Virtual Field Trips

Food and agriculture experiences come to life for students during farm visits, and now an opportunity to give a look behind the barn doors is more accessible than ever with a virtual field trip.

With field trip and transportation funding becoming more scarce every school year, you can still give your students an interactive look at farms and food-related industries. Live virtual field trips are engaging because students will have the chance to ask the farmers questions in real time. Experiences will be developed for grades Pre-K through 12, and each individual field trip description will include the grade levels appropriate for an experience.

Classroom Requirements

• Device connected to the internet
• Access to Zoom
  • Work with your school's IT staff to ensure these sites are not blocked

Before your Virtual Field Trip

Inquiry Box

Prior to your virtual field trip you will be shipped an Inquiry Box to help trigger the curiosity of students. The Inquiry Box will hold four to six items that may include a tool used on the farm, products that are essential to animal or plant health, a farm or food by-product, samples, and more. None of the items will come with a description, and all of the items will be discussed, viewed, or demonstrated during the virtual field trip.

Strategies to Consider with your Inquiry Box:

• Schedule an unboxing to build anticipation
• Students select an item, create a hypothesis of its use or function, research, and present findings to the class
• Place the items around the room and students move in stations to examine each item and hypothesize it's function
• Write a question about one or more item to ask the farmer
• During the field trip, students can check off which items they see, sharing locations or context of each item during your debrief

Upcoming Virtual Field Trips

Moser's Maple

Moser's Maple and the Moser family own and operate a 5th generation maple farm in Lewis County, NY; one of the largest maple producing regions in the state. In the 40-minute virtual field trip, representatives from the Moser family will share the history of their maple farm and succession of sugarhouse architecture, the difference between traditional sap gathering and the technology in modern maple sap system infrastructure, how maple sap is refined to syrup, and the secrets to how they make their award-winning maple confections.

The first 100 classrooms that register will receive an inquiry box.

Never Tire Farm

Although winter covers the fields of many farmers across the Empire State, there are some farmers who have crops in full bloom. In this exciting farm tour, students will learn how farmers utilize greenhouses to grow crops year around, the unique engineering needed to operate a greenhouse facility, understand how farmers use integrated pest management (IPM) to protect their crops, and recognize why farmers choose different plants for different seasons.

The first 100 classrooms to register will receive an inquiry box.

Virtual Field Trips Playlist

Explore New York Agriculture in the Classroom's past Virtual Field Trips on our YouTube page.