Field Trips

There are a limited number of field trips available for the 2023/2024 school year. If you are interested in requesting a winter or spring field trip, please submit a reservation request below.

We will open for 2024/2025 field trip reservations on April 1, 2024.

Requesting a Field Trip Reservation

Reservations are required for all youth and student groups coming to the museum.

Visits must be booked at least two weeks in advance to guarantee availability.

After you submit a field trip request, you will receive a confirmation email within 3 weeks. In the event that we cannot accommodate your request, we will contact you to make alternative arrangements.

Scholarships and bus reimbursement funds are available to schools that qualify.

For program descriptions, costs, and availability, please review the information below.

Self-Guided School Year Explorations

A self-guided field trip is ideal for groups who wish to bring their own activity and explore at their own pace.

MOHAI educators greet groups, offer storage for lunches and coats, provide a quick orientation to the space, and are available to answer questions throughout the visit. MOHAI provides grade banded scavenger hunts for use in small, chaperone-led groups. Teachers may elect to design and bring their own activity. Activities are required for self-guided field trips. View additional educator materials for activity ideas.

Grade Level: Pre-K—Grade 12

Price: $50 per group of 10-30 students

Duration: 2 hours. If you are seeking alternative arrangements, please note in your booking form and our coordinator will contact you.

Please be aware that our reservation window does not account for lunch. Your school is welcomed to eat lunch in the park before or after the field trip at your leisure.

Available: September 21, 2023-December 15, 2023, January 16, 2024-June 2024; Monday-Friday, 10 am-4:30 pm

Accommodations: 3 classes, up to 90 students; one chaperone for every six students required, up to one chaperone for every two students are included in the field trip fee (additional chaperones must pay regular admission rates).

Request a Field Trip Now

Creating Our Community

This guided program offers students an in-depth look at the working life of early Puget Sound residents.

Through role-playing activities and hands-on artifact analysis, students experience the daily routines of various workers while learning how these occupations work together within a community, both in history and today. Visit includes additional self-guided gallery time.

Grade Level: K–Grade 2

Price: $200 per group of 10-30 students

Duration: 1 hour per group

Available: September 21, 2023-December 15, 2023, January 16, 2024-June 2024; Monday-Friday, 10 am-2 pm

Accommodations: 30 students max per program, up to 3 programs (90 students) per day; one chaperone for every six students required, up to one chaperone for every two students are included in the field trip fee (additional chaperones must pay regular admission rates).

Request a Field Trip Now

Cracking the History Code: Salish Stories

A part of the Cracking the History Code series, Salish Stories focuses on the Coast Salish communities of the Puget Sound.

Students play a game that involves listening to stories, looking at historic photos, and handling artifacts crafted by local artists to discover the culture, history, language, and lifeways of Puget Sound’s first peoples. Visit includes additional self-guided gallery time.

Grade Level: Grades 3-5

Price: $200 per group of 10-30 students

Duration: 1 hour per group

Available: September 21, 2023-December 15, 2023, January 16, 2024-June 2024; Monday-Friday, 10 am-2 pm

Accommodations: 30 students max per program, up to 3 programs (90 students) per day; one chaperone for every six students required, up to one chaperone for every two students are included in the field trip fee (additional chaperones must pay regular admission rates).

Request a Field Trip Now

Cracking the History Code: Settling Around the Sound

A part of the Cracking the History Code series, this guided program engages students in a game that uses real artifacts, photos, and documents to uncover historical events.

Students investigate the challenges that faced five different groups of people traveling to or living in the Puget Sound region during its early history. Visit includes additional self-guided gallery time.

Grade Level: Grades 3-5

Price: $200 per group of 10-30 students

Duration: 1 hour per group

Available: September 21, 2023-December 15, 2023, January 16, 2024-June 2024; Monday-Friday, 10 am-2 pm

Accommodations: 30 students max per program, up to 3 programs (90 students) per day; one chaperone for every six students required, up to one chaperone for every two students are included in the field trip fee (additional chaperones must pay regular admission rates).

Request a Field Trip Now

Hands on History

Hands on History is a new program offering a flexible field trip option designed to engage students wherever they are on their learning journey. This program was designed with mixed-age and mixed-skill classrooms in mind but is adaptable to fit a variety of classroom structures and student needs.

At the heart of the program is a facilitated, hands-on primary source and artifact investigation, with a selection of activities chosen by MOHAI Educators to tailor the experience to specifically fit your group’s needs.

Choose a topic:

  • Settling Around the Sound (Grades 2–12) – Students will investigate primary sources reflecting different groups of people traveling to or living in the Puget Sound region during the 1800s. Students then use their findings to reveal what daily life was like in the Puget Sound in this time period.
    • People – Coast Salish peoples, explorers, traders, Oregon trail, farming/settlement.
  • Seattle Innovation & Industries (Grades 4–12) – Students will investigate primary sources from five key Washington industries that have a strong history of innovation and an outsized impact on the history and economy of the region. Through exploring methods of problem solving within these industries, students will reflect on the skills required to innovate successfully, such as creativity, risk, collaboration, and observation.
    • Industries – fishing, aviation, medical, computers, logging.
  • Community Snapshots: Photographs of Al Smith (Grades 2–12) – Students will explore the photographs of Al Smith plus additional primary sources to explore life in the Central District in the mid-20th century. Students will look at examples of the people and places that make up a community, consider how points of view influences historic documentation, and examine the ways people shape and are shaped by their communities.
    • Themes focus on different aspects of a local community – family and friends, gathering places, businesses.

After receiving your reservation request, we will contact you with questions to help MOHAI’s educators pick the best activities and resources for your group.

Grade Level: Grades 2-12

Price: $225 per group of 10-30 students

Duration: 1 hour per group

Available: September 21, 2023-December 15, 2023, January 16, 2024-June 2024; Monday-Friday, 10 am-2 pm

Accommodations: 30 students maximum per program, up to 2 programs (60 students) per day; one chaperone for every six students required, up to one chaperone for every two students maximum included under the group rate are included in the field trip fee (additional chaperones must pay regular museum admission rates).

Due to the individualized nature of this program, booking is required 4 weeks minimum ahead of field trip date.

Request a Field Trip Now

Self-Guided Summer Field Trips

A self-guided field trip is ideal for groups who wish to explore at their own pace.

MOHAI staff greet groups, offer storage for lunches and coats, provide a quick orientation to the museum, and are available to answer questions throughout the visit. MOHAI provides grade banded scavenger hunts for use in small, chaperone-led groups. Activities are required for self-guided field trips.

Grade Level: Pre-K–Grade 12

Price: $50 per group of 10-30 students

Duration: 2 hours. If you are seeking alternative arrangements, please note in your booking form and our coordinator will contact you.

Please be aware that our reservation window does not account for lunch. Your school is welcome to eat lunch in the park before or after the field trip at your leisure.

Available: June 20-August 31, 2024, Monday-Friday, 10 am-2 pm

Accommodations: Up to 60 students; one chaperone for every six students required, up to one chaperone for every two students (additional chaperones must pay regular admission rates) are included in the field trip fee (additional chaperones must pay regular admission rates).

Request a Self-guided Summer Field Trip

Homeschool Group Information

MOHAI education is excited to host homeschool cooperatives, unschoolers, ALE, and similar mixed-age/grade groups. We do require reservations for all groups.

Download our Homeschool Group Information pdf for answers to frequently asked questions. Please feel free to reach out to education@mohai.org with specific questions.

Homeschool Group FAQ

Request a Homeschool Group Field Trip

Bus Parking Information

Find out where to park buses and ways to navigate South Lake Union.
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