarctica - produced
by the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica
The
Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc - Located in the south of France, at
Vallon-Pont-d'Arc (Ardèche), the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave is a
decorated prehistoric cave which remained intact after the sudden obstruction
of its natural entrance right in the middle of the ice age.
Dinosaur
tour at the Smithsonian - This virtual tour
of the National Museum of Natural History's dinosaurs is just the first
step in informing you about our dinosaurs at the Smithsonian
Earthtrips
- A virtual journey into Earth history - You may explore by time (period)
or by space (locality).
Particle Adventure - An
interactive tour of quarks, neutrinos, antimatter presented by the Particle
Data Group of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Postcards from America
- Hitch a ride in their virtual backseat and tour the 50 states in Harvey
the RV.
Robotics - The Tech
Museum offers this tour of the world of robotics
Supreme Court
Building - You may also observe that within some sections of the
tour, the cursor may change to a button/hand when you pass over certain
"hot spots." This is a signal to click your mouse, transporting
you to another section or to a detailed still image.
Theban Mapping Project
- Investigate a database of information about each tomb, view a compilation
of more than 2000 images, interact with models of each tomb, and measure,
pan, and zoom over 250 detailed maps, elevations, and sections.
Underground
Railroad - "With miles to go before I sleep." a historical
field trip from Co-Nect
U.S. Capitol Virtual Tour
- an interactive, user friendly, comprehensive and integrated multimedia
tour of the U.S. Capitol
Virtual
Solar System by National Geographic - your chance to discover the
wonders of our solar system in a spectacular 3-D environment. Take a
fly-by tour of the sun and each planet in its orbit, observe close-up
views of the planets, extraterrestrial weather patterns, and more.
Apple
Learning Interchange - List of virtual field trips
Where
the River Meets the Sea - Exploring Life in the Chesapeake Bay with Smithsonian
Scientists - Explore where the salt water from the oceans and the fresh water
from the rivers meet and mix.
Science
in Action - "Science in Action for Conservation" looks at two Field
Museum sites that demonstrate how scientists and communities work together to
conserve biodiversity.
This
Old Habitat - This expedition explores several ecosystems around the Chicago
region to see the habitats present, the interconnections between the plants and
animals.
An
Interactive Journey to an Aquarium - In this project, students go on a field
trip to an aquarium and create an iMovie project and/or an iPhoto photo book about
their day.
Over
the Line - The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence - Join with staff at the world
famous Whitney Museum of Art in New York City to experience the works of renowned
African-American artist, Jacob Lawrence.
Untold
Stories, Baseball and the Multicultural Experience - Many students are familiar
with the legendary feats of Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Mickey Mantle, but what
about the accomplishments of baseball stars, such as Minnie Minoso, Sam Jethroe
and Masanori Murakami?
Queen
Anne's Revenge - a coordinated and long-term research project, which conducted
underwater archaeological investigations at the site of Blackbeard's Flagship
Virtual
Earth - Students will learn what a system is and how to apply the concept
of systems to learn more about how the Earth functions.
The
Underwater World of Space - Join Space Center Houston and NASA as we experience
the underwater adventures of training for space walks, also known as Extravehicular
Activities or EVAs.
Comparing
East and West Coast Estuaries - Students at Turtleback Elementary in San Diego,
California were able to compare their own local geological, biological, and physical
artifacts and compare them with those in North Carolina.
4H
Children’s Garden Kids’ Tour - The 4-H Children's Garden is a
popular spot for school field trips and visitors during the garden’s growing
season, late May to late August.
Principles
of Flight - Travel through air and time to learn the history and science of
flight.
African
Voices - African Voices celebrates Africa as a historic and living entity
with contemporary and future relevance. Voices demonstrates how African cultures
have spread worldwide, becoming a part of the very fabric of American life.
The
Wright Start - The invention of the airplane by Wilbur and Orville Wright
is one of the great stories in American history.
The
Case of the Wacky Water Cycle - There is also a unique online Problem-Based
Learning (PBL) activity for each episode that students can work on independently,
in groups, or as a class.
The
Case of the Challenging Flight - In The Case of the Challenging Flight, the
tree house detectives are onto a new case as they try to win the Egg-tra-ordinary
Plane Contest.
KokoTV
- Welcome to KokoTV. Yes, Koko is that famous “talking” gorilla you’ve
probably read about in school or seen in a Nature documentary.
Recording
the Flame: Woodfired Pottery - Woodfire pottery presents an elusive artistic
style, unfamiliar to the American public as well as the public of the western
world.
Geology Field Trips
Anza-Borrego
Desert (Southern California) - displays geologic features that have
accumulated over the past half billion years or so
Galapagos
Geology on the Web - The intention of this web site is to provide
information on the Galapagos Islands to both scientists and non-scientists
alike.
A Geologist's Lifetime
Field List - a list of essential or desirable locations for geologists
or travelers to visit, containing many of the interesting geological
wonders of the world
Geology
of North Cascades National Park - Three separate field trips take
you (1) along the scenic North Cascade Highway (State Route 20), (2)
up the Baker Lake road, and (3) along the Mount Baker Highway (State
Route 542).
Geology
Link - virtual field trips from Houghton Mifflin
