The Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) has put together a list of online resources that offer students virtual field trips through museums, exhibition halls, science and technology displays, and online musical performances.
Curated by PUSD’s Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Development team, the virtual field trips allow students – and parents as well – to discover the world in the comfort of their homes.
Discovery Education, part of the Discovery network, which offers virtual learning experiences in a variety of topics including Health and Wellness, Careers and College Readiness, Social Emotional Learning (SEL), Tech and Manufacturing, Sports, Financial Literacy/Economics, Literacy, Community Engagement, Argumentation with Evidence, Collecting and Analyzing Data, and Agriculture.
For STEM resources, Pasadena’s JPL, offers videos about Earth, the Solar Systems, Stars and Galaxies, and Technology; Access Mars, which allows you to virtually explore the real surface of Mars as recorded by NASA’s Curiosity rover; and Star Atlas, displaying over 60,000 stars, locate planets, and watch sunrises and solar eclipses.
PUSD lists Boeing Future U, where students can explore aerospace technology with virtual field trips and interactive videos; Manufacturing, where you can explore STEM careers by meeting professionals and exploring facilities.
A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) map shows where volcanoes are located throughout the United States and tells about the current status of each, Nature Works Everywhere by The Nature Conservancy takes you on at least 11 virtual field trips, and The Great Lakes takes you on a virtual field trip from Great Lakes Now with three components: coastal wetlands, algae, and lake sturgeon.
The virtual field trips also includes farms, zoos, and aquariums, such as Farm and Food Tours, which takes you through several Canadian farms and agricultural resources, and zoos like San Diego Zoo, Smithsonian’s National Zoo, Houston Zoo, Cincinnati Zoo, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta’s live Panda Cam, Georgia Aquarium’s Ocean Voyager Webcam.
You can also take a virtual tour of the National Aquarium through a link on PUSD’s website.
For history and social studies buffs, PUSD offers links to virtual yours of the Constitution Center, the National Constitution Center, Colonial Williamsburg, Ellis Island, and panoramic views of Cities of the World.
The links also lead to popular virtual tours of China, Egypt, and explorations of Easter Island, the world’s largest cave Son Doong, and other beautiful places on Earth.
If you’re into museum tours, there are links to Smithsonian Virtual Exhibitions, the National Museum of Natural History, the Louvre, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and various other U.S. and worldwide museums.
Of course, virtual visits are available through several national parks such as Yellowstone National Park, Kenai Fjords National Park, Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Dry Tortugas National Park and Carlsbad Caverns.
For music lovers, the links at PUSD’s website offers you a chance to catch a live online concert or two at the New York Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Music Hall, and The Metropolitan Opera for some live opera online.
Boise State University in Idaho has also created Birthplaces of Music, a virtual field trip to four music locations: Vienna, Austria; New Orleans, Louisiana; Cleveland, Ohio and Bristol, Tennessee.
For more information, visit PUSD Virtual Field Trips webpage.
