Middle School Field Trips

If you read my blog at all on a regular basis you will see that we go on a lot of field trips.  I think many people readily admit that field trips are great learning opportunities.

But it can be so easy to get bogged down in book work and forget about field trips.  I found that this year we're struggling to find new places to visit, we're reluctant to take time away from our curriculum materials, and we're not doing as much life learning as we used to.

I am determined to keep exposing my boys to as many real life learning opportunities as I can and so I spent the weekend trying to come up with field trip ideas that were appropriate for middle school AND elementary school kids to enjoy together.


Here is what I've come up with so far.  I've generalized each category and then listed specific museums around us that we'll attempt to visit over the next few years.  I found that Wikipedia had listings of all the museum and nature centers for each state!:

1. Art Museum-- I never took my kids to the art museum before because I felt they were too young to really enjoy it or behave properly.  But now that they are older I'm looking forward to taking them to the art museum.  I even planned a simple scavenger hunt activity for them.

  • Worcester Art Museum
  • Wadsworth Antheneum Museum
  • Artspace
  • Warwick Museum of Art 
2. History museums-- We have quite a few history museum near us and I find that these types of museums are perfect for all ages.  We can tour submarines, warships, helicopters and tanks.



  • USS Nautilus 
  • Fort Adams
  • New England Air Museum 
  • Battleship Cove
  • USS Constitution 
  • Mystic Seaport
  • Old Sturbridge Village
  • Plymouth Plantation
  • Eli Whitney Museum 
  • US Coast Guard Museum 
  • Museum of work and culture
  • Quonset Air Museum 
  • New Bedford Whaling Museum
3.  Science Museums an Nature Centers-- Many science museums are meant for guests of all ages and are great for middle school trips.



  • Connecticut Science Center
  • Ecotarium
  • Denison Pequotsepos Nature center
  • Audubon Center 
  • Dinosaur State Park
  • Planetarium shows (at any of our local planetariums)
  • Museum of Science, Boston

4.  Natural History Museums-- A nice cross between nature centers and history museums most natural history museums have lots to see and learn about.  
  • Mashantucket Pequot Museum
  • Peabody Museum of Natural History 
  • Roger Williams Natural History Museum 

5.  Other Historical Sites--- There are many historical sites around us that are not museums and they are often overlooked; by myself and others.  But they would make excellent field trips none the less!
  • Freedom Trail Boston  
  • Touring the various Newport Mansions
  • Salem Massachusettes and the Salem Witch trials
  • Capital Building (we actually have about three different ones all within an hour or so drive!)
  • House of the Seven Gables 

6.  Zoos and Aquariums-- No matter what age my kids are they never seem to tire of zoo trips.  I just find that as we visit them multiple times it's getting more and more challenging to find "new" zoos with new animals that we have not yet seen before.  


  • Roger Williams Zoo
  • Southwick's Zoo
  • Biomes Marine Biology Center
  • Mystic Aquarium
  • Stone Zoo
  • Beardsley Zoo
  • Franklin Park Zoo
  • Buttonwood park zoo
  • New England Aquarium
  • Lupa Zoo 

7.  Factory Tours-- It's always fun to learn how things are made!  We never brought the kids on any sort of factory tour but I'm sure they'd love it. (you can search for local factory tours here)
  • Anheuser- Busch factory tour
  • Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory 
  • Harbor Sweets
  • Sam Adams brewery 
  • PEZ factory
  • Ben and Jerry's 
  • Cabot Creamery

8.  For fun!  There are many other places to visit that do not fit neatly into any of the above mentioned categories but they can be both fun and educational.  
  • Railroad Museum
  • Fire Museum 
  • Trash Museum
  • Culinary Arts Museum
Linking Up With:

Comments

  1. We do not take nearly as many field trips as we should. It's hard with little ones!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I bet it is! I can't even say it's easy with my kids; the whole let's pack lunches and head out early thing never seems to work out quite right and they're older!

      Delete
  2. Great list. I need to sit and brainstorm in just this way. Thank you for the inspiration! - Lori

    ReplyDelete
  3. I need to remember to look for some factory tours. We haven't been on more than one that I can think of. I love your list. We love field trips.
    Blessings, Dawn

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I love a good factory tour; though they seem to be getting harder and harder to find.

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  4. These are all great ideas - not just for middle school but all ages! Thanks for linking up!

    I always enjoyed factory tours when we did them! Once we stopped in at the Zamboni plant and asked if they did tours. Well, they didn't, but a very helpful manager came out and told us all about the history and how the machines had changed over the years, explained how they worked and answered all our questions right there in the showroom/lobby.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is so neat! I still remember touring the Frito Lay factory when I was in like 2nd grade.. it was so neat to see how potato chips were made and shipped.

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