Exploring the Smithsonian: A Virtual Field Trip Through the National Museum of Natural History

Virtual Field Trip Blog Post

For this week's virtual field trip, I decided to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. I picked it because I like museums and wanted to see if the virtual version was actually worth doing or just something to check off.

The museum itself is massive, with over 145 million specimens and artifacts, and the virtual tour lets you walk through it room by room from your phone or computer. You can also look at old exhibits that are not even on display anymore, which I thought was a nice touch. For anyone who cannot make it to D.C., this is a pretty good alternative.

The tour works a lot like Google Street View where you click arrows to move through rooms and tap on artifacts to zoom in and read about them. I started in the Sant Ocean Hall and then went through the fossil exhibits and the Hope Diamond. The biggest thing I noticed was that I actually slowed down and read things, which I do not usually do at a real museum. I spent close to ten minutes on one display about early mammals, which is more time than I would have given it in person.

The best part about this experience is that it is free and accessible to anyone with internet. There are no accounts to make or ads to sit through, it just works. That is especially useful for students who cannot travel or students with disabilities who may have a harder time visiting in person.

The one thing it is missing is the social side of it. There is no guide, no one pointing things out to you, and it can feel a little isolated doing it alone. Some of the zoomed-in images were also a little blurry, which was a minor issue.

As a future educator, I can see using this in a classroom in a few different ways. A science teacher could assign students to explore one hall and write a reflection on something they found interesting. You could also build a scavenger hunt around specific artifacts and pair it with a Padlet or discussion board to bring back the social element.

In conclusion, the virtual tour does not fully replace going to the museum in person, but it gives students access to a world-class experience no matter where they are or what their family can afford. That is something worth using in a classroom, and I plan to keep it in mind when I have my own students one day.