Reserve a Program for Your Field Trip

These are offered free of charge.

These programs are intended for school groups, homeschool groups, and community-based organizations serving youth.

Discover how things fly and experiments that illustrate the forces of flight. Learn what a force is, explore Bernoulli's principle, and investigate different forms of propulsion.

Recommended for Grades:  3-8

Learn about stability and a plane's center of lift and gravity to determine the best design of a stable aircraft. Create your own airplanes and compete to see whose plane can fly in a stable flight path.

Recommended for Grades: 3-8

What do astronauts wear on spacewalks? How is day-to-day life different in the hazardous environment of space? Discover real world artifacts from life aboard the International Space Station, watch experiments that demonstrate how space affects the human body, and discuss the innovations that allow humans to adapt to life outside of Earth's atmosphere.  

Recommended for Grades: 3-12. 

Learn more about the planets with this exploration of our Solar System. Reserve a Museum educator to read Space Walk by Salina Yoon, chat about spacecraft that have travelled to the edge of the Solar System and lead students in the creation of a solar system book.

Read Hare and Tortoise Race to the Moon by Oliver J Corwin, examine rockets in our collection and notice what shapes they are made from, and lead students in the creation of three dimensional models of rockets.

What is it like to experience the thrill of an air show? Read Air Show by Treat Williams, demonstrate loops, rolls and other aerobatic maneuvers, and lead students in the creation of their own tricky flyers.

Read an inspiring biography of a history maker in aviation or space exploration. Choose from: Amelia Earhart, Bessie Coleman, Mae Jemison, or the Wright Brothers.

Follow the journey of early space flight and meet some friends along the way, from Neil Armstrong to Mars rovers. Students will choose a destination and map their own journey by coding robots to discover and travel across the solar system.

Recommended for Grades: K-2

Students will “become a pilot” of their own private aircraft as they learn about the four forces of flight, the basic parts of an airplane, and how they allow for controlled flight. 

Recommended for Grades: K-2

Explore the night sky in a 360° portable planetarium and an accompanying activity! Elementary students will make their own constellation viewer. Middle schoolers will try a space-based radio activity.

Primary: Recommended for Grades 2-5
Secondary: Recommended for Grades 6-8

Group Size: 30 students per group

We are only able to offer two sessions per day.

Through vivid images and hands-on activities, students will explore the phases of the Moon, its relationship to Earth, and the story of the Apollo missions. Students will work as mission design teams to create a habitat that could support human life on the Moon.

Recommended for Grades: 3-6

How do airplanes fly? Using paper airplanes and scientific methods, students will explore the relationship between an airplane's center of gravity and flight stability. They will make and test their paper airplanes, collect and graph their findings, and reach conclusions on how to improve their designs.

Recommended for Grades: 3-8

Explore the limitless possibilities of aerodynamic design and forces of flight. Create, test, and refine designs using a high-powered wind tunnel. 

Recommended for Grades: 5-12

Note: Are you teaching a unit on derby cars, physics, or 3D printing? Ask us about modifying this STEAM lab to incorporate wind tunnel test trials. 

While living in space might appear to be nothing but fun, some of the known and unknown effects of space can spoil the party. Create a pressure suit for an “astronaut” to ensure they have a safe journey to “space” in the vacuum pump. 

Recommended for Grades: 6-12

Learn how flight instruments, controls, and procedures are used to land a plane at Dulles Airport using FAA-certified Aviation Training Devices. Through this simulator experience students will apply math to real world aviation work. 

Recommended for Grades: 6-12

Group Size: 15 students per group

We are only able to offer two sessions per day to due availability of flight simulators.

Programs should be reserved at least three weeks in advance of visiting the Museum. 

No, these reservable field trip programs are additional experiences that can enhance a field trip. They are not required. 

No.

If you're visiting the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA, we do not require passes for this location.

If you're visiting the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, passes will be reserved for your group when your program request is confirmed. The passes will be sent to you separately via an email from eTix to the  email you provide in your group reservation. If you've decided not to reserve a program, you will need to reserve your own timed-entry passes for your group.