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.
We no longer accept field trip requests for the 2022-2023 school season. We look forward to seeing you and your students at MOR during the 2023-2024 season.
Planning your visit
- Make your reservation early! School group availability fills up fast - especially in April & May.
Requests for the 2022-2023 School Year must be submitted by May 1, 2023. - 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 students’ 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 406-994-5257.
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.
- Take advantage of our Classroom Resources (LINK) 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 Informatio to plan your 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 5 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:
- Monday, August 22 – Friday, December 17, 2022
- Monday, January 2 – Wednesday, June 10, 2023
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.
Partial reimbursement for travel costs 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.
The Taylor Planetarium at Museum of the Rockies offers Digistar 4K digital projection on a 40-foot dome. Developed by Evans & Sutherland, this state-of-the-art projection system allows visitors to experience our universe and our world in vivid colors, dramatic motion, and brilliant displays of light.
School groups are invited to visit the Taylor Planetarium with advanced reservations and may request a show that fits their classroom content.
Available and suggested planetarium shows
Suggested shows for each grade level based on Montana Science Content Standards & Model Curriculum Guides as well as show production, vocabulary, and content.
More planetarium shows are available per request or subject.
The Little Star That Could (Kindergarten, 1, and 2nd grade)
Physical Science: Construct an explanation based on observations of the effect of sunlight on the earth's surface.
Voyager: A Never-Ending Journey (2 – 12th grade)
Earth & Space Science: Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted. Physical Science: Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify various materials by their observable properties.
Supervolcanoes (6 – 12th grade)
Earth & Space Science: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time scales and spatial scales, and develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.