Field Trips

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Aquatic Outreach Institute, Richmond
To register or for more information, call 510-231-5778.

Bohart Museum of Entomology
The Bohart Museum at UC Davis, one of the largest insect collections in the United States, welcomes classes to explore the diverse and fascinating world of insects. Students will get the chance explore part of our vast collection, see beautiful and unusual insects, and interact with residents of our live insect zoo. For more information visit our website at http://bohart.ucdavis.edu/ or call us at (530) 752-0493.

California Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park, San Francsico
The California Academy of Sciences includes the Steinhart Aquarium, the Morrison Planetarium, and the Natural History Museum. Each offers exciting educational opportunities for students in all grade levels. For more information, visit www.calacademy.org

Chabot Space and Science Center, Oakland
Permanent exhibits include "Our Place in the Universe," "Planetary Landscapes," "The Origin and Meaning of Meteorites," and "Planet Trek." "Shadow Dance: Make and Eclipse" gives students a hands-on opportunity to create different kinds of solar and lunar eclipses. They can activate sensors on the exhibit floor, discover the science behind an eclipse, and learn about eclipse myths, rituals, and celebrations found in many world cultures.
For more information, call 510-336-7300 or visit www.chabotspace.org

Coyote Point Museum for Environmental Education, San Mateo
For more information, call 650-342-7755 or go to www.coyoteptmuseum.org

Exploratorium, San Francisco
For more information go to www.exploratorium.edu

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, San Mateo
Located in Moss Beach (about one hour south of San Francisco), this spectacular stretch of coastline includes a shallow marine shelf that is exposed during low tides. Many interesting marine animals and plants are visible in the pools for watching, photographing, and drawing. Come study and enjoy this rich and complex habitat!.
For more information, call 415-363-4020 or visit www.sfgate.com/getoutside/1996/jun/fitz.html

Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center
The Sanctuary Visitor Center provides unique and engaging programs that allow students to see their connection to ocean habitats and wildlife. Bring your class to the Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuary Visitor Center at the Presidio and you will open up an exciting learning opportunity for your students. Programs are two hours long, interactive, grade specific and correlate to state standards. Students use hands-on exhibits inside the visitor center to discover how senses, life cycles, adaptations, and food webs function in the marine environment. Outside on the beach, students use observational skills to discover what makes this such a fragile world and actions they can take to help protect the ocean.

http://farallones.noaa.gov/education/visitorcenter.html

Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley
at UC Berkeley offers a wide range of homeschool and afterschool programs for individuals in astronomy, biology, physics, math, and chemistry. Also available are weekend workshops and family workshops. http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org

Oakland Museum of California
For more information, call 888-OAKMUSE or visit www.museumca.org
Walk Across California - Take a simulated journey through California's diverse ecosystems, observing plants and animals found from the Pacific coastline to the High Sierra and the inland desert. Exhibits contain approximately 2,500 natural specimens organized around the basic ecological principles highlighting relationships among plants, animals, geology and climate. The Aquatic California Gallery presents an overview of our aquatic environments, including the oceans, rivers, streams and estuaries. Permanent exhibition.

The Outdoor Exploratorium is an NSF-funded project to create a collection of outdoor exhibits dispersed at several partner sites throughout San Francisco. The project will consist of 20 to 25 installations and exhibits that explore the natural phenomena of the immediate environment. Water, wind, sound, and light, in all their complex behaviors, will be foci of investigation. For more information visit: http://www.exploratorium.edu/outdoor/.

Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) Conservation Science: SEA Alcatraz
PRBO Conservation Science offers SEA Alcatraz, a multi-visit classroom and fieldtrip seabird education program focusing on the seabirds of Alcatraz Island for 4th and 5th grade San Francisco classes. The program addresses several Science Content Standards for California Public Schools. For more information visit: http://www.prbo.org/cms/531.

Restoration Programs:
Hands-on stewardship projects, community-based restoration, that engage students in wetland restoration to restore the health and diversity of the Bay ecosystem.
Visit www.saveSFbay.org for more information.

Sacramento Zoo
For more information, call 916-264-5166 or go to www.saczoo.com

Save the Bay
Environmental education field trips for grades 5 and up. Canoes In Sloughs: Canoes In Sloughs opens students’ eyes to a whole new world through an on-the-water learning experience that helps them gain knowledge about and respect for nature and the Bay. In 2001, the program was awarded U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s Excellence in Education Award. http://www.savesfbay.org/

The Tech Museum, San Jose
As the Bay Area’s year-round second classroom, The Tech Museum offers a host of educational opportunities to enhance students’ science and technology studies. School groups are admitted free under our “Free Field Trips” program. Students are encouraged to explore life, Earth and physical science in California curriculum-based, hand-on labs. Educational films featured in our IMAX dome theater supplement classroom learning in physics, geography and paleontology, among other sciences. Free teacher memberships are available to all K-12 public, private, home-school teachers and principals. Visit thetech.org to learn more and to book your visit to the museum. Or call at (408) 294-TECH.

