Impressive Online Excursions: Exploring the Digital World for Educational Journeys
In the ever-evolving landscape of education, virtual field trips have emerged as a transformative tool, enabling students to explore the world without leaving their classrooms. This innovative approach to learning has gained significant traction, offering immersive, interactive experiences that cater to a diverse range of interests.
The National WWII Museum's Manhattan Project virtual field trip invites students on a cross-country journey to uncover the science, sites, and stories behind the creation of the atomic bomb. Meanwhile, NatureEye offers a unique opportunity for remote exploration, allowing students and teachers to "fly" drones in real time at locations spanning the globe, from African wildlife reserves to Peruvian cloud forests.
NASA At Home provides a cosmic adventure, offering virtual tours of various space centers, the International Space Station, and the Hubble Space Telescope Mission Operations Center, as well as excursions to Mars and the Moon. For those with a keen interest in the U.S. Census Bureau, a Virtual Field Trip offers a behind-the-scenes introduction, complete with exclusive interviews with subject matter experts.
Khan Academy's Imagineering in a Box takes students on a journey behind the scenes with Disney Imagineers, offering project-based exercises to design a theme park. The National Constitution Center Virtual Tour provides a virtual interactive multimedia tour of the National Constitution Center on Independence Mall in Philadelphia.
The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City houses an internationally renowned collection of Western art and artifacts, while the Musee d'Orsay in Paris displays art created between 1848 and 1914, including works by van Gogh, Renoir, Manet, Monet, and Degas.
The Nature Conservancy's Nature Lab virtual field trips are designed for grades 5-8 but can be customized for all ages, featuring a video, teacher guide, and student activities. The Art Institute of Chicago boasts thousands of artworks, including world-renowned paintings by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Hopper, and lesser-known gems from every corner of the globe.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Doomsday Clock Virtual Tour offers a historical exploration of the nuclear age and contemporary policy questions through personal stories, interactive media, and pop culture artifacts. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a colossal collection of art, cultural objects, and historical artifacts from over 5,000 years of human history.
The New Britain Museum of Art eMuseum offers virtual visitors the opportunity to explore a wide variety of the institution's collection, including works of American Impressionism, landscapes from the Hudson River School, Post-WW2 and Contemporary art, as well as the "Math-terpieces" and "What Is America?" school tours.
The U.S. Capitol Virtual Tour provides video tours of historic rooms and spaces, including some not open to the public, as well as research resources and teaching materials. The National Aquarium is home to 20,000 animals covering 800 species, from the depths of the ocean to the canopy of the rain forest.
The California Science Center provides NGSS-aligned virtual field trips for grades K-5 in both English and Spanish. The Monterey Bay Aquarium offers ten live cams, including sharks, sea otters, jellyfish, and penguins. The Prague Castle in Czechoslovakia is the largest coherent castle complex in the world, consisting of palaces and ecclesiastical buildings of various architectural styles.
CyArk uses advanced technologies, including drones and photogrammetry, to digitally preserve cultural heritage sites and create immersive 3D models, virtual tours, and self-guided field trips of historical landmarks and archaeological sites. The Easter Island story follows a team of archaeologists and a 75-person crew who sought to unravel how the hundreds of giant stone statues that dominate the island's coast were moved and erected.
MASP in Sao Paolo, Brazil displays 8,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, objects, photographs, and costumes from a range of periods, encompassing Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The Mystic Aquarium is one of three U.S. facilities holding Steller sea lions, and it has the only beluga whales in New England.
The Great Wall of China stretches more than 3,000 miles across multiple provinces of China. The Frick Collection in New York has distinguished Old Master paintings and outstanding examples of European sculpture and decorative arts. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a comprehensive collection that ranges from prehistoric times to modern day.
Slime in Space takes students 250 miles above Earth to the International Space Station to learn about slime in microgravity compared to how water reacts. Access Mars explores the real surface of Mars, as recorded by NASA's Curiosity rover. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands has the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh in the world.
The Great Lakes Now Virtual Field Trip focuses on the importance of coastal wetlands, the danger of algal blooms, and lake sturgeon. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy is a dynastic collection of ancient sculpture, artwork, and artifacts, established by the Medici family.
The Louvre Museum has iconic works of art, including those by da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and other renowned artists. FarmFresh360 teaches about Canadian food and farming in 3D. Immersive technology, such as virtual or augmented reality, is being used to make lessons more engaging and exciting.
The Georgia Aquarium offers live webcam feeds for various aquatic creatures, such as beluga whales, penguins, alligators, sea otters, and underwater puffins. Google Arts & Culture offers the exploration of galleries, museums, and more. The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has works of art dating from the eighth through the twenty-first century.
The Clark Planetarium Virtual Skywatch offers free virtual versions of live planetarium presentations that directly correlate to 6th grade and 4th grade SEEd astronomy standards. Yellowstone National Park offers nine webcams, providing views of around the North Entrance and Mammoth Hot Springs, Mount Washburn, the West Entrance, and the Upper Geyser Basin.
The British Museum in London offers a virtual tour of over 4,000 years of art and historical objects from around the world. The San Diego Zoo provides live looks at various animals, including koalas, baboons, apes, tigers, platypuses, penguins, and more. Machu Picchu in Peru is a 15th-century mountaintop citadel built by the Inca.
The Virtual field trip to Ellis Island features first-hand stories, historical photographs, films, and fascinating facts about the famous immigration station. The Pergamon in Berlin, Germany features sculpture, artifacts, and other items from ancient Greece. Discovering Ancient Egypt offers the opportunity to learn about the ancient Egyptian gods, mummification, pyramids, and temples through interactive maps, photos, drawings, and paintings.
The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History is one of the largest repositories of natural history on the planet, featuring more than 145 million artifacts and specimens. The Colosseum in Rome is one of the most iconic structures in world history. The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea is the representative museum of modern Korean visual art.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. features more than 40,000 American works of art. This article was updated for September 2025. As of 2025, CyArk and the American Writers Museum are collaborating to digitally preserve and showcase literary heritage through immersive 3D experiences.
