Field Trip Add-Ons

Looking to make the most of your field trip? Check out our Field Trip Add-Ons to request these additional reservations for your students' visit! 

These guided programs, temporary exhibitions, and performances listed below are add-ons for school visits. All of these special opportunities have capacity limitations and require an additional reservation made in advance (at least two weeks prior to your visit date) when booking your onsite field trip. Field trip add-on requests are not guaranteed and are based on availability and capacity. Some add-on experiences have costs associated.

*Policy for Field Trip Add-on Equity: To provide an equitable museum experience for all school visitors, we require that all students in your order be booked into any add-on reservation. Additionally, schools are limited to only one add-on per visit (pending availability and capacity) to ensure equal opportunity to all interested school groups booking a field trip to the Museum.

Please note: To prioritize student accessibility to special experiences, chaperones may not be included in add-on reservations (i.e. Butterfly or Spider Pavilion). Check your confirmation to see if your group is booked for any add-ons.

Guided Programs

Guided programs are engaging, hands-on experiences designed for your students' grade level and led by Museum Educators. Available at 10 am and 11 am, Monday–Wednesday, *October 7–December 11 with advanced reservations. 

Cost: Free!

*Pond Life is available starting November 8

Windows Into Nature

Take a deep-dive into one of our many North American animals! Through different animal stories, students will learn about a specific animal and how it lives. Then, we'll find our animal thought a scavenger hunt in the museum. Our educators will lead interactive discussions through dialogic reading and Visual Thinking Strategies of our corresponding animal diorama. Students will also have the chance to touch an artifact from their animal, like a porcupine quill or a coyote pelt! 

GRADE LEVELS: Grades Pre-K–1

DURATION: 30–40 minutes

LOCATION: Diorama Halls (indoors)

CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)

TOPICS RELATED TO STANDARDS: 

• Structure and function of natural and unnatural things
• Growth and development of organisms

Growing Home

Come learn about insect habitats in our Nature Gardens! Drawing upon what young students already know about what animals need to survive, this hands-on and exploratory activity allows students to discover what a habitat is and what insects need to survive. In our Edible Garden, students will have the opportunity to discuss their ideas about habitats, find examples of what bugs need in a garden scavenger hunt, and build their own bug home out of natural materials.

GRADE LEVELS: Grades Pre-K–1

DURATION: 30–40 minutes

LOCATION: Nature Gardens (outdoors and weather-dependent)

CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)

TOPICS RELATED TO STANDARDS: 

• Habitat: All animals need food, water, shelter, and space to live and grow
• Natural and designed systems have parts that work together
• Structure and function of natural and unnatural things
• Growth and development of organisms

Fossil Detectives

Solve the mystery! What were ancient animals like when they were alive? Through observation and questioning, students will investigate fossil animals and their habitat to find the answer. Our guides will lead students to practice coming up with hypotheses and recording ideas in a field journal, just like real paleontologists! The foundation of this program comes from a method known as Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). For more information on VTS, visit vtshome.org.

GRADE LEVELS: Grades 2–5

DURATION: 45–50 minutes

LOCATION: Dinosaur Hall or Age of Mammals (indoors)

CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)

STANDARDS:

• Common Core ELA: Speaking and Listening 2–5.1 and 2–5.6; Language 2–5.1, 2–5.4, and 2–5.6
• NGSS: Crosscutting Concepts (1, 6), Science and Engineering Principles (6–8), Disciplinary Core Idea LS2, LS3, LS4

Pond Life

Discover the diversity of pond life! Students will explore the many specimens in our Nature Gardens pond by using scientific observation skills. Our guides will lead students to safely collect and document macro-invertebrates in our pond, just like real scientists! Students will have the chance to use authentic tools like magnifying glasses and field guides to learn more about the unique wildlife that lives here in Los Angeles.

GRADE LEVELS: Grades 2–5

DURATION: 45–50 minutes

LOCATION: Nature Gardens (outdoors & weather-dependent)

CAPACITY: 16 per time slot (4 time slots per day)

TOPICS RELATED TO STANDARDS:

• Ecosystems/Systems: Interdependence of organisms, factors necessary for life, adaptation and evolution due to changes in an
  environment, energy flow within a system
• Biodiversity: There are many different living things in any given area, and many places (on land and in water) in which they live
• Structure and function in both natural and unnatural things
• Role of water in earth’s surface processes and life
• Growth and development is essential in every kind of organism and plants/animals have diverse life cycles

Backyard Biodiversity

Discover biodiversity here in Los Angeles! Using scientific practices, our guides will lead students to safely collect, observe, record, and identify insects in our NHM Nature Gardens. Students will have the chance to use authentic tools like magnifying glasses and field guides to learn more about the unique wildlife in their city through this insect survey. 

