Get lost in learning at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site!
NPS Photo 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.
Elementary School Field Trip Programs Each standards-based, age specific program is designed to be 30 minutes. When filling out the field trip form below, please include which programs you are most interested in doing.
The 3 voyages program is designed for elementary 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 American 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.
This program puts the decision-making in the hands of the students and has them disect the information they've been given. They have to work together to make a decision based on the evidence they have.
In this program, students are broken up in field teams of archeologists. They are sifting through the types of artifacts that have been found on the grounds of Fort Raleigh to try and determine the history and use of a location. They are given a bag of items which represent artifacts found here. They are tasks with describing the objects, trying to determine their usefulness, and writing down their idea for what the colonists were doing at the site. They then pair up with another field team who has different objects. They share information, just as archeologists do, and learn more about what another dig has uncovered on the site. They learn from each other and revise what they think was happening on the grounds. They then come together as a whole class and share their objects and all try to discuss what they think happened on the grounds, making a final assessment based on everything they have learned.
This program is great to have students learn to take in new information and revise their decisions. They have to continue to keep an open mind about the grounds as they learn more information from others. They also are challenged with thinking about what people use objects for and how they may have contributed to the history of the site.
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.
This program is good to touch on STEAM topics as well as get students outside aborbing their surroundings. It also challenges them to think about how other people have seen things and demonstrate how hard the transfer of information is from one person to another during Elizabethan times.
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.
This program is good to have students lead themselves through exploration of a museum space and find what they are drawn towards. It also challenges them to learn about why another person chose something different and why. Middle School Field Trip Programs
The 3 voyages program is for middle school 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 American 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.
This program puts the decision-making in the hands of the students and has them disect the information they've been given. They have to work together to make a decision based on the evidence they have.
In this program designed for middle school students, the ranger will lead the group out to 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 come up with their own solutions to protect the fragile archeology on Roanoke Island.
This program helps students to become problem-solvers and create their own unique solutions to complex problems. They get to develop their own ideas and share with the group what they would do if faced with a challenging issue.
In this program at the Waterside Theater, the students will learn about the disappearance of the Lost Colony and how their have been many theories about what happen to them ever since. They will also be introduced to the Waterside Theater, a large outdoor theater and the Lost Colony Drama, an outdoor symphonic play which tells one possible theory of what happened to the colonists. Students will then be broken up into small groups with each group given one of the theories behind the Lost Colony. Each group will take the stage acting out their theory for their classmates. The program concludes with a lesson on evaluating sources of information and evidence for the theories of what happened.
This program is good for a group of students who have talked about the theories already or are drawn to being active through learning. It will also challenge them to be outgoing on stage and think on their feet to come up with a way to demonstrate their theory on their own. Fort Raleigh Field Trip Request FormNPS Form 10-1750 (Rev. 04/2021) OMB Control No. 1024-0228 NoticesPrivacy Act StatementAuthority: 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 StatementWe 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 StatementPublic 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. |
Last updated: August 28, 2026