Did you know that you can book a private field trip at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire for your family and friends to all go together or plan it with your child’s school? It’s a great way to not only get an entire museum to yourself.
So what’s included?
- Admission to the museum
- A simple educational craft or activity
- Access to staff to ask questions and guide you through simulations and museum artifacts
- A day of fun! (Or at least 2 hours of it).
We took a small homeschool group to the museum and were able to enjoy gathering together in the front room to do a gravity art project before entering the exhibit area and learn the basics of gravity while also enjoying a quick book together.
This front room also housed several things such as toy airplanes and books and other hands-on materials which were perfect for the younger learners in our group.
The staff had set up a painting activity for us and the children were able to be as creative (and messy) as they wanted to be. They were encouraged to not just squirt and drop from the squeeze paint bottle, but to turn their canvases to utilize gravity as well! Our class was tailored to our specific private group needs in that we had children toddler through pre-teen. They all were able to participate and enjoy!
After this, we took off into the museum. Kids were able to climb into cockpits, move leavers, and press buttons to pretend that they were taking off but also to truly experience how it feels to be surrounded by a control panel in a plane.
There are some old arcade video game style simulators available for kids to “fly” a plane with the plane controller.
In the back room for adults and children that are old enough, there is a real flight simulator. The best part of the simulator is that the kids are flying over a real simulation of Manchester. So if they’re familiar with the area at all (or at least the highway), then they can see what it would actually look like to be in a plane overhead.
The same back room is filled with a collection of books that might be interesting to the avid aviation enthusiast.
Key topics to plan to talk about at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire
- Be sure to know which of their programming you will be enjoying. They have a variety of classes including things like the Solar System, Meteorology, the History of Aviation, and others outside of the Intro to Gravity one we experienced.
- Discuss how Air Traffic Control (ATC) and how it’s useful in aviation.
- Learn about Navigation and understand that an airplanes instruments are vital for maintaining the plane and why trusting the instrument panel is important.
- Talk about how the flight simulator is as real as you can get to flying a true plane and do a before and after of if kids would like to someday fly a real plane.
- Analyze the benefits of a flight simulator in learning to fly such as safety, building confidence, familiarizing oneself with the instrument panel, and familiarizing oneself with specific airports, runways, and areas to improve navigational abilities in the air.
Aviation Museum Field Trip Prep
- Gravity – No matter the age or level of understanding for the children you’re taking, gravity is a crucial idea in flight. There are so many ways both simple and complex that kids can explore gravity before and after they visit the museum.
- Flight instruments – looking through the way flight instruments are organized and how they’re used will make trying to use the simulator more fun and realistic. (And you’ll likely have more success too!)
- Discuss basic aerodynamics to be able to look at parts of planes in person with greater understanding.
- Work through the anatomy of an airplane so that the parts and functions will make more sense!
- Utilize the Video Library online to access educational presentations that have previously been hosted at the museum.
Other Destination and Resources to consider:
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