Bring the outdoors into your classroom or home with our Virtual Field Trips!
Each program is 45-60 minutes in length.
View the current program fees.
or email us at itoregistration@ocde.us
Shipley Nature Center: Jr. Ecosystem Explorers Kindergarten
NGSS Standards Supported: K-ESS2-2
What are some ways that animals can change their environment to meet their needs? Students virtually explore Shipley Nature Center, an ecological sanctuary found in Huntington Beach, as they make observations of the different ways animals can change the environments in which they live.
Shipley Nature Center: Ecosystem Explorers
First Grade
NGSS Standards Supported: 1-LS1-1
Can living things inspire invention? Ecosystem Explorers encourages students to examine how scientists are inspired by the natural world's ability to solve problems. During their virtual field trip, students will have the opportunity to participate in engaging discussions and design their own invention based on their observations of the unique structures of living things found throughout Shipley Nature Center.
Wild Wetlands
Second Grade
NGSS Standards Supported: 2-LS4-1
What plants and animals share your neighborhood? Are they the same plants and animals that live in other places? While virtually exploring one of Orange County's hotspots for biodiversity, Upper Newport Bay, students will make observations and collect data to determine if patterns exist between what is living on the land and in the water.
Prado Constructed Wetlands: Radical Riparian Restoration
Third Grade
NGSS Standards Supported: 3-LS4-4
What are some ways that human activities can change an environment? Students will virtually explore Prado Wetlands and learn about the different restoration and conservation projects being conducted at this Orange County Water District site. Students will use evidence from the virtual field trip to discuss the merits of these solutions in providing new habitats for many plant and animal species.
Irvine Regional Park: Exploring Erosion
Fourth Grade
NGSS Standards Supported: 4-ESS2-1
What if Irvine Regional Park needs a new nature center and it's up to the students to recommend where to put it? Through observations and experimentation of different places at Irvine Regional Park, students explore the local geology and how erosion and its factors change the landscape over time to help come up with a recommendation of the new nature center location.
Rancho Soñado/Spheres *this program will be held virtually at another location, TBD, due to the Bond Fire 2020
Fifth Grade
NGSS Standards Supported: 5-ESS2-1
How do earth's systems work together? Through experimentation, data collection, and data analysis, students will investigate and discuss how different spheres of the earth's system interact creating the diversity in ecosystems we see all around us.
Wonders of H2O
Middle School
Standards Supported: NGSS MS-ESS3-3 Health: 7–8.6.2.P, 7–8.1.10.P
Students will think critically about connections between human land uses and water quality through exploration of a fictional watershed. Students analyze water samples to identify sources of potential pollution and brainstorm strategies to monitor or minimize pollution.
Next Generation Water Leaders
Middle School/High School
Standards Supported: NGSS MS-ESS2-4, MS-ESS3-4, HS-ESS3-3
Do you know what it takes to get the water you depend on from its source to your tap? Through experimentation with a groundwater model, students will learn about Orange County's water sources and how our water is managed for sustainability.
Scientists of the Sewers
Middle School/High School
Standards Supported: MS-ESS3-3 or MS-LS2-4
Students will learn about the fragile ecosystem of the microorganisms which play a critical role in Orange County sanitation system. Students will collaborate and investigate a mock problem which will take them up stream from OC SAN as they test the sewer line to discover where the contaminant is originating. Students will then design a method to safeguard the system or create an argument explaining how changing factors can affect populations within an ecosystem.
Wonders of H2O
High School
Standards Supported: NGSS HS-ETS1-3, HS-ESS3-1
Students will learn about the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its connections to our local water resources. Students will engage in projects to collect and analyze data and explore this real-world complex intersection of human and natural systems.
