Field Trip Activity Sheets

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The following field trip guides and activity sheets are based on the most sought-after STEM topics, pairing recommended field trips with Museum exhibits, films, and presentations.

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29 Results

The following activity sheets match one or more of your selections.

  • Animal Adaptation

    Life Science. Guide highlights: A new school program, Exhibit Investigations: Animal Adaptations, may be requested in advance for a facilitated exploration of New England Habitats. Also suggested: a Live Animal presentation, Colossal Fossil: Triceratops Cliff, and Natural Mysteries. Please note that some programs require advance reservations or additional tickets. This guide provides chaperones with themed recommendations for programs and shows to see during your field trip. It also includes a map that highlights the points of interest. Use this guide to stimulate group conversation, keep track of your program schedule, and list group members and their reactions to their experience. Funded through the generous support of Liberty Mutual.

  • Bio Poem

    An excellent language arts connection, the Bio Poem worksheet helps students write a creative poem about an animal in the Museum. After choosing an animal from our living collections, students fill in each line of the poem, highlighting the animal's characteristics, adaptations, and environment. This activity works well for students in grades 3 – 5, but we've also used it in the Museum with learners ranging up to adulthood.

  • Butterfly Garden Observation - Butterfly Behavior

    Suggested for students in grades 3 &ndash: 5, this activity encourages students to make and record observations about butterfly adaptations in the Butterfly Garden. Students observe the various movements and behaviors of butterflies and tally their results. The activity sheet includes a graph that can be used either during the visit or back in class to display the results of the students' data collection.

  • Butterfly Garden Observation - Colors and Patterns

    Suggested for students in grades 3 – 5, this activity encourages students to make and record observations about butterfly adaptations in the Butterfly Garden. Using this worksheet, they record the various species' colorations, camouflage, and defense patterning. This activity includes a graph that can be used either during the visit or back in class to display the results of the students' data collection.

  • Butterfly Sentence Starters

    Suggested for grades 2 – 3 as a language arts connection, this activity helps students make and record observations about the Butterfly Garden. The worksheet prompts students to fill in basic sentences with ideas, questions, and observations relating to their experience learning about butterflies in the Museum.

  • Compare and Contrast

    Students can use this Venn diagram graphic organizer to compare and contrast interesting objects, artifacts, or animals that they find in the Museum based on their characteristics. This activity can be applied to any exhibit about any topic. It is recommended for grades 3 – 5 but could easily be successful with older or younger students.

  • Creative Scavenger Hunt

    This worksheet allows educators to select a theme and a specific exhibit or group of exhibits in which the theme might be explored. A theme from the classroom can be introduced, expanded, reconsidered or assessed through this activity.

    Some teachers of upper grades have had success in making this a contest in which the group that finds the most exhibit connections (and explain them) wins a prize. Remember that asking new questions can be an appropriate part of searching for connections to a theme.

    Variation: Instead of writing a list of connections on a worksheet, students use a digital (or disposable) camera to take pictures and record the connections they find. They can then write about or present their connections back at school.

  • Dinosaurs and Fossils

    Life Science. Guide highlights: Dinosaurs: Modeling the Mesozoic, Colossal Fossil: Triceratops Cliff, a Live Animal presentation, and Natural Mysteries. Please note that some programs require advance reservations or additional tickets. This guide provides chaperones with themed recommendations for programs and shows to see during your field trip. It also includes a map that highlights the points of interest. Use this guide to stimulate group conversation, keep track of your program schedule, and list group members and their reactions to their experience. Funded through the generous support of Liberty Mutual.

  • Engineering and Simple Machines

    Technology / Engineering. Guide highlights: Design Challenges, Cahners ComputerPlace, Science in the Park, and Nanotechnology. Please note that some programs require advance reservations or additional tickets. This guide provides chaperones with themed recommendations for programs and shows to see during your field trip. It also includes a map that highlights the points of interest. Use this guide to stimulate group conversation, keep track of your program schedule, and list group members and their reactions to their experience. Funded through the generous support of Liberty Mutual.

