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Class trips

Here are some citywide opportunities for teachers to supplement traditional classroom instruction with hands on, experiential learning for their students. See a list of current offerings below, organized by borough. 

Museum of Natural History field trip

Bronx

  • Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum
    Through touch-tours, open-ended inquiry challenges, craft projects, and interactive games, Bartow Pell’s curriculum-rich sessions build critical thinking and evidential reasoning skills that benefit students across disciplines.
  • Bronx River Alliance
    The Bronx River Alliance's Education Program helps schools and community organizations use the river as a classroom, engaging youth and adults in a variety of enjoyable and educational activities. The Alliance provides teachers with training, curriculum consulting, lesson plans, equipment and supplies to support students in becoming river doctors, scientists and more.
  • Bronx Zoo
    The WCS Education Department offers a variety of standards-based learning experiences at our parks and at schools.
  • Rocking the Boat
    Rocking the Boat's On-Water Classroom exposes students to the joy of rowing and the ecological diversity of the Bronx River.
  • Wave Hill
    Immerse your class in nature as you explore Wave Hill’s glorious gardens and woodlands. An experienced educator leads your class in outdoor exploration and hands-on activities that help students at all levels make meaningful connections to the environment.

Brooklyn

  • 826 NYC storytelling and bookmaking
    826NYC hosts classes across New York City for Write Together: an interactive writing experience that encourages creative expression, explore the elements of storytelling and strengthens writing skills. Elementary and middle school classes collaborate on illustrated children’s books, middle schoolers can choose their own adventure with multi-ending stories, and high schoolers learn the art of memoir writing during a fast-paced and whimsical 90-minute narrative program. The Write Together program is now available as either a virtual workshop or an in-person field trip to a "secret library." Read about a 2nd-grade class trip to the Secret Library »
  • Aviator Sports and Events Center
    This 175,000-square-foot facility has two regulation NHL ice rinks, a 20,000-square-foot field house, a gymnastics center, a rock wall and two outdoor fields. Groups can participate in basketball, volleyball, soccer, gymnastics, ice skating, flag football, rock climbing, team-building activities, swimming and bubble soccer.
  • Brooklyn Botanic Garden
    Registered school groups can visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for free. The Garden also offers 90-minute guided workshop programs for students in pre-K through 8th grade ($150 per class; a discount is available for Title I schools) to help students explore trees, plants and flowers.
  • Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy
    The Conservancy offers a variety of programs for children in grades K-12, with topics including the ecology of Brooklyn Bridge Park, engineering, geological formations, sustainability and more.
  • Brooklyn Children's Museum
    The Brooklyn Children's Museum offers on-site school programs as well as "Museum on the Go" art, culture, math and science curriculum kits that can be used in your classroom. A limited number of free school programs for Title I schools are available.
  • Brooklyn Navy Yard
    BLDG 92 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard partners with the Brooklyn Historical Society to offer free education programs. Students visiting the Brooklyn Navy Yard will learn to think like historians and engineers through hands-on investigation of Brooklyn’s material culture, art and written documents. Read about a 3rd-grade class trip to the Brooklyn Navy Yard »
  • Brooklyn Robot Foundry
    Show your students the wonder of building robots with workshops on simple circuits, vibration, switches, LEDs and more.
  • Environmental Study Center
    This 7,000-square-foot learning center in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn, is home to over 200 living organisms, four learning labs, an outdoor learning space with a pond habitat and urban garden, and a greenhouse laboratory.
  • New York Aquarium
    Classes, group tours and self-guided tours are available for all grades.
  • New York Transit Museum
    Led by a staff of skilled educators, school programs complement curricular exploration of the New York City history, the engineering sciences, the mathematics and art of subway and station design, and the urban landscape.
  • Newtown Creek Alliance
    The Newtown Creek Alliance offers guided tours through the Newtown Creek watershed focusing on the history, industrial use and environment challenges in the area.
  • Prospect Park Zoo
    Guided tours on themes including animal adaptations, animal families, animal defenses, diets and habits are available. Self-guided tours and classes are also offered.
  • Waterfront Museum
    Docked in Red Hook, Brooklyn, this floating classroom helps students learn about geography, history, social studies and science aboard the last remaining covered wooden barge.
  • Weeksville Heritage Center
    Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn’s largest African-American cultural institution, is a multidisciplinary museum dedicated to preserving the history of the 19th-century African American community of Weeksville, Brooklyn — one of America’s first free black communities.
  • Wyckoff House Museum
    The Wyckoff House Museum preserves, interprets, and operates New York City’s oldest building and the surrounding one-and-a-half acres of park. Through innovative educational and farm-based programs it builds cultural and agricultural connections within our community, emphasizing immigration, family, food, and community through history.

