This week I took a virtual field trip to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. I chose this field trip because I have been to the Smithsonian many times so I felt that this would give me a good idea of the differences between a virtual and real field trip (aside from one being online and in person!). I decided to tour the current exhibits , where you can see all of the current exhibits that are in the museum right now. Some examples of this are large animals like elephants, dinosaurs, as well as neanderthals, gems, butterflies, insects, and more.

As you can see, there is a very useful map that shows you the layout of the entire museum and where each exhibit is. This tool helps you navigate through the entire museum with ease. This museum is known to be one be best museums as it is jam packed with history and knowledge from all over the world so it is great that there is an option from anyone around the world to view this on the internet. However, from my experience in person vs. online I will say that it is much easier to understand the information when you are actually standing in the museum. This is because going most of the information is in small print on the walls or there are videos for you to watch. Luckily, the Smithsonian offers narrated tours of their museum as well. This I would highly recommend over the self-guided tours as they will give a lot more information that the eye might miss.

Here is a virtual tour from the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins. It includes how Neanderthals are thought to evolve into humans today. I highly recommend checking it out as well as the many other virtual tours. I chose to include this one because this was always my favorite exhibit to visit as a child!