It makes little difference if your elementary school is in the heart of Manhattan or the prairies of South Dakota, or if you have major funding or a shoestring budget.  You can deviate from the usual classroom curriculum by offering innovative and inexpensive off-site alternatives that spark student interest and yours, too.  Such informal activities can be structured as isolated projects -- a one-day excursion to a nearby attraction -- or integrated into a broader class plan that includes pre- and post-trip assignments.  With a host of resources on the Internet to help you along, any field trip can be a learning experience and not just play time.

Parks, Zoos, Aquaria, and More

     Kids love exploring nature, so you can't go wrong with excursions that highlight colorful plants and scary animals and rock-dwelling creepy crawly things.  Take advantage of what is locally available -- any generic park or pond or wildlife area will do -- and adapt existing off-site class plans to the unique attractions in your own community.

     Begin your planning at the National Park Service website, a comprehensive resource that offers teachers hundreds of detailed activities and tools through the "Parks as Classrooms" program.  Follow the links from "Park Smart" to "The Learning Place" to "Curriculum-Based Education Programs" to find pre- and post-field trip ideas, as well tips for making the visit itself a meaningful experience. 

     There are three excellent supplements to the NPS site.  Project Learning Tree, the National Wildlife Federation, and the Environmental Protection Agency all provide environmental education links to curricula, activities, kits, audio-visual aids, and print materials.  In addition, the EPA site lists community service projects and opportunities for teacher grants and awards.

     When you've returned from exploring a park, perhaps your students would benefit from a hands-on experience.  How about creating a schoolyard habitat?  You'll find grade-level gardening projects and information on everything from worms to herbs to greenhouses to hydroponics at www.kidsgardening.com, the National Gardening Association's website. Search the Teachers' Resource Room for a list of gardening grants, as well as recommendations by education specialists on age-appropriate gardening reading material.  To get your habitat started, register in the "Garden in Every School" program and receive free seeds from the America the Beautiful Fund.  From there, go to www.letsgetgrowing.com to register for a free catalog full of hands-on educational products.

     Everything you want to know about zoos can be found at  Zoonet, an impressive site with education resources on the official zoo pages as well as on pages devoted to botanical and zoological gardens.  There is also a large image archive with animal pictures and galleries-perfect for those pre- and post-field trip reports-and a link to the WWW Virtual Library of Zoos.

     "Using Zoos in Schools:  A How-to Guide" and freebies for teachers may be accessed at the Teacher Tidbits link at the Zooary website.  Find zoo class plans, including "Zoo Trips", "Zoo Tips", and "Zoo Snooze", in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, at www.thewildones.org, home of the Children's Education Project of Wildlife Preservation Trust International.  While there, take advantage of the excellent teachers' message board to compare notes and share curricula.

     Friends of the National Zoo has several relevant curriculum links:  "Using the Zoo to Teach Life Science and other Subjects", "Zoo-Based Teacher Training", "Planning Your Visit", and "Resources to Use at the Zoo", which can all be found at the Teachers Resource Guide.

     For integrative curriculum resources, go to zooish.com, an interactive site that lets nature come alive with animation, sound, and movement.  Check out the headlines here, too, for breaking science news that is up-dated every 15 minutes.

     Visit the Acorn Naturalists website for the scoop on everything aquatic.  You'll find teaching how-to's on a wide array of topics -- rivers, ponds, creeks, wetlands, watersheds, fossils, stones, and swamps -- perfect for fashioning your individualized field trip to the geography of your community.  Go from there to the ExplorA-Pond ecology website for the "Pond Action" link to hundreds of science and math pond activities for K-6.  While there, don't forget to register your class for the Adopt-A-Pond educational project.

     The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's website has a "Specially for Teachers" link with background reference material for field trips on marine mammals, fish, oceans and coasts, and climate.  Be sure to apply for the NOAA's Teacher at Sea Program which gives K-5 teachers an opportunity to serve in a research capacity aboard NOAA ships.

     Sea World and Busch Gardens offers online grade-level teachers' guides at www.seaworld.org.  Integrating science, math, geography, and language the class plans suggest goals and provide vocabularies, experiments, and bibliographies.  From there, head to the Sea and Sky website for links, resources, news, and games about the sea.  Learn how to start a classroom aquarium -- a great post-field trip activity -- at Aquarium Resources.  Enjoy the electronic field trip that explores the sea.

     There is a teachers' guide at Under the Sea which provides pre-field trip background material and facts on oceanography, fish, and marine mammals.  Also check out the "Teachers' Resources" link for a list of books, videos, and movies on marine topics.

     Dozens of links to class plans on ocean-based activities can be found at The Bridge website, especially at the Elementary Resources. Similar educational materials can be found at Ocean Planet.

     The Oceans Thematic Unit for Primary Grades, a collaborative effort by College of Library and Information Science students at the University of South Carolina, provides a wide variety of classroom activities and resources.  You'll also find project ideas about Whales and links to whale-watching field trips all over the world.

More Ideas

     When you've exhausted nature activities, turn to the following general web sites for hundreds of other out-of-the-classroom ideas: 

1. Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education  

2. National Association of Year-Round Education  

3. Organization for Community Networks

4. Saskatchewan Education's On Line Bibliographies

5. National Science Teachers Association

6. Resources for Environmental Education

7. Education Resources Information Center 

8. Teachers First 

9. The Gateway to Education Materials

10.  Education World

Kathleen Wildasin is a freelance writer for magazines, newsletters, and websites. Her unpublished medical thriller, XENOGRAFT, and short stories have received recognition in national competitions. She lives in Lexington, KY, with her husband, and can be reached at kwildasin@home.com.

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