Virtual field trips are amazing opportunities to bring the world right to your classroom—no permission slip or ear-splitting bus ride required! We set off on the free Walking With Dinosaurs virtual science field trip from BBC Learning Hub, and we were too impressed to keep our experience to ourselves.
The Walking With Dinosaurs virtual field trip checks all the boxes for a memorable and fun class adventure. It’s organized around an engaging Interactive Map where students can travel to six dinosaur dig sites and listen in on real paleontologists’ conversations just by clicking through. Amazing computer-generated imagery (CGI) brings the dinosaur stories to life, and students can cap off their exploration with entertaining bonus content after completing their world tour.
The teacher resources included with this trip are like an expert docent waiting for you at the entrance.
How To Prepare for the “Walking With Dinosaurs” Virtual Science Field Trip
Ready-made high-quality classroom resources are the ultimate time-saver. To access the Walking With Dinosaurs virtual field trip, all you need to do is visit the landing page and register for a free BBC Learning Hub account. The trip is conveniently formatted in Google Slides. Opening the map will prompt you to make a copy of the field trip slideshow. Click into Slideshow Mode and you’re ready to go. It’s easy to click around the Interactive Map to preview the “Visit the Dig” and “Meet the Dinosaur” clips at each site, but for more guidance, you can also read through the Walking With Dinosaurs Teacher Guide.
The trip is grounded in the guiding question “How do paleontologists use fossils to learn about the lives of dinosaurs?” The free printable Paleontologist Field Journal optimizes kids’ learning by keeping them focused on this big idea. The journal sections match the trip segments, so kids can record their reactions to each dig site. Of course, everyone will want to know more about each fascinating dinosaur species, so the journal also includes Fact File pages for kids to compile their own additional research. To prepare for the trip, print journal pages for each student. Then use the directions in the Teacher Guide to have students assemble the journals themselves.
Dig Site Highlights
This virtual science field trip relates perfectly to what teachers need to teach. It’s ideal for livening up units about gathering information from fossil data or using fossils to identify patterns over time. The collective experience a class has with the trip content can provide shared knowledge and vocabulary to refer back to in other science lessons. Kids, however, will mostly remember how cool it is to hear real paleontologists chatting about questions like “Why is this Pachyrhinosaurus’ frill different from the frills of all its buddies?” Our student viewers were especially intrigued to watch scientists use bone measurements to predict the age of a baby Triceratops. And we received incredulous reactions to the footage from a North African dig site. As scientists unearthed vertebrae from the powerful tail of a Spinosaurus, one student exclaimed, “Wait, dinosaurs could swim?!”
After students learn about each dig site, they can watch a curated related clip from the BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs. This series uses breathtaking CGI to attach a story to each collection of fossils. This combination of science, technology, and imagination impressed even the toughest audience: middle schoolers! It’s no surprise that their favorite set of dinos was the teenage Gastonia. Dubbed the “Band of Brothers,” they spent their time hanging around, protecting each other, and waiting for their armor to develop. (That sounds a lot like 7th grade!)
More Features Kids (and Teachers!) Will Love
This trip absolutely helps teachers meet required standards and offers chances for kids to build key science, technology, comprehension, and study skills. But let’s be honest: Students care most about the entertainment value. We love how the Walking With Dinosaurs virtual field trip makes learning fun and engaging.
Just like in-person field trips, a virtual field trip should be a social experience. Students will enjoy navigating this trip in partners or triads. They can negotiate the order in which they want to visit the sites and talk about the videos. They can also complete each journal section and dig site review quiz together.
Conversations surrounding the bonus “Which Iconic Dinosaur Are You?” personality quiz were what had everyone laughing the most. One student remarked, “I didn’t know my weird love for asparagus could predict what kind of dinosaur I am!” The Minecraft Education “Building With Dinosaurs” challenge offered yet another appealing feature. This was a popular option for early finishers and a great motivator to stay focused and complete each trip segment.
