One Small Step For Man, One Giant Leap For Your Class On Usa

School residential trips based in Washington DC should include a visit to The National Air and Space Museum.

The USA has an abundance of potential when it comes to school residential trips, and you don’t have to look further than Washington DC, home to the National Air and Space Museum, for inspiration. A visit to this excellent museum will see your students marvelling at the 1903 Wright Flyer and Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, touching rock that’s come from the moon, and getting to grips with the fascinating history of aviation and space travel.

Home to the world’s largest collection of space and aviation related artefacts, this museum is not only educational, but hugely inspirational as well.Teachers will be pleased to discover that the museum caters extremely well for pupils on residential school trips, and there is much on offer to help make your visit a truly memorable one.

Tours

When taking your students on a trip it’s always useful to know that, when appropriate, you can take a breather and hand them over to the experts. At the National Air and Space Museum,you can book a guided tour specifically designed for students. The History of Flight Tour II and Exploring Space tours are angled towards secondary school children.

The tours last an hour, with all year groups of secondary school age catered for. If you have more than 15 youngsters on your residential school trips, the group will be split accordingly. Hosted by volunteers, these tours are highly informative and can be tailored to any specific interests or curriculum requirements.

Einstein Planetarium

This attraction is considered an absolute highlight of the site and, as one of the most high-tech planetariums in the country, it’snot hard to see why. Adults arealways just as impressed as youngsters and,as the newly installed 8K Full Dome System works its magic, projecting super high-definition visuals, your class will be mesmerised. The vivid colours, intense brightness and pin-sharp clarity simply must be seen to be believed.

There are several shows run throughout the day. To Space and Back invites viewers into the world of exploratory space travel, and shows how intrinsically linked our changing world is to the universe around us. Other shows include The Stars Tonight,whichincorporatesrelevant headlining topics.

Shows change often, so teachers bookingresidential school trips in advance will need to check closer to the time to see exactly what is on. Every show is fantastic, however, so they’re an experience not to be missed.

Observatory

The wonderful observatory at the planetariumhouses an array of telescopes that, because of their safe solar filters, can be used during daylight hours. Pupils will have the opportunity to look for spots on the sun and discover the phases of Venus - and that’s just the start!

When planning residential school trips to Washington DC, booking with a reputable educational travel tour operator is highly recommended, in order to make the most of the time. They will advise and assistwith every aspect of planning your trip, leaving you free to concentrate on making the experience as memorable as it can be for young students.

Author Plate

John Gardiner is the Managing Director of The School Travel Company, a tour operator specialising in educational travel for school and youth groups. Whether you’re planning UK study tours,school residential trips to the USA, Iceland geography trips or trekking expeditions to India, you can trust both the educational and economic value of their itineraries, whether ready-made or specifically designed to suit the needs of your group.

License: You have permission to republish this article in any format, even commercially, but you must keep all links intact. Attribution required.