Field Trip Add-Ons
Looking to make the most of your field trip? Check out our Field Trip Add-Ons to request these additional reservations for your students' visit!
These guided programs, temporary exhibitions, and performances listed below are add-ons for school visits. All of these special opportunities have capacity limitations and require an additional reservation made in advance (at least two weeks prior to your visit date) when booking your onsite field trip. Field trip add-on requests are not guaranteed and are based on availability and capacity. Some add-on experiences have costs associated.
*Policy for Field Trip Add-on Equity: To provide an equitable museum experience for all school visitors, we require that all students in your order be booked into any add-on reservation. Additionally, schools are limited to only one add-on per visit (pending availability and capacity) to ensure equal opportunity to all interested school groups booking a field trip to the Museum.
Please note: To prioritize student accessibility to special experiences, chaperones may not be included in add-on reservations (i.e. Butterfly or Spider Pavilion). Check your confirmation to see if your group is booked for any add-ons.
Performances and Shows
Ocean Encounters
Making a splash in our theater this November, Ocean Encounters will plunge our audiences into the primeval seas. Everyone will become a deep-sea explorer as they marvel at Mosasaurs, play with Plesiosaurs, and bask in glowing bioluminescence! Ocean Encounters are live 20-minute interactive puppet shows provided by our Performing Arts team.
Available at 10:30 am and 11:30 am on Fridays with advanced reservations starting January 10, 2025.
GRADE LEVELS: All grades
DURATION: 15 - 20 minutes
LOCATION: Commons Theater
COST: $3 per ticket
Please Note: This performance includes verbal dialogue. American Sign Language interpretation or CART services are provided at no fee. To request ASL interpretation or CART services, please contact info@nhm.org at least two weeks in advance of your visit.
T. Rex 3D Film
Narrated by Sam Neill of Jurassic Park, T.REX is an all-new family-friendly film offering a thrilling immersive experience animating the life of T.rex. T.REX 3D focuses on NHM's own Thomas the T.rex from a young "rexling" to teen rex to hulking adult. Audiences will witness the wonder years of the ultimate predator. Working with top tyrannosaur scientists, a coalition of natural history institutions, and pioneering paleo and visual effects artists, GSF’s original giant screen production on this iconic dinosaur—and its carnivorous Cretaceous cousins—aims to be the most dazzling and accurate T. rex documentary ever made.
Available Mondays and Tuesdays at 10:30 am, 11:15 am, and 12 pm and Thursday at 12 pm with advanced reservations starting January 6, 2025.
GRADE LEVELS: All grades
DURATION: 40 minutes
LOCATION: Commons Theater
COST: $3 per ticket
Please Note: Closed captioning and assistive listening devices are available for our movies upon request from theater staff.
Animals Alive!
Los Angeles is wild! Every week, meet our Living Collections team and their furry, scaly, slimy, or leggy friends that help make L.A. a biodiversity hotspot—along with creatures from all over the planet. Discover how they survive in our sprawling city as well as habitats across the globe, and what we can all do to help protect our animal neighbors. *Animals subject to change
Available every Wednesday at 10:30 am and 11 AM with advanced reservations starting January 8, 2025
GRADE LEVELS: All grades
DURATION: 20 minutes
LOCATION: Commons Theater
COST: Free
Collections Revealed
The Museum Collections contain over 35 million specimens and objects and only a small fraction of them are on display! This weekly program offers guests the change to meet the Museum's scientists and collections staff while learning about rarely seen collection items. The staff, active research, and collection items are all part of NHM’s treasures!
Available every Thursday at 11 am with advanced reservations starting January 9, 2025
GRADE LEVELS: All grades
DURATION: 30 minutes
LOCATION: Commons Theater
COST: Free
Temporary Exhibitions
Temporary exhibitions are self-guided opportunities to explore reservation-only spaces in the Museum. These popular exhibits have space limitations and require an additional reservation. While you and your group would be exploring the exhibit on your own, we have free downloadable Learning Resources (including activities, videos, lesson plans, teacher guides, and more!) to help you prepare an itinerary for your time in the exhibits. Exhibit dates vary; please view descriptions for details.
Butterfly Pavilion
Wonder takes flight at the Museum! Walk among beautiful butterflies in our seasonal Butterfly Pavilion. This springtime exhibition features hundreds of butterflies, colorful native plants, and plenty of natural light to help you see these creatures shimmer. With lots of flight space and a variety of resting spots, come get one of the best views in Los Angeles of these amazing insects.
Available seasonally in the Spring with advanced reservations and payment. Access to this outdoor exhibit is weather-dependent. Please note: Butterfly Pavilion is currently closed.
GRADE LEVELS: All Grades
DURATION: 30 minute timeslot
LOCATION: Outdoor Pavilion
CAPACITY: 30 per timeslot (5 timeslots per day)
COST: $3 per ticket
Spider Pavilion
Discover the secret beauty of spiders as they freely spin webs, lay eggs, and eat in our Pavilion garden! This one-of-a-kind seasonal experience provides a glimpse into the secret life of spiders. Stroll through the open air pavilion to see hundreds of live orb weavers. Then enter the spider den to peer into the enclosed habitats that house different species from tarantulas to jumping spiders. Along the way you'll hear amazing stories and get answers to all your arachnid questions from our Museum Educators.
