Stuck at home? Can’t go on field trips this year with your students? You can still have fun as a class on virtual field trips! Virtual field trips allow children to experience places around the world without leaving their homes or classrooms! Through virtual field trips, students can go to different states, countries, or even into space!

As we are stuck at home, it is important to explore the world around us. In this post I have complied +40 virtual field trips that you can explore with your students.

Check out the end of this post to download a free worksheet to help your students learn and reflect on their virtual field trip adventures!

Aquariums

• Monterey Bay Aquarium This aquarium has free live-cams of an array of different animals. Float with the jellyfish, dive with the otters, or swim with the sharks! Check out the feeding time schedules as well.
• Aquarium of the Pacific has a lot of webcams and other educations materials.
• California Academy of Sciences. Watch penguins, the reef lagoon, or the coral spawning webcams!
• Waikiki Aquarium has live-cams and a web show where students can ask an Aquarium Director questions about sea creatures.

Zoo / Wildlife / Farm

• Smithsonian’s National Zoo. There are a variety of different virtual tours that you can take at the Smithsonian. A few of my favorites include: animal webcams, online zoo highlights tour, and wildlife careers videos!
• San Diego Zoo has a lot of fun and educational content to make any virtual field trip a success! On their San Diego Zoo Kids website they have zoo live-cams, animal fun facts, games, and activities.
• Atlanta Zoo has a variety of different virtual learning activities. They have a virtual petting zoo, a panda cam, and other at-home zoo tours!
• National Dairy Association has tours of different dairy farms.
• 360 Farm Tours. Discover grain farms, sheep farms, egg farms, pig farms, apple orchards, and more! Videos go into detail on the care of the animals and how we get food on our plates.
• Explore.org has live cams of different animals all around the world.
• Allaboutbirds.org. All About Birds has live cams on different species of birds all over the world.

National Parks

• Yellowstone National Park. Tour the park with interactive panoramic photographs.
• Grand Canyon. Take a virtual hike into the grand Canyon.
• Glacier National Park. Visit the park virtually with a variety of different cameras that are in different areas of the park.
• Yosemite National Park. Explore the park like every before with this virtual tour of the grounds at Yosemite.
• Carlsbad Caverns. Narrated virtual tour of the caverns.
• Bruce Canyon. Narrated virtual tour brought to you by Google Arts and Culture.
• Kenai Fjords National Park. Explore the glaciers in this 360 narrated virtual tour from Google Arts and Culture.

Around the World

• The Colosseum brought to you Google Earth.
• Buckingham Palace. Take the royal tour of the home of the Queen. Explore the different rooms of the palace with 360 views.
• Taj Mahal interactive virtual tour and photos.
• Stonehenge brought to you Google Earth.
• The Great Barrier Reef. brought to you Google Earth.
• The Great Wall of China. Take a virtual tour of different areas of the Great Wall of China.
• Mount Everest. Explore the highest mountain in the world with this interactive 3D app.
• Son Doong Cave. Explore the largest cave on the planet with this 360 virtual tour from National Geographic.

United States History

• The White House . Google Arts and Culture takes us on a virtual tour of the White House.
• Beyond the Battlefield: A Virtual Field Trip. In this virtual field trip you get to go on a tour of the Museum of the American Revolution. They provide a classroom virtual field trip guide, bingo cards, and a scavenger hunt that will help you through your tourr.
• Mount Vernon. Take an interactive and informative tour of George Washington’s home in Virginia.
• Mount Rushmore. A high quality 3D model of Mount Rushmore.
• Liberty Bell. Look at photos and learn facts about the Liberty Bell from all angles.
• Ellis Island. Visit Ellis Island with this video created by Scholastic. 

Museums

• Smithsonian Museum. Explore past and present exhibits in the Museum of National History.
• Van Gogh Museum. Walk around the Van Gogh Museum and take a gander of the largest collection of his works.
• National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. 1000’s of images of the art in the National Gallery are available online.
• The National Museum of Anthropology. Learn about the history of Mexicos Pre-Hispanic Civilizations.

Space

• Mars. Students can have a 360 view of the surface of mars and travel around with the Mars rover.
• Moon.
• Sun. A virtual trip to the Sun.
• Space Shuttle Discovery 360 virtual tour.
• NASA Space Cam is live from the International Space Station. Catch stunning views of vast blue oceans, clouds, and the city lights below during “nights”.
• Canadian Space Agency has loads of videos on what it is like to live in space. Ask your students what they want to know about living in space and these Canadian astronauts probably have a video about it.
• International Space Station. Videos from NASA exploring life on the International Space Station.
• NASA. Virtual tour video of NASA

Community Helpers

• Memphis Fire Station Tour. Firefighters walk us through a typical fire station, firetruck, fire equipment, and show us what they do day-to-day.
• Doctor’s Office. Video of children taking a field trip to a doctors office and learning about what doctors do everyday.
• Veterinarians Office. Students learn how to take their pet to the vet.
• Police Station. Students spend a day with a police officer and learn what it is like to be at a police station.

Science

• Skype A Scientist. Families can request to have a Skype call with an actual scientist! They will match you will a scientist based on what you child is curious about. They also have live streams everyday on different areas of science.
• Scientists in Action. Want to take your students on an amazing field trip? Scientists in Action connects students directly with scientists during a live, interactive broadcast from field sites or research labs. During these free, 45 minute Q&A sessions, scientists demonstrate research techniques, share new discoveries, demystify the scientific process, and open a window into science careers.
• Exploring by the Seat. Guest speakers and virtual field trips from leading experts in multiple areas of science from around the world. All events are 100% free!
• Museum of Aviation Virtual Field Trips. All virtual field trips are designed for each grade level and 100% STEM based. They have virtual field trips for Kindergarten to 12th grade.
• The Nature Conservancy. Designed for grades 5-8 but customizable for all ages, virtual field trips allow students to travel the world and explore natural environments without leaving the classroom. Each virtual field trip contains a video, teacher guide, and student activities.

What should I do after a virtual field trip?

Once you have gone on your field trip you can:

• Write about what you learned about.
• Draw a picture of your favorite part of the virtual trip.
• Learn more about the place you visited.
• Create a craft based on the location you visited.

I have created a free worksheet that you can use with your students after you go on your virtual field trip. In this worksheet, students draw where they went, something that they learned, and their favorite part of the trip. After they complete the worksheet you can go over each part as a class. It’s a great way to reflect on what you learned!