GRADE LEVELS: Grades 6–12

DURATION: 50–60 minutes

LOCATION: Nature Gardens (outdoors & weather-dependent)

CAPACITY: 16 per time slot (4 time slots per day)

TOPICS RELATED TO STANDARDS:

• Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Organisms are dependent on their interactions with other living things and require certain resources to survive
• Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience: Ecosystems are dynamic in nature and their character can change over time. Disruptions to physical or biological components can lead to shifts in population
• Biodiversity and Humans: Changes in biodiversity can influence resources for humans. Also: Human dependence and impact on natural resources.
• Cause and Effect/Stability and Change
   

Performances and Shows

Dinosaur Encounters

Dinosaur Encounters are live 20-minute interactive puppet shows provided by our Performing Arts team.

 Available at 10:30 am and 11:30 am on Fridays with advanced reservations August 23–September 27, 2024.

Cost: Free! 

Grades 1–5 | 15–20 minutes
Watch dinosaurs come to life! Go back in time and learn about the lives of dinosaurs featuring NHM’s life-sized, realistic T. rex and Triceratops puppets. Located in the Level 2 North American Mammal Hall. Capacity: 150 per performance, 2 shows per day.

Please note: These are not small hand puppets! The Museum's puppets are very large, realistic interpretations of wild animals, and we recommend specific grade levels for this performance. Prepare small children accordingly. Learn more about Dinosaur Encounters and our Performing Arts team.

Ocean Encounters

Ocean Encounters are live 20-minute interactive puppet shows provided by our Performing Arts team.

 Available at 10 am, 11 am & 12 pm on Fridays with advanced reservations November 22–December 31, 2024.

Grades 1–8 | 15–20 minutes

Cost: $3 per ticket

Making a splash in our theater this November, Ocean Encounters will plunge our audiences into the primeval seas. Everyone will become a deep-sea explorer as they marvel at Mosasaurs, play with Plesiosaurs, and bask in glowing bioluminescence! 

Please note: These are not small hand puppets! The Museum's puppets are very large, realistic interpretations of wild animals, and we recommend specific grade levels for this performance. Prepare small children accordingly. Learn more about Dinosaur Encounters and our Performing Arts team here.

T-Rex 3D Film

 Available every 40 min 10 am–1 pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and at 12 pm Wednesdays with advanced reservations starting November 21, 2024 (excluding school breaks).

Grades 2+| 15–20 minutes

Cost: $3 per ticket

For over a hundred years dinosaurs have inspired and thrilled audiences, commanding blockbuster status in museums and at the box office. But among them towers a king — a tyrant lizard king. With leaps in CGI wizardry and revolutions in tyrannosaur paleontology over the past twenty five years, the time has come to revisit rex in the world’s prestigious museum cinemas. 

Working with top tyrannosaur scientists, a coalition of natural history institutions, and pioneering paleo and visual effects artists, GSF’s original giant screen production on this iconic dinosaur — and its carnivorous Cretaceous cousins — aims to be the most dazzling and accurate T. rex documentary ever made.

With hat tips to famous specimens, landmark discoveries, and wild cinematic depictions over the last century, the film will explore the interplay between speculation and evidence, and reveal how the process of science refreshes and reimagines our understanding of this legendary dinosaur. 

Temporary Exhibitions

Temporary exhibitions are self-guided opportunities to explore reservation-only spaces in the Museum. These popular exhibits have space limitations and require an additional reservation. While you and your group would be exploring the exhibit on your own, we have free downloadable Learning Resources (including activities, videos, lesson plans, teacher guides, and more!) to help you prepare an itinerary for your time in the exhibits. Exhibit dates vary; please view descriptions for details.

Spider Pavilion

All Grades 

Cost: $3 per ticket
Discover the secret beauty of spiders as they freely spin webs, lay eggs, and eat in our Pavilion garden! Available from 10 am–12 pm, Monday–Friday, September 16–November 22, 2024 with advanced reservations and payment. Capacity: 30 per time slot. Access to this outdoor exhibit is weather-dependent.
 

Permanent Exhibitions

Looking for other spaces to explore inside (and outside!) the Museum? Learn more about our permanent exhibitions and see all that your students can discover on their field trip—no additional reservations for school groups required!