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Hi Jessica! I am currently a student teacher in 2nd grade. We recently took a field trip to our city's Children's Museum. There were tons of different hands on activities for them to engage in over a broad subject matter. However, they did have some wonderful areas for science specifically. One part of our Children's museum has a place called "force works" where the children can use basically a large cauldron that rushes water through the entire exhibit! The children can see how the force of the waves move whatever the put in the cauldron. In addition to this, there were areas where the children were able to see the life cycle of certain animals, specifically chicks. These are just a few of the science-related exhibits there are, but it was a great way to get the students more engaged and interested in how science works!

Hi Jessica, I am a first semester student teacher for a 5th grade class in Houston, Texas. Living in a large city affords our students many opportunities for meaningful field trip experiences. One place I have visited in the past that is an excellent field trip location is The Houston Museum of Natural Science. There students can experiences dinosaurs fossils, natural gems, local plant and wildlife exhibits, as well as touring exhibits that may be passing through at any particular time. Furthermore, attached to the museum is The Cockrell Butterfly Center. Students can view and even touch dozens of species of butterflies and view them in there natural habitat as they walk through a man made tropical forest. The Museum also has programs set up specifically for field trips. They will take the students on a tour and pass along information about each exhibit. I am sure that there are probably some centers, perhaps agricultural, in your area that would welcome a tour and would be glad to teach the students about day to day operations that can be applied to a science lesson. Also, if you are near Dubuque, I think there is a National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. I am sure they do tours. Good Luck.

Hi Jessica, 

What is your area of specialization? 

At my current position (a high school in rural Kansas), I am the only science teacher.  I've taken all my students on several different kinds of field trips depending on the subject matter.  They can be used as a culmination of a unit or to introduce new information. Typically, all of the field trips we take have something to do with the content we are studying. My district requires that I tie our trips to a learning objective.  

For instance, in Earth Science, at the beginning of the term, we take a field trip to a local site that is rich with fossils.  Students document the site and learn about how scientists map a road cut. We collect samples and use the samples we have collected for our next two units. To prepare students for the field trips, they learn to behave at the field site and also some of the methodology we use to collect samples. Over the next two months, students further their learning by determining the chemical composition of the rocks they collected in the following unit. Then they add that information to their field site description. Next, they analyze the fossils collected to better understand what life was like at different periods in time.  

I get a lot of mileage from this field trip and it helps students see relationships between geology, chemistry, and biology.

Hello,

I'm a 5th grade science teacher in GA.  We study landforms as one of our units and it's common to visit Stone Mountain or the Watershed Dept. The Watershed Dept has water tables and often teach lessons on erosion.  Other grade levels who study habitats or landforms also visit the Chattahoochee Nature Center.  I think there are endless possibilities for field trips, as a suggestion I would look at the units along with the scope and sequence before identifying any field trips.  It would also be helpful to reach out to local museums, they often have additional information about other field trips.  Hopefully this was helpful! 

Hi Jessica! I am also a pre-service teacher in Iowa. I go to the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls! In my Methods of Teaching Science class this semester, we each did an individual science project. For my project, I chose to take myself on a science related field trip. I went to the Science Imaginarium in Waterloo and it was a blast. This is a great museum for elementary students to go to because it allows the students to experience science in a hands-on, fun way. I also suggest the Children's Museum in Coralville. This was one of my favorite places to go when I was a kid and it is still just as fun! This is another place where students can learn in a hands-on and fun way about different topics in science such as engineering, biology, earth science, and so much more. These are two really great locations that you could take your students to. I also think that it would be a lot of fun to find some sort of park or trail where the students can go on a nature walk and learn more about the environment, plants, animals, and weather. Plus, if you found a park that has a playground, you could stay and eat lunch and have a little play time as well! :) 

Hello Jessica, 

I am Mackenzie Laven and I attend the University of Northern Iowa. I am taking a science methods class and for one of our assignments, we were to take a field trip to a science-related place and record our findings on it. I choose to go to the greenhouse that is on my campus here at UNI. It is a great big greenhouse full of many different habitats and plants. This is a very good idea when you are teaching your students about plants and different habitats. You can make a worksheet or a scavenger hunt and have your students go around the greenhouse and find plants with different functions, colors, characteristics, and more. When learning about plants, it will be very helpful to see them hands-on to be able to understand their ways of living. I loved going to the greenhouse and see all the different plants there. You can set up a tour as well to be guided through the greenhouse looking at certain plants your class might be interested in. Visiting a greenhouse would be a wonderful field trip for any grade and I hope you take the opportunity to go!

Brenda,

I am a student at the University of Arkansas and while purusing the site I found your response to this question! This gave me the idea to take my future students to Devil's Den, a state park in Arkansas. I like using a field trip like this one to wrap up a habitat or even state landmark unit. Thanks so much!

What a fantastic way of using your resources to make great experiences for your students!