  • Everyone's a Critic

    Individuals or groups visiting the Museum of Science can use this worksheet if the trip's objective is for the learners to experience an exhibit and think critically about it. Learners are asked to write a review of the exhibit after experiencing it during their field trip. Teachers can assign a specific exhibit or involve the students in selecting an exhibit before their trip by using our Web exhibit descriptions and/or floor plan.

  • Evolution Adventure

    These four-page study sheets are designed to help engage learners in the evolution stories of one or two organisms while exploring the Museum's Natural Mysteries exhibit. Each Evolution Adventure cover page presents a picture of something to find within the exhibit. The next pages include an activity, background content on the connection between the activity and the study of evolution, and common misconceptions. The final page provides additional activities for home or school, standard connections, and references. Topic areas include: Birds, Geese, Hippos and Whales, Leopards and Jaguars, Rhinos, Trilobites, Turtles, and Woodchucks. The eight study sheets are packaged together in one PDF, available below.

  • Evolution and Natural Selection

    Life Science. Guide highlights: A new school program, Exhibit Investigations: Evolution, may be requested in advance for a facilitated exploration of Colossal Fossil: Triceratops Cliff. Also suggested: a Live Animal presentation, Natural Mysteries, and New England Habitats. Please note that some programs require advance reservations or additional tickets. This guide provides chaperones with themed recommendations for programs and shows to see during your field trip. It also includes a map that highlights the points of interest. Use this guide to stimulate group conversation, keep track of your program schedule, and list group members and their reactions to their experience. Funded through the generous support of Liberty Mutual.

  • Eye Spy: Observing the Natural World

    Life Science for Early Learners. Guide highlights: Discovery Center, Live Animal presentation, Natural Mysteries, and New England Habitats. Please note that some programs require advance reservations or additional tickets. This guide provides chaperones with themed recommendations for programs and shows to see during your field trip. It also includes a map that highlights the points of interest. Use this guide to stimulate group conversation, keep track of your program schedule, and list group members and their reactions to their experience. Funded through the generous support of Liberty Mutual.

  • Graphical Stories - WeatherWise

    Ask a question, collect data, and find the answer using a graphical story, such as a line graph or pictograph. Find worksheets below for WeatherWise.

  • Graphing

    Math. Guide highlights: A new school program, Exhibit Investigations: Forces and Motion, may be requested in advance for a facilitated exploration of Science in the Park. Also suggested: Math Moves!: Experiencing Ratio and Proportion, Investigate! A See-for-Yourself Exhibit, and WeatherWise. Please note that some programs require advance reservations or additional tickets. This guide provides chaperones with themed recommendations for programs and shows to see during your field trip. It also includes a map that highlights the points of interest. Use this guide to stimulate group conversation, keep track of your program schedule, and list group members and their reactions to their experience. Funded through the generous support of Liberty Mutual.

  • Guide to Simple Machines

    Although the Museum does not have an exhibit focused specifically on the study of simple machines, teachers can find related learning experiences throughout the Exhibit Halls. This guide offers a selection of activities for you and your students to use on your visit, including Simple Machine Tic Tac Toe and Modeling Simple Machines. The guide incorporates visits to the Archimedean Excogitation Audiokinetic Sculpture, the Clark Collection of Mechanical Movements Models, Science in the Park, Investigate!, and New England Habitats.

  • Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture (Grades 3-5)

    In the temporary exhibit, Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture, students in grades 3 – 5 will explore the role that food plays in both their own lives and in other cultures. They will explore the role of food worldwide, and reflect on how it resembles or differs from their own experience. Back in the classroom, students can investigate how the food traditions in their family have changed over time by interviewing an older relative. Using materials from the activity sheet and recipes from home, students can then collaborate on a class cookbook.

  • Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture (Grades 6-8)

    In the temporary exhibit, Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture, students in grades 6 – 8 will investigate the way food is produced, distributed, exchanged, and consumed. Back in the classroom, students can explore a case study of the supply chain for apples by filling out a diagram based on prior knowledge and then engage in an associated reading that will help them further understand food production, distribution, exchange, and consumption.

  • Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture (Grades 9-12)

    In the temporary exhibit, Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture, students in grades 9 – 12 will learn how food is traded and transported all over the world, and assess the advantages and disadvantages of this global economic network. They will explore the economic, cultural, and environmental impacts of the food trade and offer potential solutions. Back in the classroom, students can write a short essay comparing the advantages and disadvantages of trading and transporting foods over long distances.

  • Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture (Grades K-2)

    In the temporary exhibit, Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture, students in grades K – 2 will learn about where food comes from and what is required to grow plants. They will use their senses to observe and investigate how food grows, and find out how it reaches our kitchens. Back in the classroom, students can discuss what they learned at the Museum, observe seedlings growing, and talk about cultural and family traditions.

  • Patterns and Measurement

    Math for Early Learners. Guide highlights: A new school program, Exhibit Investigations: Making Observations, may be requested in advance for a facilitated exploration of Take a Closer Look. Also suggested: Mathematica, Natural Mysteries, and the Discovery Center. Please note that some programs require advance reservations or additional tickets. This guide provides chaperones with themed recommendations for programs and shows to see during your field trip. It also includes a map that highlights the points of interest. Use this guide to stimulate group conversation, keep track of your program schedule, and list group members and their reactions to their experience. Funded through the generous support of Liberty Mutual.

  • Perspectives and Learning

    Explore exhibits through the lens of a mathematician, a scientist, and an artist. Guide highlights: Making Models, Natural Mysteries, Take a Closer Look, and the opportunity to choose your own exhibit. This guide provides chaperones with themed recommendations for programs and shows to see during your field trip. It also includes a map that highlights the points of interest. Use this guide to stimulate group conversation, keep track of your program schedule, and list group members and their reactions to their experience. Funded through the generous support of Liberty Mutual.

  • Physics in Science in the Park!

    These focusing activity sheets utilize exhibit components to explore the science of physics. Students perform tasks including calculation, data collection, and graphing. The activities cover concepts that are generally suited to students in middle school and above. Although the PDF includes all seven activities, we recommend that students work in groups or pairs to complete a portion of the sheets rather than the whole suite.

  • Probability

    Math. Guide highlights: Mathematica, Natural Mysteries, WeatherWise, and The Virtual FishTank. Please note that some programs require advance reservations or additional tickets. This guide provides chaperones with themed recommendations for programs and shows to see during your field trip. It also includes a map that highlights the points of interest. Use this guide to stimulate group conversation, keep track of your program schedule, and list group members and their reactions to their experience. Funded through the generous support of Liberty Mutual.

  • Rock Garden Guide and Map

    In the Museum's shady outdoor rock garden, students can examine rocks and minerals from all over the world and explore their often fiery origins. Download this guide for a helpful glossary, detailed map of the garden, and suggestions for related Museum exhibits to visit.

  • Scale

    Math. Guide highlights: Math Moves!: Experiencing Ratio and Proportion, Making Models, Dinosaurs: Modeling the Mesozoic, and WeatherWise. Please note that some programs require advance reservations or additional tickets. This guide provides chaperones with themed recommendations for programs and shows to see during your field trip. It also includes a map that highlights the points of interest. Use this guide to stimulate group conversation, keep track of your program schedule, and list group members and their reactions to their experience. Funded through the generous support of Liberty Mutual.

  • Simple Machines Bingo

    As your students explore the Museum of Science, they look for simple machines and gears being used in different areas. This activity sheet is a bingo card that they use to keep track of their progress.

  • The Earth in the Solar System

    Investigate our solar system and beyond and learn about the technologies developed by scientists and engineers to explore space.

  • What's the Weather?

    Earth and Space Science. Guide highlights: WeatherWise, Lightning!, Weather Wonders and Climate Change Live Presentations, and Forces of Nature Imax® film. Please note that some programs require advance reservations or additional tickets. This guide provides chaperones with themed recommendations for programs and shows to see during your field trip. It also includes a map that highlights the points of interest. Use this guide to stimulate group conversation, keep track of your program schedule, and list group members and their reactions to their experience. Funded through the generous support of Liberty Mutual.