Manhattan

  • American Museum of Natural History
    The Museum of Natural History is a top field trip destination in New York City: amazing new exhibits, over 32 million objects in their permanent collections, and exceptional programs, resources and classes for students and teachers. 
  • Asia Society and Museum
    Building on the idea of the Museum as an extension of the classroom, Asia Society offers interactive guided tours for school groups in grades 3–12. In the galleries, teachers and students can learn about the works of art on view, discuss how art relates to their own experiences, and discover what’s new and compelling about art today.
  • Battery Urban Farm
    Explore The Battery with lesson materials covering agriculture, urban ecosystems, nutrition and history.
  • Cathedral of St. John the Divine
    This landmark building offers numerous field trips aligned with state standards, some free, for NYC schools. Programs are available in architecture and geometry, medieval journeys, immigration, shapes and patterns, world religions, civic engagement and more.
  • Center for Architecture
    The Center for Architecture offers hands-on workshops at its SoHo location and school-based residency programs for K-12 students.
  • Central Park Zoo
    Self-guided tours, guided tours and classes are available.
  • Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Center
    This 80,000-square-foot center offers a variety of sports activities, including soccer, rock climbing, gymnastics, basketball and more.
  • Children's Museum of Manhattan
    The museum’s theme-based, 90-minute guided group visits for grades K-8 are led by a museum educator and include a tour of a thematic exhibition and a hands-on arts workshop. In-school residency programs are also available.
  • Cooper Hewitt Design
    Cooper Hewitt offers two free design programs for K-12 students. 
  • Democracy Now!
    Give students an opportunity to visit a news studio control room to view a live taping of Democracy Now!, followed by a discussion about independent news and investigative journalism. Trips are free.
  • Drawing Center
    This SoHo center offers two free programs for K-12 students, comprised of on-site and in-school activities. The experience includes a guided tour and hands-on projects.
  • El Museo del Barrio
    El Museo del Barrio offers guided tours of the museum as well as walking tours of the surrounding neighborhood, both of which allow students to participate in sketching, movement and writing activities.
  • Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration
    On ranger-led programs, students in grades 3-12 can play the role of newly arrived immigrants. Self-guided activities for grades 2-12 are also available.
  • Empire State Building
    The Empire State Building offers lesson plans connecting to social studies, science and technology, history and geography, as well as a virtual tour.
  • Governors Island Teaching Garden
    In April through October, students will rotate through hands-on stations that typically include a farm tour, planting or farm work activity, cooking or harvesting and tasting activity, and possible fourth mini-lesson. 
  • Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum
    The Intrepid offers social, studies, history and science programs for students in pre-K through 12th grade.
  • Merchant's House Museum
    The landmark Merchant's House, preserved intact, offers an authentic glimpse into life in the mid-19th century. Students explore four floors of period rooms.
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Guided tours and self-guided group admission are available. Guided tour topics include exploring art across cultures, stories and legends, faces and masks and art explorations of particular locations and time periods.
  • Metropolitan Opera
    Access Opera engages students with the unforgettable experience of watching a performance live on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House and provides teachers with resources for drawing connections across literature, social studies, foreign language, and the arts
  • Morgan Library and Museum
    Explore curriculum in the sciences and humanities through direct observation of primary sources, such as Mesopotamian seals and tablets, medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, rare printed books, master drawings and period architecture. Read a New York Teacher article about a 5th-grade class trip to the Morgan »
  • Morris-Jumel Mansion
    Tour "Manhattan's oldest house" and learn about the Revolutionary War, life in the 18th and 19th centuries, slavery, archaeology and more.
  • Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
    The Museum of Jewish Heritage is New York’s home for Holocaust education. Tours focus on various topics including issues of cultural identity and heritage, the Jewish immigrant experience, Israel and more.
  • National Archives
    The National Archives offers free trips that explore rich primary sources.
  • National Jazz Museum
    Educational tours and in-gallery workshops at this museum in Harlem allow participants to engage deeply with jazz history and discover timeless lessons of creativity, vision and collaboration.
  • National Museum of Mathematics
    Experience the joys, wonders, and beauty of math at the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath), the only museum dedicated to math in North America. At MoMath, teachers and students from pre-K through high school and beyond are able to explore more than 30 memorable, interactive exhibits designed to make math accessible and fun. Classes are also able to participate in MoMath’s many activities and workshops that bring math to life in exciting and innovative ways. Read a New York Teacher article about a class trip to the Museum of Math »
  • New York City Center for Aerospace and Applied Mathematics
    The New York City Center for Aerospace and Applied Mathematics increases students’ interest and excitement about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) through space and aviation science. Through hands-on activities that simulate real world experiences, students in grades K–12 apply math and science concepts learned in the classroom while working together to solve authentic problems. 
  • New York City Fire Museum
    The museum, in conjunction with the New York City Fire Department, operates a world-class fire safety education program designed to teach participants how to prevent fires within the home and how to protect themselves and escape should a fire occur. The program consists of two components— classroom training and a simulated fire event in a mock home environment.
  • New-York Historical Society
    Bring your students on a trip to the oldest museum in New York! Whether they are visiting a special exhibition or our beautifully redesigned permanent collection galleries, students will be actively engaged with the stuff of history — the artifacts, works of art, and documents that provide a window onto our collective past.
  • New York Improv Theatre
    Interactive shows and workshops entertain audiences with creative comedy arts.
  • Paley Center for Media
    Using programs from the collection of television and radio recordings as a means of illustration and investigation, Paley Center educators lead sessions on a wide range of subjects such as advertising, the documentary form, and the civil rights movement. Inquiry-based classes seek to build analytical thinking, viewing, and listening skills and attempt to provide insight into the roles television and radio play in our culture.
  • Rubin Museum of Art
    Explore Himalayan Asia here in New York! Guided tours at the Rubin help K–12 students develop visual literacy and critical-thinking skills through engaging, inquiry-based discussions. Read a New York Teacher article about a 1st-grade trip to the Rubin »
  • South Street Seaport Museum
    South Street Seaport Museum tells the story of how New York’s great natural harbor gave rise to the metropolis we know today. Dockside programs combine indoor and outdoor hands-on activities to show how the science of the harbor affects how we live today.
  • Tenement Museum
    Through interactive tours of the tenement building and Lower East Side neighborhood, students investigate universal themes of cultural identity, discrimination, and human rights.
  • Whitney Museum of American Art
    In free guided visits, students will learn to think critically, look closely and consider how art can be a voice for expressing different ideas. 

