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 free 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 Digital Tour based on your grade level GSE or a Traditional Guided Tour. 

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 variety of games on vintage consoles 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?  We’ve got something for everyone!

• K – 3rd grades – Our Tech Tales program is a read-aloud STEM-based story and correlating craft or activity.
• 4th – 12th grades – We have tours that can include an activity/lesson and time in our hands-on area.
• All groups can enjoy a small group experience via our app-based tour or guided tour rotations through the museum.
• We welcome groups of 10 students to 120 students.
• 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 rented for lunches that you bring in or have delivered. 

For a different teen-friendly experience – try our NEW Digital Tours
Funding for this program is provided by Fulton County Board of Commissioners

Each ‘tour’ has questions related to the museum exhibits as well as Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE) for your grade level.
Museum staff/volunteers present to provide information and support students.
Tours are Cross-Curricular – STEM+  Language Arts, Design, Social Studies – it’s all there!
Students can work in teams of 2 – 4 students using their own cell phones or wi-fi enabled tablets or our iPads.
Tour includes questions and activities like creating short videos or audio recordings, mini-tournaments, and links to informational videos.
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 and created media at the end of the visit.
Promote team building, problem solving, and creative thinking!

Want more?  You can add a classroom lesson or activity to your Digital Tour.  See more below.

Some of the short lessons and activities that you can add to 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?
• Binary and the Apollo Missions – What is Binary and can you encode it to ‘program’ Core Rope Memory?
• Binary and Secret Messages to Mars – Can you unravel the message secretly sent to MARS?
• Silicon and the Periodic Table – Chemical Bonds and Semi-conductors.
• Team Work and Problem Solving – Can your team stack a set of cups without touching them?

Tech Tales for our younger explorers in PreK – 3rd grade

• Tech Tales visits last about 1.5 hours to help with shorter attention spans.
• Your classes will hear a STEAM based story read aloud to the group. 
• The story is followed by a craft or activity that is related to the story.
• The kids will create something that they can take home with them.
• There will then be a short tour of our Space exhibit and/or Timeline area.

Things to consider before your visit:

• Admission Rates start at $8.00 per student or $7.00 per student from Title I schools bringing 50 or more students.
• Our Tech Tales program for PreK – 3rd graders runs about 1 – 1.5 hours 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 and included free.
• Food, drinks, and large bags/bookbags are not allowed in the exhibit spaces.  Teacher’s Medical/Emergency Backpacks are allowed.  
• 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