join us for a virtual field trip through earth’s history!
Thank you for your interest in requesting a virtual field trip with the Western Science Center! Our aim is to provide an environment where kids are free to discover, explore, and interact with the natural history of the Diamond Valley Lake region and beyond.
Virtual Field Trips have been designed so that you can pace them according to your class schedule before the links expire*. For instance, you do not need to watch every video on the same day. You can watch a video per day if you would like!
*Field Trip Video links expire at the end of each school year, on July 31st.
WHat is included in the virtual field trip?
Museum Vocabulary: this is a list of words for your students if you would like to share and introduce them to different terms we use at the Western Science Center. Common Core and NGSS standards number and section are included with each word when applicable.
Museum Virtual Field Trip Videos: these videos will take your students through our exhibits and behind the scenes with museum staff! See our main exhibit hall, the special exhibit Life in the Ancient Seas, and more. Summaries and possible discussion questions are included.
Live Session with a Museum Staff Member (optional, free add-on): You can opt to participate in a live session (free add-on) over Zoom with one of our museum staff members who will be happy to answer any questions your classroom might have. Sessions are available Tuesday through Friday at 11AM and 1PM; please see our live session calendar below when making your reservation. Each classroom will need to schedule a separate live session. Live sessions can be anywhere from 15-30 minutes, it is your choice!
Optional Labs (additional fee): you have the option of purchasing a Teacher’s Lab Kit to accompany the virtual field trip. The kit includes different lab activities that are meant to be flexible to fit your classroom’s grade level and teaching situation. From discovering what a fossil tooth from the Ice Ages can tell us, to exploring maps that show how California has changed through different geologic time periods, these labs are a fun and educational way of further exploring the themes of our Virtual Field Trip. The kits come with a teacher’s set of replica Ice Age fossil teeth for the What A Tooth Can Tell Us Lab. Also included are graphics, photos, optional student lab sheets, and a teacher’s guide for each lab with steps to help teachers enhance their student’s virtual lab experience. This is a teacher’s kit and not intended to be a class set. Useful files and documents emailed to you may be used in on-line learning or printed and shared with students.
How Do I Book a Virtual Field Trip?
Fill out the registration form by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page. Please read through all the information prior to booking a virtual field trip.
WSC will confirm that we received your registration and send you an email that contains your virtual field trip registration confirmation and invoice.
Once we receive payment for your field trip bundle by the due date stated on the invoice, you will receive the field trip bundle via email with links to all bundle materials including videos, packets, activities, and live session information (date and time if you choose to participate). Information may be sent to you in more than one email. You will not receive access to any field trip programs until payment in full is received by WSC.
If you choose to add an optional lab to your virtual field trip, then the lab (teacher kit) will be mailed to you when payment is received. The virtual lab is one teacher kit that the teacher can use to show their students while conducting an online class. This is not a class set.
How much does the virtual field trip cost?
Virtual Field Trip Including Live Session with a Western Science Center Museum Staff Member:
$150.00 for the first classroom.
$130.00 for each additional classroom booked on the same registration form.
Classrooms booked on different forms will not receive the discount, and will be considered an individual, first classroom.
Optional Field Trip Labs Summary and Cost:
Both labs are included in the optional lab purchase. Casts may vary in color per kit.
What A Tooth Can Tell Us Lab
For this lab your students are the paleontologists as they research a set of fossil teeth from the Diamond Valley Lake project. Activities with this lab lead them through identifying the animal the tooth belongs to while discovering what clues fossil teeth can give us about past animals and their environment. This lab kit comes with a teacher’s set of five replica fossil teeth, WSC’s Teeth Book, and additional electronic files emailed to you including a teacher’s guide, helpful graphics, photos, and optional Student Lab Sheets. Everything is included to help teachers with each activity as their students explore what we can learn from a tooth.
California Through Time and Ancient Seas Lab
Through provided digital images of maps, students explore the changes that have occurred to their state through geologic time. Activities in this lab answer the common question of why we didn’t find any non-avian dinosaurs during the Diamond Valley Lake excavation. Activities also let students discover and record marine fossils from Ohio and Indiana that are millions of years old, based on two casts of Paleozoic fossils, while also traveling forward in geologic time to learn about some of the Ice Age animals whose fossils we found during the local excavation.
We are continuing to work on providing you an additional lab to accompany the Teacher Lab Kit and updates will be emailed to you. Physical and digital supplies sent to you as part of the Teacher’s Lab Kit are yours to keep and adapt to your and your student's needs. We hope you enjoy all the great activities designed to help your students explore the past and give them a more in-depth Virtual Field Trip experience.
$100.00 for the first classroom.
$90.00 for each additional classroom booked on the same registration form.
Classrooms booked on different forms will not receive the discount, and will be considered an individual, first classroom.
How can i pay for the virtual field triP?
By Mail: Checks, Money Orders
Checks should be made out to the Western Center Community Foundation. Please reference your invoice number when mailing in a payment.Mail checks/money orders to:
Western Science Center
2345 Searl Parkway, Bldg. #2
Hemet, CA 92543
By Phone on Thursdays between 11 am and 3 pm:
If you plan on paying via credit card (Visa or MasterCard only), you can schedule a time on the Virtual Field Trip Request Form. We will call you, please do not call the Museum.
Please have your invoice number and credit card ready for payment, if paying by phone.
There will be a $25.00 fee for each returned check.
Widespread sharing of paid field trip links, labs, documents, and packets is prohibited as field trips are a paid service per classroom. If it is apparent that field trip links, labs, documents, and packets have been widely shared (through emails, social media, etc...), a fee of the original invoice will be charged for each time the links, labs, documents, and packets are shared. Payment from field trips are an important income to the museum's ongoing mission to provide educational services to our community.
Western Science Center (WSC) is a private, non-profit educational organization operating under the Western Center Community Foundation. Funding comes from earned revenue (admissions, retail store sales, program fees, facility-use fees, etc.), grants, memberships, and donations. While we receive occasional grants from city, county, or state government, we do not receive regular, tax-based funding.