Queens

  • Alley Pond Environmental Center
    Alley Pond's class workshops are available on a variety of topics, from invertebrate animals to ecosystems to seasonal species to ecology.
  • Bayside Historical Society
    At its historic "Castle" building at Fort Totten, Bayside History Society offers a variety of hands-on programs for students in grades K through 12 that teach what life was like in Queens more than a century ago.
  • King Manor Museum
    Programs focus on life and work at King Manor in Jamaica, Queens, in the 19th century and the history of the King family in early America and the anti-slavery movement.
  • Louis Armstrong House Museum
    The Louis Armstrong House Museum sustains and promotes the cultural, historical, and humanitarian legacy of Louis Armstrong by preserving and interpreting Armstrong’s house and grounds and collecting and sharing archival materials that document Armstrong’s life and legacy. Read a New York Teacher article about a middle school class trip to the Louis Armstrong House »
  • Materials for the Arts
    The Education Center at Materials for the Arts in Long Island City, Queens, offers programming focused on creative reuse: making art with readily available materials and the ever-changing MFTA warehouse inventory. The Center hosts field trips programs for students and P-Credit courses for teachers in two classroom studios, organizes exhibitions of artwork at MFTA Gallery, and sends teaching artists into schools to share reuse techniques.
  • Museum of the Moving Image
    Exhibition tours, film and television screenings, and hands-on workshops help you teach the core curriculum with the support of a dynamic and interactive environment.
  • New York Hall of Science
    The Hall of Science offers school workshops and programs for all ages, as well as an on-the-go option. Students can learn about design, ecosystems, STEM and more. 
  • Queens County Farm Museum
    This 47-acre farm, the oldest continuously farmed site in New York State, includes historic farm buildings, a greenhouse complex, livestock, farm vehicles and implements, planting fields, an orchard and herb garden. Read a New York Teacher article about a kindergarten field trip to the farm »
  • Queens Historical Society
    The Queens Historical Society offers walking tours of historic sites in Flushing, archaeology workshops, workshops about the Underground Railroad and more.
  • Queens Museum
    The Queens Museum provides pre-K–12 students with fun learning experiences that integrate in-depth observation and interpretation of art and historical exhibits, and hands-on art-making activities.
  • Queens Public Library
    Visit one of their 63 community libraries for student library cards, summer meals, activities for all ages, clubs for teens, as well as books, magazines, ebooks and other media in many languages and formats -- all for free.
  • Queens Zoo
    The Queens Zoo offers guided tours on themes including adaptations, habitats and diets, birds, mammals and domestic animals. Classes and self-guided tours are also available.
  • Vander Ende Onderdonk House
    At the oldest Dutch Colonial stone house in New York City, students can tour the house and grounds, see a slide presentation on early New York history and participate in a colonial craft activity.
  • Voelker Orth Museum
    The Voelker Orth Museum occupies an 1890s immigrant family's house in Flushing, Queens and offers a variety of history, science and art programs. Read a New York Teacher article about a 1st-grade class trip to the Voelker Orth Museum »

Staten Island

  • Historic Richmond Town
    Using history and culture as a foundation, the museum explores the roles and lives of men, women, and children throughout the centuries. School tours and workshops are available.
  • Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanic Garden
    Snug Harbor on Staten Island offers four 90-minute outdoor tour varieties: New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden, Wetlands, Snug Harbor Pastoral Grounds and Gardens, and Snug Harbor Heritage Farm. Each tour may be paired with a class; topics include Chinese calligraphy, wetlands, the water cycle and more.
  • Staten Island Children's Museum
    Guided by a museum educator, students will learn through hands-on experience. 
  • Staten Island Museum
    School and educator programs use the Staten Island Museum’s collection and exhibitions to create a forum for ideas, debate, and exchange. Programs at the Museum and in the classroom offer students and teachers an interdisciplinary and hands-on learning experience.
  • Staten Island Zoo
    The Staten Island Zoo offers animal presentations with topics including animals and folklore, ecosystems, rainforest, safaris and more. Traveling zoo programs are also available.