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Field Trip Learning Labs

Onsite Learning for Your Students

Join WAVE in standards-based aquatic explorations that complement your trip to Newport Aquarium. These 45-minute add-on programs will have your students using science to learn about the natural world. There is also an optional opportunity to meet one of the aquarium’s ambassador animals! 

Book with Newport Aquarium Here

Kindergarten - 2nd Grade

What is Water? A Water Exploration

This program will have students diving deep into the wonderous world of water. We will explore the water cycle and discover where water can be found on Earth.

During the experience, students will reflect on how water affects them and how they affect water, experiment with watersheds, and create a river in a sensory bin to experience water ecosystems in a tactile manner. Students will also learn how small actions can make a big difference in saving our waterways!

*There is an optional add on to meet one of the aquarium’s ambassador animals for all field trip experiences. 

  • 1.ESS.2: Water on Earth is present in many forms. The physical properties of water can change. These changes occur due to changing energy. Water can change from a liquid to a solid and from a solid to a liquid 
  • 2.ESS.2: Water is present in the atmosphere. Water is present in the atmosphere as water vapor. When water vapor in the atmosphere cools, it forms clouds, fog, rain, ice, snow, sleet or hail. 
  • 1.LS.1: Living things have basic needs, which are met by obtaining materials from the physical environment. Living things require energy, water, and a particular range of temperatures in their environments. Plants get energy from sunlight. Animals get energy from plants and other animals. Living things acquire resources from the living and nonliving components of the environment. 
  • 2-ESS2-3: Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid. 

3rd - 5th Grade

Animal Survival Exploration

In this program, students will focus on how animals survive in the wild, and discover how animals and humans affect each other.

Students will explore adaptations, ecosystems, and the transfer of energy while learning what we can do to help wild animals and wild places. We will experiment with different animal adaptations and investigate how human interference affects the environment.

*There is an optional add on to meet one of the aquarium’s ambassador animals for all field trip experiences. 

  • 3.LS.1: Offspring resemble their parents and each other.  
  • 3.LS.2: Individuals of the same kind of organism differ in their inherited traits. These differences give some individuals an advantage in surviving and/or reproducing.  
  • 3.LS.3: Plants and animals have life cycles that are part of their adaptations for survival in their natural environments. 
  • 4.LS.1: Changes in an organism’s environment are sometimes beneficial to its survival and sometimes harmful. 
  • 5.LS.1 Organisms perform a variety of roles in an ecosystem.  
  • 5.LS.2 All of the processes that take place within organisms require energy. 
  • 3-LS2-1 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics. Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive. 
  • 3-LS3-2 Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment. 
  • 3-LS4-3 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. 
  • 3-LS4-4 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity. Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change 
  • 4-LS1-1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. 
  • 5-PS3-1 Energy. Use models to describe that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the sun. 
  • 5-LS2-1 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment. 

Middle School

Tectonic Rock Exploration

In this program, 6th-8th grade students will be stepping into the boots of geologists and volcanologists, exploring plate tectonics and ways the Earth moves.

Students will learn how scientists use data from fossils to unearth the secrets of the past through hands-on experiences. Join us as we go through the process of fossil identification, explore tectonic plate movement, and experiment with hydrothermal vents. By learning about the world around us we can grow to become environmental stewards!

*There is an optional add on to meet one of the aquarium’s ambassador animals for all field trip experiences. 

  • Grade 6 
    • 6.ESS.4: Soil is unconsolidated material that contains nutrient matter and weathered rock. 
    • 6.ESS.5: Rocks, mineral and soils have common and practical uses.
  • Grade 7 
    • 7.ESS.2: Thermal-energy transfers in the ocean and the atmosphere contribute to the formation of currents, which influence global climate patterns. 
    • 7.LS.2: In any particular biome, the number, growth and survival of organisms and populations depend on biotic and abiotic factors.
  • Grade 8 
    • 8.ESS.1: The composition and properties of Earth’s interior are identified by the behavior of seismic waves. 
    • 8.ESS.2: Earth’s lithosphere consists of major and minor tectonic plates that move relative to each other. 
    • 8.ESS.3: A combination of constructive and destructive geologic processes formed Earth’s surface. 
    • 8.ESS.4: Evidence of the dynamic changes of Earth’s surface through time is found in the geologic record. 
  • MS-LS4-1 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity. Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past. 
  • MS-ESS1-4 Earth’s Place in the Universe. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history. 
  • MS-ESS2-3 Earth’s Systems. Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions. 
  • MS-ESS3-1 Earth and Human Activity. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth’s mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes. 

High School

Water Chemistry Exploration

Students will experiment with the reactive world of hydrochemistry in this program. 

Join us as we discuss water conservation and use hydrochemistry to test the water quality of the Ohio River, and explore real life examples of water conservation. Students will test salinity, density, and water quality as they investigate the science of water and how it impacts the Earth.

*There is an optional add on to meet one of the aquarium’s ambassador animals for all field trip experiences. 

  • ENV.ER.3a: Identify a consequence and solution to water pollution (e.g. Clean Water Act). 
  • ENV.ER.3b: Identify ways that humans have changed the global water supply (e.g. water quality).  
  • ENV.ER.3c: Identify types of water pollution 
  • ENV.GP.2a: Describe a way to preserve potable water on Earth.  
  • ENV.GP.2b: Identify a way humans have changed the global water quality.  
  • ENV.GP.2c: Identify a fresh water source. 
  • HS-ESS2-5 Earth’s Systems. Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.