Virtual Field Trips offers a bundle of web excursions – perfect if you want to break the ennui of concrete walls without actually having to go through the rigamarole of leaving school grounds. The trips are simply step-by-step web seminars designed to educate and fulfill the needs of taking an actual field trip without having to keep everyone in a single file line. There are several subject areas here to explore, including fine arts, science, foreign language, social studies and technology. Each subject has about thirty or so activities and lessons, complete with pictures and links to outside resources.
It’s no substitute for a real field trip, but if your class is tired of that trip to the farm where someone will inevitably lose a retainer or fall in the mud, you might stay indoors once in a while and get all the info from this site without any of the fuss. You can also suggest and create your own virtual field trip so that other teachers can benefit from your expertise. One of my favorite aspects of the site is that all of the lessons are consistent in design and flow, so there isn’t any need to re-program your brain to teach more than one of these lessons. The design isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing thing on the web, but hey, the content is great. –JEREMY S. GRIFFIN
