Ready to venture outside the classroom for an exciting field trip, but not sure where to start? Here is a list of ideas to give you some inspiration—and can be adjusted to fit your grade level, class size, and budget.

Go into the Community

What better way to learn about your community than to get involved? If you teach older students, you can look into volunteer opportunities at the local soup kitchen, pregnancy resource center, literacy center, or animal shelter. Students will get the opportunity to serve others while learning about nonprofit organizations and how they run.

Older and younger students could benefit from learning about the people and institutions that keep our communities going. Arrange a tour of the local city hall or courthouse. Perhaps your local fire station or police department would be willing to escort a group of students through their facilities and explain what it’s like to be a first responder. Although your students might not be able to visit a hospital, perhaps they could visit a nursing home and bring some joy to the residents while also learning from the nurses and staff. These opportunities will vary depending on where you live and how many students you’re bringing, but there’s no harm in exploring your options.

Work the Land

If you’re going on a field trip, you might as well go to the farm! Farms are a common destination for field trips, but that’s because there’s so much to discover! Students can learn about growing crops, raising animals, and selling produce. Besides a traditional farm, you could also take your students to an orchard, ranch, or dairy farm. Students near Nebraska City might enjoy the Apple Harvest Tour at Arbor Day Farm. Meanwhile, students near Palmer, Alaska, might get excited about a trip to the Musk Ox Farm. Many farms that accept field trips have educational activities planned for students.

Admire God’s Creation

With 429 national park sites in the United States, there’s a good chance that your school might have an opportunity to visit one. Many national parks offer field trips and extra educational opportunities for students. For example, Death Valley Nation Park offers ranger-guided trips to the Mesquite Flats Dunes, Golden Canyon, and Badwater Basin. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers a variety of opportunities for students, including salamander monitoring, lichen monitoring, and data collection on macroinvertebrates.

If you’re not near a national park, you could still arrange for a day in the great outdoors. If you’re near forests or mountains, a hiking trip that emphasizes wilderness skills could be an exciting and beneficial excursion for students. Students of all ages will likely enjoy a day at the beach if you live on the coast, or a day at the lake if you’re landlocked. Whether at the beach or the lake, practice safety and first aid skills or examine the plants and wildlife that grow in these regions.

Step Into the Past

There are over 95,000 properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places in the United States. If one of those 95,000 properties is located near you, it could potentially be a fun location for a field trip. For example, schools located in the panhandle of Florida can go on a field trip to Fort Pickens; or schools located in Washington state might want to schedule a trip to the Fort Walla Walla Museum. You could also do some extra digging into your city’s local history to see if any important sites or houses have been preserved and are open to visitors. Perhaps you’re fortunate enough to live near towns that actively showcase their history, such as Tombstone, Arizona, or Williamsburg, Virginia. If so, these would make excellent field trip destinations.

Go Virtual

Let’s face it: we can’t go to the moon. Most of us can’t even go to NASA. However, thanks to the marvels of today’s technology, we can give our students virtual tours of places our budgets can’t go. NASA offers several virtual tours for free; and some museums, such as the Museum of the American Revolution, do as well. Some museums offer virtual tours that schools can pay for. As you explore different educational opportunities for your students, you might consider going digital.

We hope this list gives you a good start. Enjoy your next learning adventure!