Running Header: Virtual Fieldtrip Paper

Virtual Science Fieldtrip Reflection Paper

Victoria Waller
Ivy Tech Community College

Running Header: Virtual Fieldtrip Paper

InTASC Standard, Description and Rationale

Standard #7: Planning for Instruction

The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by
drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as
well as knowledge of learners and the community context.

Name of Artifact: Virtual Science Fieldtrip Reflection Paper

Date: February 25, 2016
Course: EDUC 255: Multicultural Teaching
Brief Description:
In this assignment, I created a reflection on a virtual field trip of the Smithsonian National
Museum of Natural History, and created ways to include it into a science lesson plan. I reflected
and review the virtual tour and brain stormed ideas to link it to local and global science ideas.
Rationale:
To show my understanding of standard #7, Planning for Instruction, I chose to include my Virtual
Science Fieldtrip Reflection Paper. This reflection shows that I will support every student in
meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas and crossdisciplinary skills. In the future I would like to include a chart to show lesson ideas that will
work well with visual, auditory, and tactile learners.

Running Header: Virtual Fieldtrip Paper

Virtual Field Trips can be a great way to get your students minds exploring things away
from the classroom without actually leaving the classroom. Smithsonian National Museum of
Natural History Virtual Tour is a great experience for all ages. The tour starts out in the entrance
of the Museum and works its way throughout the three floors with ease. It has excellent picture
quality and always includes up close pictures of the most special artifacts. I have never been to
the Smithsonian, but now I feel like I could tell someone all about it. At the top of the screen you
can pick a floor and an area of the Museum you would like to explore. At the bottom of the
screen you can zoom in on objects to view and read their caption, as well as, look about the
room. I loved being able to look every way around me including the view of the ceiling, which in
spots had life sized animals hanging from it! It is nice that you can go on the tour in your own
time. You can enjoy talking your time exploring every object at your own pace allowing for
discussion in-between objects. You truly feel like you are at the Museum getting to real life in
person experience.
There are many ways in which this assignment could be used in the classroom. You could
have each or your students pick a certain animal or object and research it more, then write about
their findings or explain their findings to the rest of the class. Another idea would be to act out a
story about some of the prehistoric animals or people. You, the teacher can pick the animals and
have the children act out the way they became extinct. Another great thing you can do is have the
children explore the virtual tour and find a word or phrase they dont quite understand on one of the
captions. You can then have them look it up in the encyclopedia or dictionary and help them
understand the meaning. A great science lesson could include the children learning a bit about
animal classification. Depending on how old the children are you can have them classify any of the
animals on the virtual tour into species, invertebrates or vertebrates, cold blooded or warm blooded,

Running Header: Virtual Fieldtrip Paper

and whether they are mammals, insects, fish, etc. Thinking science, introduce children to different
landscapes and the people who inhabit them. Take the desert for instance. Show them pictures of
deserts then show them the Western Cultures 3 exhibit on the first floor of the Museum. Explain to
them that the ancient mummies lived in the Desert and built many things from the sand and clay.
You could expand on this topic by talking about the weather in the desert compared to where we
live. Compare their houses to our houses. In the tour there are many areas on ocean life. Have the
children make a small model of the ocean or a tide pool. Dioramas are always a lot of fun for kids
that like to work with their hands. Use the idea of weather and link it to global warming. Do the
children know what this is and how is it affecting the Artic (globally), as well as, where we live
(locally). Whatever you choose make sure you include all the childrens learning styles to make
learning fun!

Running Header: Virtual Fieldtrip Paper

5
References

Ybarrondo, L. (n.d.). NMNH - Virtual Tour. Retrieved February 25, 2016, from
http://naturalhistory.si.edu/vtp/1-desktop/