The ADKX is closed for the remainder of 2021 but check back often for updates about our 2022 season!
Contact Us
9097 State Route 30, P.O. Box 99
Blue Mountain Lake, NY 12812
Field Trips to the ADKX
We want your ADKX field trip to be as enjoyable as possible!
This video was produced pre-Covid, all school groups will need to follow the current safety guidelines mandated by NYS when visiting.
To alleviate some of the stress of planning, we have compiled these 7 Experience Packages, based on what is most popular with students and teachers. Not seeing what you need? Contact us to help you design a custom field trip experience. Remember, field trips are offered FREE OF CHARGE for any school in any county that is part of the Adirondack Park.
All field trips include:
- An orientation video sent before the trip to familiarize you and your students with the museum and its facilities.
- A chaperone letter for you to share with your chaperones.
- An educator who will greet you at your bus and escort you to a communal lunch storage location.
The Free Spirit Experience
Appropriate for students of all ages
The best option for groups with limited time (< 3 hours)! With 24 exhibit spaces, there is plenty for your students and chaperones to experience and explore at their own pace!
To view a map of our museum and grounds, click here.
Exhibits not to miss:
Life in the Adirondacks – our 19,000 square foot, fully immersive exhibition
Feeding the Trout – 12:30 pm daily at the Marion River Carry Pavilion
The Reising Schoolhouse & Kid’s Cabin – a favorite with visitors of all ages!
Bowling – An interactive experience especially for school groups! Located near the Log Hotel
Scat Throw – An interactive experience especially for school groups! Learn how to identify some common mammal signs. Located outside the Mark. W Potter Education Center
Adirondack Undead: The Wilderness Survival Experience
Best for 5th grade and older
The zombie apocalypse is upon us! Team up your students for the Adirondack Undead challenge. As students visit each exhibit, they use their creativity and critical thinking skills to locate items that will help them survive when the zombies arrive. Points are earned for each item found, so friendly competition between teams is encouraged.
Download the Adirondack Undead Guidebook.
(For best results, print double-sided, landscape on 8.5”x 11” (letter) paper, and flip on the short edge. Fold in half to create a booklet.)
Exhibits not to miss:
Life in the Adirondacks – our 19,000 square foot, fully immersive exhibition
Woods & Waters – a favorite for hunting and fishing aficionados
Work in the Woods – explore the history of the logging industry
ADK Science Xpert Experience
Best for 4th and 8th grade
Real stories, Real adventure, Real SCIENCE! This experience is designed as a review of material covered on the NYS Science Assessment for 4th and 8th grade. Experiences for other grades are based on the Next Generation Science Standards. Students find challenges in the exhibits that ask them to use their knowledge of science to solve real-life applications of what they have learned in the classroom.
Download the Science Xpert Guidebooks:
4th Grade | 8th Grade
(For best results, print double-sided, landscape on 8.5” x 11” (letter) paper and flip on the short edge. Fold in half to create a booklet.)
Exhibits not to miss:
Life in the Adirondacks – our 19,000 square foot, fully immersive exhibition
Woods & Waters – a favorite for hunting and fishing aficionados
Merwin Hill Pavilion – features an outdoor exhibit on birds and birding
The Incredible Journey: A Transportation Experience
Best for PreK-1
Discover the ways people of the past traveled around the mountains, lakes and roads of the Adirondacks! Your youngest students will work with their chaperones and group leaders to Find artifacts in our exhibits, Imagine and Share their thoughts on how travel long ago differs from the ways we travel today, and Do short activities that help them take a closer look.
Download the Transportation Guidebook.
(For best results, print double-sided, landscape on 11” x 17” (menu) paper and flip on the short edge. Fold in half to create a booklet.)
Exhibits not to miss:
Life in the Adirondacks – our 19,000 square foot, fully immersive exhibition
Boats and Boating – spanning the history of transportation by water
The Reising Schoolhouse & Kid’s Cabin – a favorite with visitors of all ages!
