The trips are archived and include online lesson plans and resources that can be accessed later.īall State gets grant funding to pay for the productions and has partnerships with public television stations, the National Park Service, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, which all provide expertise and access to the sites.Ī live production on the Buffalo Soldiers scheduled for this week, for example, is sponsored by the park service and the African-American Experience Fund. The live productions-offered four or five times each school year-let students ask questions by webcam or e-mail and participate in online discussions. Another investigated fossils and flora in the Grand Canyon. An episode produced in 2007 explored Newton’s law of motion as applied to race cars at the Indianapolis Speedway. More than 20,000 students, on average, participate in each trip, which might take them to the Smithsonian Kite Festival in Washington or whale watching off the coast of Mexico. “We’ve been to Alaska, Hawaii, Belize, and all points in between. “Because the kids aren’t going to be able to go a lot of the places we’ve been, we bring the location to them,” said Ms. The programs, hosted by K-12 students and researchers, include commentary and film tours from historic sites, national parks, and museums.
#Free virtual field trips for fourth graders free
The university has since created 67 free or low-cost trips for grades K-12 that correspond with lessons written by teachers. The university’s education department began developing electronic programs in 1996, when educators started hooking up to the Internet only to find a lack of educational resources, Ms. Such offerings are most effective when they tell a compelling story and are set in a location that has educational value and a staff committed to teaching, according to Jacquie Bradburn, the assistant director of electronic field trips at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. “Sometimes it costs us $100 or $200 a session, but we would pay more than that for a bus and to get into” a museum or science center, she pointed out.
Includes low-cost Web resources for each lesson.Ĭolonial Williamsburg : Programs for grades 4-8 with live broadcasts on public-television stations and archived video presentations on the Web highlighting people, places, and events throughout history. National Geographic Expeditions Online : Features a database of lesson plans, online activities, and maps tied to the national geography standards.īall State University Electronic Field Trips : Offers live and archived video tours of a variety of topics and destinations, including the Florida Everglades, gray whale migrations from Southern California to Mexico, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Jet Propulsion Lab at NASA : Allows participants to choose a virtual character and take a trip through an animated museum, mission control, and a robotics lab. The Virtual Smithsonian : Includes online tours of exhibits in the museums of natural history, American history, and art in Washington.
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