iFly Indoor Skydiving, SF Bay

iFly is offering an exciting, interactive, educational science program for students of all ages. iFly SF Bay, located in Union City, is Northern California's only indoor skydiving facility. Students learn and then apply fundamental physics and physical science concepts in iFly's $8.5 million wind tunnel. The program includes experiments, a physics or physical science lecture, a tour of the facility and a flight in the wind tunnel. For more information contact iFly Program Director, Cailin Creighton, at: cailin@iflysfbay.com or visit the website: http://www.iflysfbay.com.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

The Ocean Institute is a non-profit organization located in Dana Point, California that specializes in marine science and environmental education. Students voyage onto the ocean, study in labs, and hike into the chaparral as they can sort through live specimens, collect scientific data, and investigate the intriguing world around them. Programs vary from one hour in the labs to multiple days at camp or at sea. All curriculum is based on California content standards. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.ocean-institute.org/ or call (949) 496-2274.

The new Columbia Memorial Space Center is a unique space science learning center located in Downey, California. Focusing on engineering, technology and science, our goal is to teach young people about space exploration and aviation with fun, hands-on experiences. Located at 12400 Columbia Way, Downey, CA. 90242. Visit Columbiaspacescience.org or call 562-231-1200 for more information.

The Santa Ana Watershed Association is a non-profit organization that provides FREE interactive field trips to students in the Santa Ana watershed area (San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange Counties). Our standards aligned field trips focus on water and water conservation. Busing grants are also available. Please visit our website for more information www.sawaedu.org.

Discovery Science Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating young minds, assisting teachers and increasing public understanding of science, math, and technology through interactive exhibits and programs. 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana, CA 92705; 714-542-2823. Visit their website at http://www.discoverycube.org/.

Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium
offers marine biology and environmental education programs for K-12 students and their teachers. Field trips include informal educator presentations both inside the aquarium and on the beach just outside its doors.
Classes are based on the California science standards, are two hours in length, and are offered weekdays at 9:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. The fee is $150 for a maximum of 60 students; teachers are free. For reservations call 310-393-6149, ext. 105.

The Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden at UCLA is a living museum comprised of over 5,000 species of plants from all over the world. The garden offers free docent-led school tours for grades 1-12 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 am to 2 pm, providing an exciting adjunct to science and social studies curriculum. As part of its written confirmation package, the garden sends teachers free pre-tour guides for grades 2-12 school groups to use in reparing students for their visit to the garden. Follow-up guides are given to the teadher at the conclusion of the tour. See www.botgard.ucla.edu or call (310) 825-1260.

Nanotechnology "Chip Camps" are available to small groups of motivated students and their teachers. A chip camp is an intensive hands-on, inquiry-based learning experience in nanotechnology. High school students spend either 1, 3, or 5 days in a teaching clean room facility, learning tricks of light and chemicals to make a tiny microresistor. Longer camps are available, and funding is available to cover expenses to the University of California, Santa Barbara. Contact Angela Berenstein at berenstein@ece.uscb.edu or call (805) 893-5999. For more information see http://www.nanotech.ucsb.edu/NanotechNew/education/CHIPCAMP.html

Natural History Museum of LA County
Formore information, call 213-763-3534 or go to www.nhm.org

The 310-acre UCLA Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve, an outdoor classroom and living laboratory for environmental education and research, lies in the Cold Creek watershed of the Santa Monica mountains. The reserve has forged a partnership with UCLA and K-12 education in the greater Los Angeles area and offers 3-hour school programs focusing on chaparral and fire ecology, geology, and early local Native American and homestead history. The 1.5 mile hike introduces students to Chumash village life, including acorn grinding, cave wall painting, playing of Chumash games, and demonstrations of tool making. The reserve is accessible by prior permission only. Teachers interested in booking docent-led tours should call the MRT office at (818) 591-1701, ext. 130. Free curriculum guides are available at http://nrs.ucop.edu/reserves/stunt.html.

iFly Indoor Skydiving, Hollywood

iFly is offering an exciting, interactive, educational science program for students of all ages. iFly Hollywood, located on the Universal CityWalk, is LA's only indoor skydiving facility. Students learn and then apply fundamental physics and physical science concepts in iFly's multi-million dollar wind tunnel. The program includes experiments, a physics or physical science lecture, a tour of the facility and a flight in the wind tunnel. For more information contact iFly Program Director, Cailin Creighton, at: education@iflyhollywood.com or visit the website: http://www.iflyhollywood.com.

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