Available seasonally in the Fall with advanced reservations and payment. Access to this outdoor exhibit is weather-dependent. Please note: Spider Pavilion is currently closed.
GRADE LEVELS: All Grades
DURATION: 30 minute timeslot
LOCATION: Outdoor Pavilion
CAPACITY: 30 per timeslot (5 timeslots per day)
COST: $3 per ticket
Guided Programs
Guided programs are engaging, hands-on experiences designed for your students' grade level and led by Museum Educators. Available at 10 am and 11 am, Monday–Wednesday, October 7–December 11 with advanced reservations.
Cost: Free!
Windows Into Nature
Take a deep-dive into one of our many North American animals! Through different animal stories, students will learn about a specific animal and how it lives. Then, we'll find our animal thought a scavenger hunt in the museum. Our educators will lead interactive discussions through dialogic reading and Visual Thinking Strategies of our corresponding animal diorama. Students will also have the chance to touch an animal specimen from our collection, like a porcupine quill or a coyote pelt!
GRADE LEVELS: Grades Pre-K–1
DURATION: 30–40 minutes
LOCATION: Diorama Halls (indoors)
CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
TOPICS RELATED TO STANDARDS:
- Structure and function of natural and unnatural things
- Growth and development of organisms
Growing Home
Come learn about insect habitats in our Nature Gardens! Drawing upon what young students already know about what animals need to survive, this hands-on and exploratory activity allows students to discover what a habitat is and what insects need to survive. In our Edible Garden, students will have the opportunity to discuss their ideas about habitats, find examples of what bugs need in a garden scavenger hunt, and build their own bug home out of natural materials.
GRADE LEVELS: Grades Pre-K–1
DURATION: 30–40 minutes
LOCATION: Nature Gardens (outdoors and weather-dependent)/
CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
TOPICS RELATED TO STANDARDS:
- Habitat: All animals need food, water, shelter, and space to live and grow
- Natural and designed systems have parts that work together
- Structure and function of natural and unnatural things
- Growth and development of organisms
Fossil Detectives
Solve the mystery! What were ancient animals like when they were alive? Through observation and questioning, students will investigate fossil animals and their habitat to find the answer. Our guides will lead students to practice coming up with hypotheses and recording ideas in a field journal, just like real paleontologists! The foundation of this program comes from a method known as Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). For more information on VTS, visit vtshome.org.
GRADE LEVELS: Grades 2–5
DURATION: 45–50 minutes
LOCATION: Dinosaur Hall or Age of Mammals (indoors)?
CAPACITY: 20 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
STANDARDS:
- Common Core ELA: Speaking and Listening 2–5.1 and 2–5.6; Language 2–5.1, 2–5.4, and 2–5.6
- NGSS: Crosscutting Concepts (1, 6), Science and Engineering Principles (6–8), Disciplinary Core Idea LS2, LS3, LS4
Pond Life
Discover the diversity of life in our pond! Students will explore the many specimens in our Nature Gardens pond by using scientific observation skills. Our guides will lead students to safely collect and document macro-invertebrates in our pond, just like real scientists! Students will have the chance to use authentic tools like magnifying glasses and field guides to learn more about the unique wildlife that lives here in Los Angeles.
GRADE LEVELS: Grades 2–5
DURATION: 45–50 minutes
LOCATION: Nature Gardens (outdoors & weather-dependent)
CAPACITY: 16 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
TOPICS RELATED TO STANDARDS:
- Ecosystems/Systems: Interdependence of organisms, factors necessary for life, adaptation and evolution due to changes in an
environment, energy flow within a system - Biodiversity: There are many different living things in any given area, and many places (on land and in water) in which they live
- Structure and function in both natural and unnatural things
- Role of water in earth’s surface processes and life
- Growth and development is essential in every kind of organism and plants/animals have diverse life cycles
Backyard Biodiversity
Discover biodiversity here in Los Angeles! Using scientific practices, our guides will lead students to safely collect, observe, record, and identify insects in our NHM Nature Gardens. Students will have the chance to use authentic tools like magnifying glasses and field guides to learn more about the unique wildlife in their city through this insect survey.
GRADE LEVELS: Grades 6–12
DURATION: 50–60 minutes
LOCATION: Nature Gardens (outdoors & weather-dependent)
CAPACITY: 16 per time slot (4 time slots per day)
TOPICS RELATED TO STANDARDS:
- Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Organisms are dependent on their interactions with other living things and require certain resources to survive
- Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience: Ecosystems are dynamic in nature and their character can change over time. Disruptions to physical or biological components can lead to shifts in population
- Biodiversity and Humans: Changes in biodiversity can influence resources for humans. Also: Human dependence and impact on natural resources.
- Cause and Effect/Stability and Change
Permanent Exhibitions
Looking for other spaces to explore inside (and outside!) the Museum? Learn more about our permanent exhibitions and see all that your students can discover on their field trip—no additional reservations for school groups required!
NHM Field Trips are Sponsored by Superior Grocers
