Southern CA Field Trip Website List

Field trip resources for Southern CA!  Just the other day, my long-time friend and colleague, Annie Maben, a science consultant for the UCLA Science Project,  sent me an updated resource. It’s the newest version of her Southern CA Field Trip Website List she has assembled and organized by discipline. This phenomenal resource lists some of the best educational field trip sites in Southern California.  It includes  hyperlinks to each organizations’ website.

For those of you who plan to incorporate engaging field trips into your classroom learning experiences, I assure you will find this list extremely helpful.

Do-It-Yourself/Virtual Field Trips

Another resource of Annie’s, “Excellent Virtual Field Trips and Field Research Sites“, provides links and resources for having your student explore and gather data during a “virtual” trip to a far-away location or for “visiting” a near-by site to practice sampling skills for data collections, such as counting organisms on virtual quadrats.

Field Trip Tips and Best Practices

A third Field Trip resource I am sharing is Annie’s “Field Trip Tips and Best Practices.” This guide was developed by Annie in her role as the Field Trip Chairperson for several NSTA and CASE (formerlly CSTA) conventions and has been given to all conference field trip attendees. It will help really help “newbies” to organize and implement their first field experiences!

Virtual Field Trips for Distance Learning

Finally, Annie has compiled a list of outstanding Virtual Field Trips for Distance Learning.

• Cabrillo Marine Aquarium Creature Features – (K-12) TPR activities, videos, lessons for home
• Aquarium of the Pacific Online Academy (K-12) videos/activities/live streaming
• Amigos de Bolsa Chica Virtual Wetlands Tour – video, downloadable educator guide
• Natural History Museum of LA “Connects” – visit the museum/tar pits virtually!
• LA Zoo Virtual School Programs – Download the Virtual Field Trip guide and explore online
• Descanso Gardens at Home – Virtual Tours, Videos, resources
• Huntington Library & Gardens Learning at Home – videos, Interactive Virtual Tours for students
• LA Maritime Institute Virtual Programs – videos, lesson plans, activities for TopSail program
• CA State Parks Online Virtual Field Trips – extensive!
• Yosemite Valley Virtual Tour – Outstanding!
• National Parks Virtual Field Trips – extensive, includes monuments
• International/National Virtual 360-degree field trips (play with music off)
• Virtual Field Trips (Discovery Education) – Includes videos, teacher guides, full lessons
• Earth Science: 360-degree Interactive trip, from Science Friday
• Explore.org (Annenberg) – LIVE webcams with lessons- from Arctic to Aquarium of the Pacific!

Thanks to Annie for sharing these great resources!