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Recommended Field Trips

Museum educators have created learning pathways that match teachers' most frequently sought-after science topics with exhibits, films, and presentations. Use them as sample guides as you make your way through the Exhibit Halls. Note: Some offerings may require separate tickets.

Design a Field Trip for:

Field Trips for Young Learners

Earth & Space Science / Life Sciences

Bugs and Butterflies!
Discover the amazing adaptations of insects, the most diverse group of animals on Earth.

  • Begin the day in the Butterfly Garden, a living exhibit filled with sunlight, plants, and free-flying butterflies. What traits and behaviors do the butterflies share?
  • Continue on to the Bugs! 3-D film, which explores insect life through the adventures of a praying mantis and a butterfly in the lush Borneo rainforest.
  • Head over to the Making Models exhibit and examine the giant grasshopper model: what does it help us understand about insects?
  • Finish the day with a visit to Natural Mysteries to practice the skills of sorting and grouping organisms and to explore thousands of items — including insects — from the Museum's extensive natural history collection.

A Day of Dinosaurs
What can we learn from these colossal creatures from the past?

  • Step off the bus and into a model of a giant dinosaur footprint in the Museum's front plaza. What can you infer from its position, depth, and shape?
  • Move on to Dinosaurs: Modeling the Mesozoic to explore fossils, life-size models, and even dinosaur dung to gain a sense of how paleontologists compile evidence.
  • Attend the special program Dinosaur Discoveries, where a Museum educator helps students examine fossil evidence. Two weeks advance registration required: 617-723-2500. Available: October - June; Thursdays of each month; 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. Fee: $2. Grades: pre K - 2. Length: 45 min. Capacity: 22 students.
  • In the Omni film Dinosaurs Alive! older students are invited to go on a fossil hunt in Mongolia's Gobi desert. Available: November 23, 2007.

Inquiry / Nature of Science

Looking Closely: Observations of the Natural World
Learn about the connections between organisms and their environments.

  • Uncover the world's hidden patterns by applying classifications skills in Natural Mysteries.
  • Attend a Live Animal presentation and watch a trained handler introduce a baby alligator, a screech owl, a sprightly flying squirrel, or another of the more than 100 animals that reside in our Live Animal Center.
  • Visit the Discovery Center to observe small animals at close range, examine rocks, and use magnifying glasses and microscopes with the aid of staff and volunteers.

Field Trips for Elementary & Middle School Students

Earth & Space Science / Life Sciences

Discover Planet Earth
Explore Earth's geology and geography.

The Glorious Sun
Discover how the Sun fuels life on Earth.

  • In the special lab program, Photosynthesis: The Making of a Tree, students perform hands-on experiments with live plants to learn how plants use water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and sugar. Two weeks advance registration required: 617-723-2500. Available: February - June; Tuesdays; 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. Fee: $2. Grades: 5 - 8. Length: 90 min. Capacity: 28 students.
  • How do plants thrive on energy derived from the Sun? Add a viewing of 3-D Sun and a visit to the Butterfly Garden to your field trip to find out.

Earth & Space Science / Life Sciences

What's the Weather?
Learn about the basic principles of weather and other natural forces.

  • Head to the WeatherWise exhibit to find out about the scales of weather and to try your hand at "nowcasting."
  • A viewing of Hurricane on the Bayou, Stormchasers, or Forces of Nature brings the hair-raising power of weather to life.
  • Catch a 20-minute Making Weather presentation, in which a Museum educator explains how air, water, and temperature create weather, and a cloud and a snowstorm are created on stage!
  • Finish the day with a visit to the Theater of Electricity for a dazzling indoor lightning show.

Physical Sciences

Simple Machines and Engineering
Practice problem solving through the engineering design process.

  • Observe the many simple machines found in the audiokinetic sculpture in the lower lobby.
  • Move on to the Clark Collection of Mechanical Movement Models, then figure out how simple machines are used in the model steam engine on display nearby.
  • Starting at 10:30 a.m. take your group of less than 25 students through the daily hands-on activities of a design challenge.
  • Explore the new Innovative Engineers exhibit (opening October 15), which profiles engineers who have made a difference in how we live and work.
  • Older students are invited to use multiple computer-aided engineering and design challenges in Cahners ComputerPlace.

Inquiry / Nature Of Science

A Reptile's World
Learn about a thick-skinned, cold-blooded class of creatures...the scaly reptiles.

  • In the special temporary exhibit, Lizards & Snakes: Alive! (on exhibit February 17 - April 27, 2008) examine the behavior, biology, habitats, and evolution of this ancient group of animals known as squamates. Fee: Free with Exhibit Halls admission.
  • Attend a Live Animal presentation to learn more about nature from the scaly, furry, and fathered residents of our own Live Animal Center.
  • Discover the slithery creatures that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago. In the Omni film Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure, follow a curious and adventurous dolichorhynchops as she encounters giant fish, fierce sharks, and a fearsome sea monster in the ancient and mysterious water world of the late Cretaceous. Available: November 23, 2007.

Field Trips for High School Students

Life Sciences

Evolution in the Exhibit Halls
A walk through the Museum reveals evidence for biological evolution.

  • Begin in The Human Body Connection, where you can learn about human evolution by examining models of fossil hominids. While there, observe a lively family of cotton-top tamarins and talk to a Museum volunteer to find out how these animals are related to us.
  • Watch a live actor tell the dramatic story of an amazing evolutionary discovery in the 20-minute presentation Hunt for the Missing Link.
  • Take your Evolution Adventure worksheets to Natural Mysteries! With the four-page study programs, you can learn the evolution stories of some of the most popular organisms in the Exhibit Halls.
  • Conclude your visit with the presentation Survivor: Planet Earth, where you can explore natural selection and evidence for evolution through hands-on activities and demonstrations.

Explore Forensic Science

For a day your students will remember, combine a visit to CSI: The Experience (on exhibit September 30, 2007 - January 1, 2008) with one of the following special programs.

DNA Fingerprinting Lab
Lab participants use the tools of geneticists to analyze DNA fragments through gel electrophoresis. We recommend scheduling DNA Fingerprinting first if you are planning to reserve both DNA labs. This program is funded in part by New England Biolabs, Inc.
Two weeks advance reservations required: 617-723-2500. Available: November - June; Thursdays; 10:00 a.m. Fee: $6. Length: 3 hrs. Capacity: 28 students.

DNA Transformation Lab
Lab participants transform the bacteria E. coli by adding a gene that makes it resistant to an antibiotic.
Two weeks advance reservations required: 617-723-2500. Available: November - June; Wednesdays; 9:30 a.m., 12:00 p.m. Fee: $4. Length: 2 hrs. Capacity: 28 students.

Earth & Space Science / Life Sciences / Mathematics

High School Science Series
Supported in part by the Lowell Institute, these special programs are FREE and enable grade 9 - 12 students to meet practicing scientists, discuss current topics in science and technology, and explore career possibilities. For more information: mos.org/educators. Advance registration required: 617-723-2500. Maximum reservation: 50 students per school. Available: See dates below; 10:00 a.m. Fee: Free. Grades: 9 - 12. Capacity: 325.

Note: Due to the nature of the funding, the following lectures are open only to Massachusetts school groups.