School Field Trips

Computer Museum of America is a great place for school field trips whether you have a class of 10 or a team of 120!  We are close by in Roswell with easy access from GA 400 and there’s plenty of parking for school or charter buses.

Our exhibits cover a variety of Georgia Standards of Excellence in Math, Science, Social Studies, and of course, Computer Science.  Additionally, there are lots of opportunities to explore Art, Design, and Language Arts.  Your group of up to 120 students at a time can come for a self-guided visit or we can arrange guided tours and activities depending on the size of your group. 

There’s so much to see in our 35,000 sq ft of exhibits.  During your visit, you will see one of roughly 300 remaining Enigma machines to have survived since WWII, our Award-Winning STEAM Timeline, punch card machines, the BYTE magazine wall, and our Retrogaming area where you can play a game of Pac-Man™ or Donkey Kong™ on a vintage console as well as other games from the 80s.  Have you seen an original Apple I?  We have one, along with a plethora of historic personal computers; mini, mid-range, and mainframe computers, and one of the world’s largest collections of Cray supercomputers.  And just in case that isn’t enough, in our Space exhibit we also have an original Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) and Display Keyboard (DSKY).

Want to see more?  View the video below from The Science Detective, Police Detective Zack Kowalske as he introduces the museum.

What makes us a great destination:

• K – 3rd grades – Our Tech Tales program is a read-aloud STEM-based story and correlating craft or activity.
• 4th – 12th grades – We have guided tours that can include an activity/lesson and time in our hands-on area.
• We welcome groups of 10 students to 120 students.
• All groups can enjoy a small group experience via our app-based tour or guided tour rotations through the museum.
• Our museum is all on one level, with curb cut access from the parking lot.
• Large capacity restrooms are available in our entry lobby and within the museum to handle groups quickly.
• A space to eat lunch can be reserved, however, we do not sell food or drinks at the museum. 

Some of the short lessons and activities we offer to accompany your tour:

• Intro to Encryption (for younger students) – Learn three different ways to encode messages – Morse Code, Rail Cipher, Caesar Cipher.
• Intro to Encryption (for older students) – A station based activity decoding messages from Morse Code, Caesar Ciphers, Steganography, and Polybius Squares.
• Intro to Programming –  Computers not needed.  Can you get your classmate around a maze? or build a structure using words only?
• Intro to Binary – recommended for older students.  What is Base-2?  How do we use it and why?
• Team Work and Problem Solving – Can your team stack a set of cups without touching them?

Or for a different teen-friendly experience – NEW app-based tours using the Actionbound app
  Funding for this program is provided by Fulton County Board of Commissioners

• Museum staff/volunteers present to provide information and support students.
• Each ‘tour’ has questions related to the museum exhibits as well as Georgia Standards (GSE) for the grade level.
• Students can work in teams or alone using their own cell phones or wi-fi enabled tablets.
• App includes questions and activities like creating short videos or audio recordings, mini-tournaments, and links to informational videos.
• App can be pre-loaded prior to arrival, then appropriate ‘tour’ can be accessed via URL or QR code at the museum.
• Students will start in different areas of the museum to avoid traffic jams.
• Teachers can get a link to a report of their students responses at the end of the visit.

Things to consider before your visit:

• Admission Rates are $8.00 per student, $7.00 per students from Title I schools bringing 50 or more students.
• Our Tech Tales program for K – 3rd graders runs about one hour in length.
• A field trip for 4th – 12th grades usually takes 2-2.5 hours on average.
• Chaperones will be required to stay with their group throughout the visit.  One chaperone per 10 students is required.
• We do not allow food, drinks, or large bags/bookbags in the exhibit spaces.  Water, in a resealable plastic bottle, can be brought in if necessary.  Coats and bags can be stored during your visit.  

View the Georgia Standards of Excellence Grade Alignments for Elementary School, Middle School, and High School.