School Field Trips
Field trips to MOR benefit from over fifty years of teacher feedback and evaluations. Teachers have compiled these tips to help your students get the most out of their visit to Museum of the Rockies.
Planning your visit
- Make your field trip reservation by clicking on this link!
- Do not delay! School group availability fills up fast - especially in April & May. Requests for the 2023-2024 School Year must be submitted by April 1, 2024.
- Have three possible visit dates prepared that work for your group (including other teachers and your transportation provider) before submitting the Field Trip Request Form. It is difficult to alter reservations once they have been made.
- Know your group size (including the number of adults and students) before contacting MOR to schedule a visit.
Before your visit
- Know the focus of your visit and plan lessons related to the theme of your visit to prepare your students for the content presented at MOR.
- Review MOR’s Educator Guide to find activities to enhance your student’s experience.
- Visit MOR to develop an understanding of how your group will best use the museum during your field trip.
- Admission for teachers preparing for an upcoming visit is free of charge with advance notice. Please email us to arrange for free admission.
- Read through your field trip confirmation email. This communication provides important details on field trip logistics for your visit.
- Discuss museum etiquette and your schedule with your students prior to your visit.
- Divide students into the appropriate small groups based on your itinerary.
- Contact your chaperones and provide them with guidelines for their role on the field trip.
- Provide chaperones with student rosters and the schedule for your visit.
Running late or need to cancel?
- Let us know if you need to cancel your field trip as far in advance as you can. This gives another school group the opportunity to visit the museum.
- Call MOR as soon as possible if you are running late at 406-994-5258.
At the Museum
- Make sure all chaperones are aware of museum policies and expectations for students, are actively engaged, and are ready to encourage student learning.
- The lead teacher should check in at the front desk while students remain on the bus to confirm the final numbers of students and chaperones.
After Your Visit
- If you request transportation funding, submit the original invoice for your bus costs to visitMOR@montana.edu.
- Take advantage of our Classroom Online Learning Resources to continue learning about MOR topics in your classroom!
Do you have a tip you want us to include? Please send us an email at visitMOR@montana.edu.
Educators Guide
Please click on the below accordion list for MOR's Educator's Guide Information to plan your School Field Trip.
Schools are welcome to submit field trip requests up to one year in advance.
- All requests must be submitted using the online Field Trip Request Form.
- Online forms allow the museum to better support the increase in field trip requests.
- We are happy to work with you over the phone to answer questions and confirm details.
- Field trip requests must be submitted at least two weeks in advance.
- Our Education team cannot accommodate school field trips over weekends or holidays.
- Our Education team will respond to all field trip requests within five to seven (5 - 7) business days.
- Please follow up with our Education team if you do not hear from us within this timeframe. It is possible that we did not receive your request.
Museum of the Rockies welcomes schools to visit during the following dates:
- Wednesday, August 23 – Friday, December 15, 2023
- Wednesday, January 3 – Thursday, May 23, 2024
Based on your Field Trip Request Form, our team will prepare a detailed itinerary for you.
- School itineraries are based on the information submitted on each request form. Please help us ensure your group’s learning goals and needs are met by providing as much information as possible on your Field Trip Request Form.
- It is important to follow the itinerary prepared for you. This allows small groups to be distributed throughout the museum and promotes safety and learning.
- MOR divides students into groups of 10 or fewer, particularly for guided tours.
- We ask you to define student groups that promote the best learning environment possible.
- To help us prepare nametags for your students, please submit these groups and their chaperones with MOR no less than one week before your visit.
School groups from across the state of Montana are admitted free of charge to Museum of the Rockies (with an advanced reservation) thanks to generous donations from individuals and corporations. All programs (guided tours, planetarium shows, etc.) are free of charge for Montana schoolchildren.
One adult will be given free admission for every eight students.
Extra chaperones will be charged the discounted rate of $14. Please plan for this in advance.
Schools visiting from outside of Montana will be admitted at a discounted rate of 20% off of general admission.
A 50% reimbursement for travel costs to and from the museum is available for Montana school groups arriving by bus.
Following your visit, please send a copy of the original invoice to: visitMOR@montana.edu
- Please include the name and address of the receiver.
- MOR will not pay for driver meals or mileage to additional locations
Guided tours (typically one hour in length) provide your students with the most comprehensive experience in one of the museum’s exhibits*.
Led by a MOR docent (volunteer educator), tours of the Siebel Dinosaur Complex exhibit and Paugh History Hall can be tailored to the themes or topics that your students are learning about in the classroom.
To be sure that your tour addresses specific standards or content, please provide detailed information on your Field Trip Request Form. Docents will do their best to craft a tour that includes your requests.
Docent-guided tours must be requested at least two weeks in advance.
Here’s what Montana teachers have to say about their experience:
- “Fantastic, knowledgeable, and engaging docents.”
- “Docents really help bring the exhibits to life.”
- “The guided tours are amazing!”
- “Docents are all great – kids still talk about what a wonderful time they had.”
Self-guided tours of Museum of the Rockies allow teachers to lead their own tours of MOR’s exhibits or create time for students to explore interactive exhibits independently or in small groups.
To make the most of your self-guided tour time, MOR offers resources for teachers to help keep students engaged during self-guided tours.
Excavate real dinosaur fossils, study historic artifacts, explore the surface of the Moon, and so much more as part of a museum workshop. Provide your students with a unique experience you can’t find anywhere else but Museum of the Rockies.
Museum workshops are a fantastic way to bring your field trip to the next level. With curriculum geared towards students of all ages, museum workshops bring Museum of the Rockies collections to the hands of your students. Lessons last anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour and take place at Museum of the Rockies.
Class size is limited to 25 students and is available at $5 per student. Scholarships are available for Title 1 schools. Complete the Field Trip request form to sign up for a workshop.
Digging Dinosaurs
50 minutes | Grades 3 - 6 and 7 - 10
In this workshop, we will dig into the process of paleontology. Students will learn how dinosaur bones are discovered, uncovered, and removed for study. Using the tools and techniques of MOR paleontologists, students will embark on their very own dinosaur excavation!
Painting Prehistory
50 minutes | Grades 1 - 5
Travel deep in time all the way to the first age of life on Earth, when life took strange and unique forms. In this lesson, we will uncover early life in Earth’s oceans as we paint our way through geologic time.
Puzzles of the Past
60 minutes | Grades 6 - 8 and 9 - 12
By studying the objects people leave behind, we can make key inferences into their daily lives. In this lesson, students will learn how historic artifacts are used to fill the blanks in our understanding of the past by piecing the stories of everyday Montanans.
Doorways into History
45 minutes | Grades 1 - 5
How do we organize history? Study artifacts from Montana’s history and learn how Museum curators and researchers understand the past. In teams, your class will look closely at a collection of peculiar artifacts (doorknobs) and seek to understand them as an MOR curator!
Traditional Native Games
50 minutes | Grades 1 - 5
Developed by the International Games Society, students will engage with a variety of traditional native games from Montana. Have fun and play the games that make Montana and its cultures unique.
Moon Impact!
45 minutes | Grades 3 - 5
No, the moon is not made of Swiss cheese! The marks, craters, and blemishes on our Moon are the result of thousands of meteors colliding with its surface over billions of years. In this workshop, we will explore how craters form, learn how to label their features and measure how their impact affects our Moon.
Astronauts in Training
45 minutes | Grades K - 2
Do you have the right stuff? In this fun-filled activity, students will start their training to become the next generation of space voyagers! Move your body and stretch your mind to see if you can make it to the final frontier.