Virtual Field Trips to Our National Parks

Virtual Field Trips to Our National Parks

What better place to explore geology than at the national parks?! I have been sharing my love for the national parks with my students for years. Now, we can share that love with even more classrooms through distance learning with national parks.

Virtual field trip activities were developed around the earth science content related to the featured national park.

Badlands National Park

National Parks Virtual Field Trips

  • Badlands National Park
  • Crater Lake National Park
  • Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
  • Joshua Tree National Park
  • Grand Canyon National Park
  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park
  • Yosemite National Park

Do you love visiting national parks? Do you also want to write your own NGSS aligned storylines? Join me for a Teacher PD Adventure! Teacher Travel + Professional Development! What could be better?

Four images in background: sloth, Arenal Volcano, cocoa beans, Costa Rican food. Text: PD Adventure: Costa Rica

How to Use These Videos

Full disclosure: I am a science teacher, not a videographer. These videos share my experiences and knowledge about featured national parks to get students interested in the geological features. The real learning comes from activities students will complete based around the featured park.

Here’s a quick run-down of what these videos are NOT:

  • Explanations of processes that occur
  • Specific questions for students to explore
  • Detailed information about the geological features

These videos are meant to:

  • Spark curiosity about the parks
  • Bring a personal perspective to experiencing the parks
  • Guide students to develop driving questions
  • Highlight unique geological features
  • Introduce a week of activities based on the featured park

Badlands National Park

Introduction Video

Click on the button above to easily copy the link to share with your students.

Concepts to include:

  • formation of sedimentary rocks
  • weathering & erosion
  • constructive & destructive forces
  • how fossils form
  • studying extinct animals from fossils

Student Activities

Are you feeling overwhelmed in this transition to distance learning? This complete set of activities are 100% ready for your students. Simply share the Google Slides with your students, they’ll make a copy, and do their work directly on the slide.

Each day is designed to take between 10-20 minutes for students to complete. Answer keys for each activity are included.

When a new national park video is released, you’ll also have access to that week’s activities. They’ll always be $5 for a complete set of activities, including answer keys.

Day 1 – Develop Driving Questions

Day 2 – Formation of Sedimentary Rocks

Day 3 – Weathering & Erosion

Day 4 – Formation of Fossils

Day 5 – Research an Extinct Animal @ Badlands NP

Crater Lake National Park

Introduction Video

Click on the button above to easily copy the link to share with your students.

Concepts to include:

  • plate tectonics
  • types of volcanoes
  • formation of calderas
  • caldera on Mars

Student Activities

Are you feeling overwhelmed in this transition to distance learning? This complete set of activities are 100% ready for your students. Simply share the Google Slides with your students, they’ll make a copy, and do their work directly on the slide.

Each day is designed to take between 10-20 minutes for students to complete. Answer keys for each activity are included.

When a new national park video is released, you’ll also have access to that week’s activities. They’ll always be $5 for a complete set of activities, including answer keys.

Day 1 – Develop Driving Questions

Day 2 – Types of Plate Boundaries

Day 3 – Types of Volcanoes

Day 4 – Formation of Calderas

Day 5 – Caldera on Mars @ Olympus Mons

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Introduction Video

Click on the button above to easily copy the link to share with your students.

Concepts to include:

  • identifying igneous rocks
  • how volcanoes affect people
  • assessing the risk of a volcano
  • hotspot formation of Hawaii

Student Activities

Are you feeling overwhelmed in this transition to distance learning? This complete set of activities are 100% ready for your students. Simply share the Google Slides with your students, they’ll make a copy, and do their work directly on the slide.

Each day is designed to take between 10-20 minutes for students to complete. Answer keys for each activity are included.

When a new national park video is released, you’ll also have access to that week’s activities. They’ll always be $5 for a complete set of activities, including answer keys.

Day 1 – Develop Driving Questions

Day 2 – Virtual Tour & Igneous Rocks

Day 3 – Hotspot Formation of Hawaii

Day 4 – Volcanoes & People

Day 5 – Assessing Risk of Volcanic Eruption

Joshua Tree National Park

Introduction Video

Click on the button above to easily copy the link to share with your students.

