Top Educational Excursions In Fort Worth, TX | Education In Texas

Children learn best when they explore and experiment with new things. They also benefit by watching things happen, good and bad, and questioning why things do what they do. If your child shows an interest in something, they have a better chance of understanding it wholly and quickly. In some cases, knowing why they need to learn about a topic can help them better understand it.

That’s why it’s so important to expose your children to many different things as they grow. Fortunately, Fort Worth and the surrounding area have many fun, engaging, educational destinations to take children to, whether you’re a teacher or a parent.

Then, when you find things they get excited about, you can continue to develop that interest, ultimately leading your child into areas they may find useful later in life. To that end, we’ve put together this list of the top educational excursions in the region to help you help your child explore and learn the world they live in.

Frontiers of Flight Museum

Image via Flickr by szeke | CC BY-SA 2.0

Located on Lemmon Avenue in Dallas, Frontiers of Flight Museum chronicles the history of flight with interactive displays and exhibits. Your child can learn about the dreamers who first thought to fly, such as Leonardo da Vinci, the Wright Brothers, who managed the feat first, and the subsequent evolution of the airplane.

With over 20 galleries and displays, the Frontiers of Flight Museum offers kids unique insight into flight. Galleries dedicated to World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War go into great detail about how the fighter planes were built, flown, and fought. In addition, children can climb into flight simulators and experience what it’s like to fly fighter jets such as the F-4D Phantom and the SR-71 Blackbird.

The museum features a gallery on crewed space flight for the little astronauts in your life. Kids can learn about the early space missions of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs while examining artifacts from these programs, including the only moon rock on display in North America.

In addition, this gallery informs visitors about the current space program, including the International Space Station and the privatization of space flights with their SpaceShipOne and Beal Aerospace displays. The museum even features one of six exact replicas of SpaceShipOne.

Sea Life at Grapevine Mills

Aquariums provide humans with a unique look at life underwater. Sea Life Grapevine has thousands of creatures that live under the sea. Your children can get up close and personal with the many interactive touch pools. In addition, Sea Life Grapevine has the only 360-degree ocean tunnel. You don’t have to imagine what these creatures do underwater. You can see it for yourself as fish, dolphins, and sharks swim placidly by as you walk in their world.

Your child can visit the sea turtle hospital and see exactly what it takes to rehabilitate a rescued sea turtle. Often, these stately creatures get hurt, choking on plastic bags, mistaking them for their favorite food, the jellyfish. You’ll see how the hospital treats these gentle giants before releasing them back into the ocean, healthy once again.

Sea Life Grapevine has an excellent exhibit on the oldest and deadliest creature in the ocean. It isn’t the shark or the killer whale. You might be surprised to learn that it’s the jellyfish, and they’ve been around for more than 650 million years. Some jellies have bioluminescent qualities that light up to attract prey or warn predators. You and your child will be mesmerized by the smack (that’s what you call a group of jellyfish) of jellies as they float through the water. Sea Life Grapevine breeds Moon Jellies, which you can see up close in a behind-the-scenes tour.

At Sea Life Grapevine, you can explore life beyond the ocean at the Rainforest Adventure exhibit. Step into the Amazon jungle and witness the mysterious creatures around every corner. For example, you can see Mulder and Scully, two dwarf caimans, as they patrol their habitat. Also, you can walk through the piranha tunnel and hear these deadly fish bark when threatened. This exhibit also features a 13-foot reticulated albino python named Seneca.

Fort Worth Zoo In Fort Worth, TX

Perhaps your child has more interest in land animals. In that case, a trip to Fort Worth Zoo makes sense. The Fort Worth Zoo currently contains over 540 species, including 72 species of mammals, 172 reptiles, and 148 species of birds.

Everyone loves the lion exhibit. You and your child will be amazed watching these proud creatures stroll about like kings or see them display their power and speed as they run and play.

When you’ve had your fill of lions, you can visit the elephants and witness them casually lift heavy objects with their trunks. The elephant’s trunk has over 40,000 muscles. If you’re wondering how that compares to humans, we have 60,000 muscles in our entire body. An elephant can wrap its trunk around items and lift them. In some cases, an elephant can lift over 700 pounds.

Kids love learning about giraffes. This fun but goofy looking mammal happens to be the tallest mammal in the world, measuring up to 20 feet in height. Just the legs on most giraffes are taller than most people. Another interesting fact is that no two giraffes share the exact geometric pattern on their coats like a zebra’s stripes.

These mostly gentle creatures eat leaves, fruits, and flowers. However, they fight amongst themselves, swinging their long necks like clubs. The main predator of the giraffe is the lion, but their long necks allow them to spot danger from far away. Plus, their long legs enable them to run fast — up to 35 mph — to escape. Should they be surprised and unable to run, they can also use their hooves to kick at predators, making them a difficult proposition for all but the hungriest animal.

At Hiley Mazda of Fort Worth, we realize the importance of educational excursions to our children. We want the youngest members of our community to learn and grow into valuable members of society. So, if you’re a parent looking for a fun, educational day, we hope our list of destinations around Fort Worth helped. If you feel like we left off a great excursion, please email us. We’ll do our best to update our list often so that all the children can experience the best Fort Worth has to offer.