Virtual Field Trips
Looking for On-Site Field Trips? Click Here.
To better fit into your schedule and classes, we have expanded our virtual field trips to now include:
For questions about virtual field trips, see our FAQs.
Virtual Field Trip Options
Classes Featuring Artifacts: (Mondays Only, 30 minutes, minimum of 20 students)
Mystery Artifact classes will give students the opportunity to see artifacts from our teaching collection from all angles. Students will work through a series of questions to analyze the items as primary sources and then determine what the artifact is and how it was used.
Mystery Artifact - First Peoples - SSP.01, SSP.02, SSP.03, SSP.04, SSP.05, SSP.06, 3.19, 5.27, 5.28, 6.01, 6.02, 7.54, 7.55
In this session, your students will be presented with three objects representing life for the First Peoples of Tennessee. The artifact selection will include: an atlatl hook, axe head, and nutcracker.
Download the Informational Packet
Mystery Artifact - Life on the Tennessee Frontier - SSP.01, SSP.02, SSP.03, SSP.04, SSP.05, 3.18, 3.31, 4.21, 4.22, 8.28, 8.52
In this session, your students will be presented with five objects representing life on the Tennessee frontier in the 1700s. The artifact selection will include: a cotton card, mortar and pestle, candle mold, chamber pot, and butter mold.
Download the Informational Packet
Mystery Artifact - Civil War Medicine - SSP.01, SSP.02, SSP.03, SSP.04, SSP.05
In this session, your students will be presented with five objects representing methods of medical treatment on the battlefield during the Civil War. The artifact selection will include: a bone file, pill roller, conical trephine, and a wooden stethoscope.
Download the Informational Packet
Mystery Artifact - Tennessee at the Turn of the Century - SSP.01, SSP.02, SSP.03, SSP.04, SSP.05, SSP.06, 5.05, 5.14, 5.22
In this session, your students will be presented with three objects representing the ways in which technology and culture were changing in Tennessee from 1860-1945. The artifact selection will include: a phonograph cylinder, a wooden textile spool, and an ice hook.
Download the Informational Packet
Costumed Interpretations: (Mondays Only, 30 minutes, minimum of 20 students)
Costumed interpretations give students the opportunity to interact with an educator dressed in a historic costume. Students will be presented with information about the figure’s life and the time period that they were living in.
Costumed – Long Hunter - SSP.01, SSP.02, SSP.03, SSP.04, SSP.05, SSP.06, 3.11, 3.12, 3.20, 3.22, 3.29, 3.30, 3.31, 4.01, 5.28, 8.28, TN.05, TN.06, TN.11, TN.12, TN.16
Long Hunters were some of the first explorers of European descent to enter what would become Tennessee, and the first European-descendant interaction many Native American tribes had. Talk to a Long Hunter about why they traveled into Tennessee, what they would have carried with them, interactions with Native American tribes, and of course, why we call them Long Hunters today.
Download the Informational Packet
Costumed - Civil War Soldier - SSP.01, SSP.02, SSP.03, SSP.04, SSP.05, SSP.06, 4.25, 4.27, 4.30, 5.41, 8.62
The daily life of a Civil War soldier included far more than battles. Students will learn what soldiers would have worn, what they would have eaten, how they would set up camp, and how they kept themselves entertained.
Download the Informational Packet
Guided Tours of the Museum Galleries: (Mondays Only, 30 minutes, minimum of 20 students)
Students will be led, virtually, through the museum galleries with a museum educator highlighting artifacts that help tell the story of Tennessee's history.
First Peoples - SSP.01, 3.19, 3.22, 5.27, 5.28
Who were the first people to live in the Tennessee area? What were their lives like? Join us as we explore the prehistoric Native American artifacts in our collection and learn how these objects tell us about our state’s past. We will cover Paleo, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods.
Download the Additional Resources Sheet
African Americans in Early Tennessee - 3.27, 3.31, 4.19, 4.21, 4.22, 8.34, 8.35, 8.36, AAH.06, AAH.07, AAH.11, AAH.12, TN.27
Explore with us the often-overlooked contributions and lives of African Americans in Tennessee’s early history. We will look at personal stories of individuals that lived here in Tennessee from before we were a state to pre-Civil War.
Download the Additional Resources Sheet
Becoming Tennessee (Frontier) - SSP.01, SSP.05, 3.31, 4.01 5.29, 5.30, 5.33, 5.34, 5.35, 5.36, 5.40, 8.13, 8.28, AAH.07, TN.09, TN.12, TN.24
How did Tennessee go from a sparsely populated frontier to a center of national politics? Follow us from the early attempts to become a state to the Age of Jackson when people from Tennessee were at the center of major national issues through the eyes of Native American tribes, African Americans who were enslaved, and white settlers.