Concepts to include:

  • epicenter vs. focus
  • faults
  • what causes earthquakes
  • types of seismic waves
  • earthquake safety
  • seismic activity due to humans

Student Activities

Are you feeling overwhelmed in this transition to distance learning? This complete set of activities are 100% ready for your students. Simply share the Google Slides with your students, they’ll make a copy, and do their work directly on the slide.

Each day is designed to take between 10-20 minutes for students to complete. Answer keys for each activity are included.

When a new national park video is released, you’ll also have access to that week’s activities. They’ll always be $5 for a complete set of activities, including answer keys.

Day 1 – Develop Driving Questions

Day 2 – Earthquakes in Joshua Tree

Day 3 – GEO podcast: Earthquakes

Day 4 – Types of Seismic Waves & Human Activity

Day 5 – Types of Faults

Grand Canyon National Park

Introduction Video

Click on the button above to easily copy the link to share with your students.

Concepts to include:

  • types sedimentary rock
  • relative dating
  • weathering & erosion
  • constructive and destructive forces
  • human impact on rivers

Student Activities

Are you feeling overwhelmed in this transition to distance learning? This complete set of activities are 100% ready for your students. Simply share the Google Slides with your students, they’ll make a copy, and do their work directly on the slide.

Each day is designed to take between 10-20 minutes for students to complete. Answer keys for each activity are included.

When a new national park video is released, you’ll also have access to that week’s activities. They’ll always be $5 for a complete set of activities, including answer keys.

Day 1 – Develop Driving Questions

Day 2 – Types of Sedimentary Rocks

Day 3 – Relative Dating

Day 4 – Role of the Colorado River

Day 5 – Human Impact on Rivers

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Introduction Video

Click on the button above to easily copy the link to share with your students.

Concepts to include:

  • convergent boundaries
  • geological history & people
  • reading a topographic map
  • elevation & temperature

Student Activities

Are you feeling overwhelmed in this transition to distance learning? This complete set of activities are 100% ready for your students. Simply share the Google Slides with your students, they’ll make a copy, and do their work directly on the slide.

Each day is designed to take between 10-20 minutes for students to complete. Answer keys for each activity are included.

When a new national park video is released, you’ll also have access to that week’s activities. They’ll always be $5 for a complete set of activities, including answer keys.

Day 1 – Develop Driving Questions

Day 2 – Convergent Boundaries & Mountain Building

Day 3 – Geological History of Appalachia

Day 4 – Elevation in Smoky Mountains National Park

Day 5 – Elevation & Temperature

Yosemite National Park

Introduction Video

Click on the button above to easily copy the link to share with your students.

Concepts to include:

  • intrusive igneous rocks
  • all about granite
  • igneous intrusions
  • geological changes – rockfall

Student Activities

This complete set of activities are 100% ready for your students. Simply share the Google Slides with your students, they’ll make a copy, and do their work directly on the slide.

Each day is designed to take between 10-20 minutes for students to complete. Answer keys for each activity are included.

When a new national park video is released, you’ll also have access to that week’s activities. They’ll always be $5 for a complete set of activities, including answer keys.

Day 1 – Develop Driving Questions

Day 2 – Identifying Intrusive Igneous Rock

Day 3 – All About Granite

Day 4 – Explore Igneous Intrusions

Day 5 – Assessing Rockfall


I hope that you and your students enjoy the videos and get excited about the geological features in the national parks!

Please reach out to me at teacheronatrip@gmail.com if you have any questions or I can provide any additional support.

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Alyssa Weisenstein

4 thoughts on “Virtual Field Trips to Our National Parks

  1. Oh. My. Goodness!! Alyssa – this is seriously making me tear up and cry! What a blessing you are to me and my students. I have 5 Science mods to turn into Google and Zoom classrooms by the end of the week and the Earth Science class was one of my truly difficult transitions.
    But then, YOU!
    Wow.
    I love this and I am definitely sticking with you for all your videos. Thank you, also, for the TPT worksheets. I know how much work that is, because I’ve done it for my A&P and Bio classes.
    There aren’t enough ways to say thank you!

    1. I’m so glad that it was a help to you and your students! It’s great to get that feedback and keeps me motivated to make more. 🙂

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