School field trips and overnighters might have been cancelled this year, but with the amazing advances in technology, taking your students on a virtual field trip is a great end of year enrichment learning option!
I've compiled some of my most popular virtual field trips that are sure to keep your students engaged as the school year comes to an end. Each trip is set up with clickable links to Google Earth™ 360-degree exploration, informational text, short video clips, and critical thinking response questions.
There is very little prep involved--and after this year you definitely deserve a break from planning. Everything is set up in Google Slides with clickable links. Just assign in Google Classroom or if your school uses a differently LMS, check out this blog post with tech tips and tutorials for setting these up with a different learning platform.
Take your students around the globe to the 7 Natural Wonders of the World! Students will learn about and explore Mount Everest, the Great Barrier Reef, Paricutin, Rio de Janeiro, the Northern Lights, Grand Canyon, and Victoria Falls. This trip includes video clips, Google Earth™ panoramic views, reading, and writing response questions.
Take your students on a virtual field trip to Peru to explore the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. In this virtual tour, students will learn about this historical site as they "walk around" various locations of Machu Picchu. Everything is streamlined and easy for students to navigate. Each location includes informational text, and historical thinking questions are included throughout the trip.
Take your students on a virtual field trip to learn about visit the highest peak in Africa. Your students will learn about the history, geography, and significance of Mount Kilimanjaro from multiple perspectives. This trip includes video clips, Google Earth™ exploration, response questions, and much more!
Take your students on a virtual field trip to three different NASA space centers across the United States. Using a combination of Google Earth™ 360-degree views, informational text, video, and visuals, your students will learn about NASA, research and contributions, space travel, and significant events.
In this virtual field trip, students will learn about five sustainable communities around the world. This includes Earthships, the Biosphere 2, a zero waste town, a solar power complex, and an ecovillage. This is a great virtual field trip to learn about design solutions that reduce the impact of human activity on natural systems.
All of the virtual field trips include critical thinking response questions throughout that are meaningful and designed to spark curiosity and deeper thinking as students move through the virtual field trip.
These virtual field trips are versatile and can be conducted as a whole-group teacher led activity with students following along on their individual devices, or assigned as an independent activity. These virtual field trips can be completed on a desktop or using a tablet with the Google Earth™ app installed. All of the directions are included within the activity. Everything is streamlined to keep things simple for students. These would even make good sub plans!
Check out all of these ready to go virtual field trips here:
