- NMNH Home ›
- Education ›
- Plan Your Field Trip ›
- Getting Ready ›
- Make the Case
Make the Case for Your Field Trip
Making the case for a field trip includes connecting student experiences to national standards and curriculum topics and providing evidence that field trips can help students to learn.
Standards and Curriculum Topics
Connections between Museum programs and exhibitions and national and state standards and curriculum topics are embedded in Educators’ Guides in most cases.
- Curriculum standards for the Sant Ocean Hall
- Curriculum standards for the Behring Family Hall of Mammals
- Curriculum standards for the O. Orkin Insect Zoo
- Curriculum standards for Deep Sea 3D and Dinosaurs 3D in the IMAX Theater
- Curriculum standards for Discovery Room Programs
- Curriculum standards for Forensic Lab Programs: Coming Soon!
Help Us Expand Our Connections!
The best connections to standard and curriculum topics come from the experts: Teachers! Please take a minute to tell us how you make the case for a field trip to the Museum.
Research Supports Field Trips!
Current research on student learning before, during, and after field trips highlights ways that student learning can be maximized on field trips. Below are some key findings from the research that you can use to make the case.
Select Content Outcomes
- Orienting students by showing them a map and describing the layout of the Museum or by telling them about the things they will see and do helps them to learn more content while on a field trip. (Source: Kubota & Olstad, 1991; Anderson & Lucas, 1997)
- Students who use well-designed exhibit guides while on field trips use more science vocabulary and have more conversations about science topics on the field trip than students who do not. (Source: Mortensen & Smart, 2008)
- Using post-visit activities and lesson plans helps students to learn more about science topics they encountered on a field trip. (Source: Anderson, Lucas, Ginns, & Dierking, 2000)
[ TOP ]
