Field Trips

Get lost in learning at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site!

 

More than its mystery! Fort Raleigh National Historic Site has miles of trails and an abundance of natural resources to explore and discover!

NPS Photo

Bringing your class to Fort Raleigh National Historic Site can be a rewarding experience. School groups may attend one of our ranger-led programs or you may prefer a self-guided tour of the park grounds and visitor center museum.

Whether you want to have a ranger-guided field trip experience at Fort Raleigh or you want to come and self-guide, please fill out the park's Field Trip Request Form below. Filling out the form will let us plan for all types of groups. When the form is complete, please click to submit which will send your form via email to park staff. Staff will then respond to your email confirming your request.

With our visitor center you can have a great experience even when self-guiding. With exhibits telling the stories of the Carolina Alonquian and the first English colony, you can explore a little slice of Elizabethan England in North Carolina. Or you can lead your students on an adventure hike down the Freedom Trail and learn about the Civil War on Roanoke Island and the enslaved peple who found refuge on the island. And no visit to Fort Raleigh is complete before stopping off at the Waterside Theater and getting a great class photo

We also offer several in-person ranger-led experiences for classes of all ages. And if you have specific requests or interests let us know! Our rangers can adapt to the needs or wants of your class and create a special and unique field trip to Fort Raleigh. Below is a list of the in-person programs you can select for your visit to Fort Raleigh. Each program is approximately 30 minutes and can be mixed and match to your liking.

 

If you have any questions about how to book a field trip, please email the park and staff members will respond as soon as possible.

 

Fort Raleigh Education Programs

3rd-5th Grade: Be an Artist, Be a Scientist

In this program for upper elementary school students, the ranger will take them out into the maritime forest of Fort Raleigh and show them what the area look like during English colonization. When they arrive, they will be given a paper and pencil and they will be tasked to imitate John White, the artist, and Thomas Hariot, the scientist, who came on the English voyages to the New World. In a game of Telestrations, students will be asked to spread out in the forest and like John White, draw the natural world to share it with others. After they draw their picture, they will trade with with another classmate and then they will be a Thomas Hariot scientist and describe the drawing as a scientist describes the natural world. They will continue to trade papers up to 4 times each time going back and forth drawing and describing the natural world and learning about the difficulty the English people had trying to explain what they found when they returned to England. 

3rd-5th Grade: Museum Item Exploration

In this indoor partially ranger-led program, a park ranger will distribute a museum activity packet, pencils, and clipboards to students and ask them to explore the museum artifacts within the Fort Raleigh Visitor Center. The students pair up are tasked with reading the exhibits and choosing their favorite museum artifacts, but each student has to chose an object different from their partner. They will draw the item, they will describe the items, and then they will write about why they think it is an important object and why it is in the museum. They will then share with their partner what they chose and why and then talk with them about what object of their own they would choose to put into a museum. This activity is meant to encourage exploration of the visitor center, but also encourage their critical thinking skills about why museums and the artifacts in them are important. 

4th-8th Grade: 3 Voyages Program

The 3 voyages program is designed for 4th-8th grade students and focuses on the attempted English colonization of the Outer Banks in the 1580s, the mystery of the Lost Colony, and the interaction of Algonquian and English culture here. Students will learn about the Native Algonquian culture of the Outer Banks from the ranger and show them that pieces of Algonquian culture has become part of the Ameican culture. The students will then be broken up into three small groups. Each group is given information about one of the three voyages to the Outer Banks. After sharing their information with their group, they are challenged to decide if they are the first voyage: Exploration, second voyage: Conquest, or third voyage: Settlement. After they decide the ranger will talk with them about each voyage and what it meant for the English people as well as the Algonquian people and how it resulted in the mystery of the Lost Colony. 

6-8th Grade: Archeology X Climate Change

In this program designed for middle school students, the ranger will lead the group out to the the Fort Raleigh beach overlooking the rest of the Outer Banks. While there, the ranger will put a series of quotes about "loss". Each student will read all the quotes and stand next to the quote that is most impactful for them and then they will share with their group why they chose that quote. Then one member of each group will share what they talked about and why that quote was meaningful to them. The ranger will then lead a discussion about the loss of the Fort Raleigh shoreline and the loss of archeologic resources because of the shoreline erosion. They will talk about the archeology of Fort Raleigh, barrier island dynamics, the effects of climate change in the Outer Banks. Then the students will try and come up with their own solutions to prevent more shoreline erosion and how to protect the history of Fort Raleigh. 

 

Fort Raleigh Field Trip Request Form

NPS Form 10-1750 (Rev. 04/2021)
National Park Service

OMB Control No. 1024-0228
Expiration Date 11/30/2025

Learning Accommodations

Does anyone in your group need any accommodations?

Yes No

If yes, describe the accommodation need.

Next Step

School / Organization Contact Information

School / Organization Name (required)

Name of Requester/Contact Person (required)

Title / Position (required)

Contact Email Address (required)

Contact Phone Number (required)
123-456-7890 extension if any

Mailing Address (required)

City (required)

State (required)

Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas Armed Forces - Americas Armed Forces - Europe Armed Forces - Pacific California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Mariana Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

ZIP (required)
Five digit ZIP code [99999]

Next Step

Group Details - Park Visit/ Field Trip

Name of Primary Contact Visiting if Different Than Above (optional)

Title / Position of Primary Contact if Different Than Above (optional)

Email Address of Primary Contact if Different Than Above (optional)

Phone Number of Primary Contact if Different Than Above (optional)
Format: 123-456-7890

Program Name or Subject Requested/Self-Guided

Grade Level(s) of Students (required)

Number of Staff / Chaperones (required)

Number of Students (required)

Preferred Date of Visit (required)
format mmddyyyy

My preferred date has been confirmed by the park (required)

Yes No

Preferred Program Start Time (required)

Alternative Date(s) (required)
Enter one or more dates .

Anticipated Arrival Time (required)

Anticipated Departure Time (required)

Mode of Transportation (required)

Disclaimer:

A park representative will follow-up to confirm group details once this request has been received and reviewed.

Submit my Education Reservation Request

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NPS Form 10-1750 (Rev. 04/2021)
National Park Service

OMB Control No. 1024-0228
Expiration Date 11/31/2025

Notices

Privacy Act Statement

Authority: Public Law 114-289 National Park Service Centennial Act and 54 U.S.C. 100701 Protection, interpretation, and research in System.

Purpose: To administer education programs for education audiences including but not limited to school groups, scouting groups, extracurricular groups, and home school groups.

Routine Uses: To effectively manage requests for education received by the NPS, the Education Reservation Request Form is used to collect basic education reservation information to facilitate operational aspects of scheduling groups for park education programs, including in-park education programs, ranger in classroom programs, and/or online distance learning programs.

Disclosure: Voluntary, however, failure to provide the requested information may impede the ability to grant your education reservation request.

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement

We are collecting this information subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501) to provide park managers and educators the information needed to schedule and conduct education program activities. All applicable parts of the form must be completed in order for your request to be considered. You are not required to respond to this or any other Federal agency-sponsored information collection unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. OMB has approved this collection of information and assigned control number 1024-0288.

Estimated Burden Statement

Public reporting for this collection of information is estimated to average 5 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the Information Collection Clearance Officer, National Park Service, 1201 Oakridge Drive, Fort Collins, CO 80525. Do not send your completed form to this address.