Field trips provide a wealth of hands-on learning for students. Seeing the places you're studying or visiting historical sites related to social studies or anthropology can make lessons come alive. The Discover NC website organizes options by county and offers lesson plans for educators to enhance or focus the field trip experiences. The A to Z Home's Cool website offers topically organized resources specifically for homeschooling families.
Natural Resources
At the southern tip of Topsail Island you find the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. The center exists to find and care for injured sea turtles, nursing them back to health and returning them to their natural habitats.
In Brunswick County, have your students explore the North Carolina Maritime Museum to discover more about the coastal ecology and maritime history of the state. You can also make a stop at the Museum of Coastal Carolina to learn about wetland animals, shells and minerals of the Barrier Reef, and Native American and Civil War history. Nearby is the Ingram Planetarium, which offers interactive science studies of the universe.
For a geology lesson in Cleveland County, take your students to Crowders Mountain State Park, where they can learn about mountain formation and the wildlife surrounding the mountain area. In Catawba County, visit Bunker Hill Covered Bridge and learn about the engineering of this landmark, one of two original remaining covered bridges in North Carolina.
Reliving History
For historical sites, visit Montgomery County and the Town Creek center, which was once the home of the Pee Dee Native Americans. The Town Creek Indian Mound is one of the artifacts that students can explore while learning about this 600-year-old culture. Archeological excavations beginning in the 1930s set a foundation for reconstruction artifacts that are now on view.
Durham County makes several offerings for historical sites. These include Bennett Place, which is the Civil War landmark designating the largest Confederate troop surrender of the war, and the Duke Homestead and Tobacco Museum, where students can learn about the Duke family's effects on the state and national culture via the tobacco industry. Visit Randolph County to see North Carolina's Aviation Museum for views of preserved historical and military aircraft.
With such a rich cultural and ecological space, North Carolina offers nearly every kind of field trip from historical museums to time-period reconstructions to natural resources from ocean to mountains. Finding field trips won't be the hard part---choosing which few you can take your students to each year will be the greater challenge.
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