Download the Additional Resources Sheet
The Cherokee & Chickasaw: Their Life, Culture, & Removal - SSP.01, SSP.05, 4.18, 5.38, 8.47
Follow the complex story of indigenous peoples' struggle against encroachment and removal from their homes and land. Ponder quotes from John Ross, Major Ridge, Andrew Jackson, and David Crockett, as we discuss what led to this tragic era in Tennessee history.
Download the Additional Resources Sheet
Civil War In Tennessee - 4.25, 4.27, 4.30, 4.34, 4.37, 5.41, 5.42, 8.62, 8.63, 8.66
Tennessee may have been a Confederate state, but that doesn’t tell the whole story of how divided Tennesseans were over the issue of the Civil War. Join us as we look at the issues facing Tennesseans during this time of change.
Download the Additional Resources Sheet
Tennessee's Reconstruction - 4.39, 4.40, 4.41, 5.43, 5.44, 5.44, 5.46, 8.68, 8.69, 8.70, 8.72, 8.73
Tennessee’s Reconstruction was very different from the other former Confederate States. This program examines the ways that African Americans, Unionists, and former Confederates confronted this new and rapidly changing era in the state’s history.
Download the Additional Resources Sheet
War of the Roses: Passage of the 19th Amendment - SSP.01, SSP.02, SSP.03, SSP.04, SSP.05, SSP.06, 5.09, 5.47, 5.54, 8.42, AAH.24, CI.14
Your students are the latest to join the women's suffrage movement in this 1920s-themed program. Students will learn why suffragists wore white, what the arguments for and against the vote were, and how Harry Burn's vote affected everyone.
Download the Additional Resources Sheet
Civil Rights - SSP.01, SSP.05, 5.24, 5.50
Reconstruction is over and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are now part of the Constitution, but that doesn’t mean that African Americans have equal rights. From Ida B. Wells to Diane Nash, African Americans in Tennessee continue the fight for equality.
Download the Additional Resources Sheet
WWII Home Front in Tennessee - SSP.01, SSP.05, 5.16, 5.20, 5.49
The efforts of WWII were not only felt by the military forces overseas but also by the women serving on the home front. Students will explore the contributions of women during the war through rationing, working factory jobs, service roles, and inside the gates of Tennessee’s Secret City, Oak Ridge.
Download the Additional Resources Sheet
K-2: Tennessee Then & Now - SSP.01, SSP.02, SSP.05, K.17, 1.25, 2.30, 2.31, 2.32
Learn about life on the Tennessee frontier by comparing and contrasting modern life with a frontier wagon, cabin, and more! This program is designed for K-2 students and will last 20 minutes with time for questions at the end.
Download the Additional Resources Sheet
Virtual Tennessee History Course 2025 (for teachers and students)
Join us in May 2025 for our annual Virtual Tennessee History Course for students. Each Monday in May, our education staff will be broadcasting live from the Tennessee State Museum’s galleries as we explore the exhibits and artifacts that tell the story of Tennessee. This course is designed around the official state history course standards and will take them one by one as we move through the museum.
Each program lasts 30 minutes with 15 minutes for Q and A afterwards. Each day will be dedicated to a specific period of Tennessee history.
Perfect for:
- Teachers and students who want an overview of Tennessee history
- Teachers and students who want to see the exhibits of the Tennessee State Museum but can't make the trip to Nashville
- 5th grade classes that want to review the Tennessee history course standards
- 4th grade classes that want a preview of what they will study next year
- Middle and high school classes who want a local perspective on American history
Programs will start at 9:00, 10:00, 1:00, and 2:00 (CST) each Monday.
Register Here
Monday May 4, 2026 - Tennessee Prior to Statehood - Standards 5.26-5.34 (9:00, 10:00, 1:00, 2:00 CST)
Monday May 11, 2026 - Statehood and Early Tennessee - Standards 5.35-5.40 (9:00, 10:00, 1:00, 2:00 CST)
Monday May 18, 2026 - Tennessee in the Civil War Era - Standards 5.41-5.46 (9:00, 10:00, 1:00, 2:00 CST)
Wednesday May 20, 2026 - Tennessee in the 20th Century - Standards 5.47-5.54 (9:00 CST only)
Frequently Asked Questions: