Are you looking for a way to engage your students in science activities that will support the Illinois state standards and district curriculum, while maintaining the wonder and fun your children love? The Orpheum offers a hands-on curriculum that is built around some of the most interesting and important science topics. Field Trips can be scheduled Tuesday thru Friday from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Trips are scheduled for 2 hour time periods for students to explore museum exhibits and to take part in one of a variety of hands-on educational programs. Please schedule field trips 2 weeks in advance. A non-refundable deposit is required to secure a reservation and one adult chaperone is required for every five children visiting. The deposit may only be transferred to another date if the trip is rescheduled at least 48 hours in advance of the original date. The remainder of the balance is due on the day of the visit. The prices is $4.50/kid -- please call for aditional information as we are in the process of revising some of our Field Trip policies.
Field Trip Activites
The following field trip activities are available to the following grade levels.
Preschool
- A Bug's Life: Explore the world of our planet’s creepy crawly creatures through storytelling, crafts, and play. Children will learn what habitat and community mean as they investigate the anatomy and life stages of insects including ants, spiders, and worms. Each child will do a craft to take home.Illinois State Standards:
- Clever Critters: Meet the turtles, bearded dragons, snake, tarantula, and roaches that call the Orpheum home! Students will learn all about these amazing animals including diet, habitat, and adaptations. Illinois State Standards:
- Dino Detectives: Travel back to the time of the dinosaurs. Learn about what dinosaurs ate and how big they were. Weather permitting; students will become paleontologists in our outdoor dino dig and paleo-lab. Students will learn about how fossils were formed by making their own to keep. Illinois State Standards:
- Junior Gardener: Explore the amazing world of plants! Join us as we learn about different types of plants, their different parts, why plants are so important to us, and how plants photosynthesize. Illinois State Standards.
Kindergarten - 2nd
- Animal Adventures: Meet the Orpheum’s turtles, bearded dragons, snake, tarantula, and roaches. Students will learn all about these amazing species including their diet, habitat, and characteristics. This session will emphasize adaptations for feeding, camouflage, protection, and locomotion. Illinois State Standards: K-ESS3-1, K-ESS2-2, K-LSL-1, 2-LS4-1
- Junior Paleontologists: Travel through time to explore important questions about life on Earth before humans even existed. Meet one very special dinosaur and find out a lot about how it lived. Along the way, learn about using logic to understand the natural world by using the scientific method, and how the same methods can be used to answer questions about fossil remains.Illinois State Standards:
- Magnet Magic: Students will probe the mysteries of magnetism through experimentation, games, and activities that explore how magnets are used in everyday life. Experimentation will lead students to discover attraction and repulsion. Illinois State Standards
- Tense Water Drops: Properties of water leading to surface tension will be explored through activities and experiments. Students will learn some exciting gravity-defying water tricks and participate in water drop maze races. Illinois State Standards: 2-PS1-1
Grades 3-5
- Awesome Animals: Meet the Orpheum’s turtles, lizards, snake, tarantula, and roaches. Students will learn all about these animals including their diet, habitat, and adaptations. This session will emphasize the interactions between species and their environmental niche. Illinois State Standards: 3-LS2-1, 3-LS4-3, 3-LS3-2
- Magnet Magic: Students will probe the principles of magnetism and polarity through experimentation. Their investigation will lead to the identification of the key components of a magnet: its poles, equator, and field. Students will also explore the interaction of magnets with other magnets, metals, and non-metals. Illinois State Standards: 3-PS2-3, 3-PS2-4
- Simple Machines: Students will explore the concept of simple machines by closely investigating levers, screws, and pulleys. They will learn about ideas of work and force, and how these simple machines can affect how much of each we need. This will help students understand that simple machines exist all around us and make our lives much easier. Illinois State Standards: 3-PS2-1