all in a day’s field trip for students in the Mt. Lebanon School District outside Pittsburgh. The middle schoolers’ adventure takes place without anyone leaving the building, using a videoconferencing
as museums and zoos, as well as to more exotic realms. A 2009 report suggests that about 30 percent of U.S. schools have adopted videoconferencing—up 5 percent since 2006.
This article talks about the benefits of virtual field trips. It also talks about a specific school near Pittsburgh that took a virtual field trip through videoconferencing. The students did an e-Mission to learn about earth Science.
This is a phenomenal collection of science simulations. I've used them both as a demonstration on my SMARTboard to drive home some point and as labs where students use the simulations to discover key points on their own.