Feeding the Trout – 12:30 pm daily at the Marion River Carry Pavilion
The Naturalist Experience
Best for PreK-2
Enjoy our grounds and gardens as you admire the natural world around you. Look for and identify birds with the help of informative panels scattered around campus. Learn about some of the common Adirondack tree species with our Tree ID Scavenger hunt.
Download the Tree ID Guidebook.
(For best results print double-sided, portrait on 8.5” x 14” (legal) paper, and flip on the long edge.)
Exhibits not to miss:
Life in the Adirondacks – our 19,000 square foot, fully immersive exhibition
Woods & Waters – a favorite for hunting and fishing aficionados
Merwin Hill Pavilion – features an outdoor exhibit on birds and birding
Adirondack Tough
Best for grades 6-8
Explore how the industries of logging and mining left their mark on the Adirondack region. Become a lumberjack – try out the tools of the trade, and drive logs through a simulated body of water. Make a “blast” at the mine pit, then create and take sandpaper from locally processed garnet, a precious resource in the region.
This is an educator-led experience. Students must be in groups of 25 participants or less. This experience is recommended for small groups and groups with ample time to visit the museum. With each program lasting 90 minutes and supporting a maximum of 25 students at a time, it can be difficult for very large groups with limited time to cycle all students through the program AND experience all the museum has to offer. Long pants and closed-toe footwear are required to participate in this program.
Living Threads: Adirondack Ecosystems Unraveled
Variations for grades PreK-6
This is an educator-led experience. Students will be broken into class-sized groups and participate in a 30-45 minute program in which they investigate the interdependent links that have affected the plants, animals, and humans who share this amazing ecosystem.
This experience is recommended for small groups and groups with ample time to visit the museum. With each program lasting 30-45 minutes and supporting a maximum of 25 students at a time, it can be difficult for very large groups with limited time to cycle all students through the program AND experience all the museum has to offer. All or part of this program occurs outdoors and is weather-dependent.
Variations are described below:
SOMETHING FISHY
Best for Pre-K – Kindergarten
A short, fun class for little ones that you can pair with your museum visit! The focus of this class is our pond stocked with brook and rainbow trout. Through fun, hands-on activities, your students will learn why fish are important, what their lifecycle looks like, what they eat, and how to tell the two species apart. This program culminates with one of our most popular experiences – fish feeding!
CAMOUFLAGE
Best for Grades 1-2
How does camouflage help an animal to survive? Students immerse themselves in camouflage with a high-energy relay race to answer this question. To wind down, we end with a camouflage scavenger hunt in one of our exhibits.
MIGRATION
Best for Grade 3
Migration is a long and dangerous journey undertaken by many species of birds. Students will take on the role of a feathered Adirondack summer resident to experience first-hand the natural and human-created challenges of migration in an obstacle course simulation. Students will further explore human impacts on the ecosystem in an exhibit scavenger hunt. A variation of this program focused on salmon migration is also available upon request.
ATTACK OF THE MINI-BEASTS
Best for Grades 3-4
They’ve taken over! We’re talking about bugs, of course. Students will gather invertebrates from a variety of micro-habitats around the museum campus. They will examine the interdependent relationships of invertebrates, plants, animals and the local habitat and then identify, classify and study the organisms.
HOW MANY BEARS CAN LIVE IN THIS FOREST?
Best for Grade 4
Why aren’t our forests overflowing with bears, moose and other animals? We take a closer look at what livings things need to survive and learn about carrying capacity and limiting factors on population growth. Students gain a true understanding of competition for resources in an every-bear-for-itself simulation game. The program concludes with a discussion and scavenger hunt about human impacts on the ecosystem.
ENERGY PIPELINE
Best for Grades 5-6
We know all energy comes from the sun, but do we really understand how that energy cycles and is utilized throughout the food web? Students assume the roles of producers, consumers and decomposers in a competitive relay simulation of the energy pipeline from the sun through the food chain.
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