VirtualFieldTripsForFree

__**Virtual Field Trips**__
Have a Goal "One thing I look for is a purpose," don't just take the students through some pictures but also have them searching for particular information and learning in-depth, specific things about their topic." In other words, make sure the trip explores an idea, not just a place.

Keep It Short "The only way you make these successful is if you figure out how you can do them very quickly or after school."

Continue the Lesson Offline supplements their virtual trips by bringing in food, music, or clothing from the cultures they're exploring.

Link Up Help students and teachers develop their own field trips to share with schools around the world. After all, who knows how to teach the geography of the Mississippi River better than a Midwestern teacher, or the history of the Spanish missions better than her California counterpart? compare notes afterward via blogs or online chats.

Know the Limits Virtual field trips work well for some teaching goals, but less so for others. They're useful for helping students learn about remote destinations, and some students may find online chats just as instructive as face-to-face lessons. But if your goal is to foster a healthy appreciation for the outdoors, Marcinkowski says, you'll have to go outside.

There are 4 Parts to a Virtual Field Trip:
 * 1) trip journal
 * 2) virtual visit
 * 3) ask expert tool
 * 4) hosted web chat


 * http://virtualfieldtrip.org
 * http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/virtual.php
 * http://www.gaillovely.com/VirtualFieldTrips.htm
 * Adventures in Medicine and Science: AIMS Program of St. Louis University: http://aims.slu.edu
 * Cleveland Institute of Music: http://www.cim.edu/dl/index.php
 * Cleveland Museum of Natural History: http://www.cmnh.org
 * George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate: http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/index.cfm
 * Hank Fincken: A National Theatre Company of One: http://www.hankfincken.com
 * HealthSpace (now part of Cleveland Museum of Natural History) http://www.cmnh.org/site/classesandprograms/schoolprograms/healthed.aspx
 * Life Science Education Center at Marian College: http://www.marian.edu/EcoLab/Education/Pages/default.aspx
 * Louisville Science Center: http://www.louisvillescience.org
 * Mote Marine Laboratory: http://www.mote.org
 * NASA Digital Learning Network: Kennedy Space center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johnson Space center, and Goddard Space Flight Center: http://dln.nasa.gov/dln/content/catalog
 * The National WWII Museum: http://www.nationalww2museum.org
 * Oregon Museum of Science and Industry http://www.omsi.edu
 * the Paley Center for Media http://www.paleycenter.org
 * Reef HQ Aquarium in Australia http://www.reefhq.com/au
 * Virent Broadcasting Company http://www.virent.net
 * Math Batter Up: http://education.baseballhalloffame.org/experience/thematic_units/mathintro.html
 * Center for Puppetry Arts "Discovering Puppetry in other Cultures" http://www.puppet.org
 * http://www.simplek12.com/virtualfieldtrips
 * Virtual Worlds Almanac http://vworld.fas.org/wiki/Main_Page
 * Virtual Field Trips available through Southwest Nebraska Distance Education Network: http://www.snden.org/VirtualFieldTrips.html
 * http://www.tvdec.org/k12enrichment
 * [|Blue Zones Quest] : students vote online for nearly every move a team of doctors and demographers makes as it investigates the longest-lived populations on the planet
 * [|GoNorth!] offers students a virtual seat on a real-life around-the-pole journey by dogsled. The trip will last five years and is designed to help kids learn about Arctic ecology, its inhabitants, and its role in the health of the planet.
 * [|Windows into Wonderland], the National Park Service's series of electronic field trips exploring Yellowstone National Park, is a set of charming Flash animations that intercut cartoons with actual photos of the park.
 * National Geographic : [|Lewis and Clark] : Students trace Lewis and Clark's search for a water route from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast. Along the way, they’ll learn about the approximately 300 new plant and animal species the explorers encountered and read about their run-ins with grizzly bears, their perilous passage through the Bitterroot Mountains, and, of course, their famous partnership with the Native American Sacagawea.
 * The National Museum of Natural History's short but impeccably rendered [|Virtual Dinosaur Dig] will show you how to unearth buried bones. You can peek at some cool three-dimensional images of real fossils afterward by taking the accompanying Virtual Museum Tour.
 * [|Mission to the Abyss] : deep-sea fun to be had while learning about the creepy creatures of the ocean floor.
 * [|Online Expeditions] the university's College of Marine Studies