STEM School Trips & Science Tours for Student Groups
Bring science, technology, engineering, and math to life on a custom STEM educational tour designed for your middle and high school students.
52+ years of custom educational travel · Trusted by school groups in all 50 states · SYTA, IATAN, ARC, and NTA accredited
Engage your students in hands on learning with STEM educational tours built around exactly what you teach. A middle school science trip to a NASA center, a marine biology field day on the coast, a walk through the labs where today’s engineers work. We don’t hand you a finished package.
Your curriculum, your dates, and your group are the starting point, down to the day.
A few of our favorite trips:
Houston STEM Immersion
Three days built around NASA’s Johnson Space Center, a hands on rocketry workshop, and the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Bay Area Engineering & Innovation
Five days touring university research labs, a working robotics firm, and the Exploratorium, mapped to an AP Physics unit.
Florida Space & Marine Science
Kennedy Space Center paired with a marine biology field day, designed for a combined science and environmental class
Create Custom Itineraries for your science and stem field trips
Where Science and STEM Groups Travel
Southern California Tour
Theme parks, ocean views, and real stages, from Anaheim to San Diego.
Cheer & Drill Choir Dance Studios Science & STEM Senior & Class Trips
5–7 Days
How It Works
Custom sounds like more work. With us, it’s less.
1
Discovery Call
Tell us your subject, grade level, rough dates, and group size. A short conversation, not a long form.
2
Custom proposal
We send a full proposal with itinerary, venues, and transparent pricing.
3
Revisions
Change anything. Swap a site, adjust a day, shift the budget. We revise until it fits.
4
Enrollment
We handle student signups, payments, and parent communication so you don’t have to.
5
Support on the trip
Your planner and a 24/7 emergency line are with your group the entire trip.
Sample STEM Trip Itinerary: Houston & NASA Johnson Space Center
Here is how a three day Houston STEM trip can come to life.
Day 1
Arrival and an afternoon at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, with a guided focus on the energy and space halls. Evening team dinner.
Day 2
A full day at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, including the tram tour of Mission Control and a hands on rocketry workshop where students build and launch their own models.
Day 3
A morning at the Downtown Aquarium connecting marine science to conservation, then departure. Every stop ties back to a classroom unit you choose in advance.
Day 4 – Epic Universe
Spend the day at Universal’s newest park, moving through its five worlds from Super Nintendo World to How to Train Your Dragon, with some of the most talked-about rides in Orlando.
Day 5 – Volcano Bay
Close the trip with a day at Universal’s water park, from the wave pool and lazy river to the slides, for a more relaxed last day together before heading home.
WHAT STUDENTS ACTUALLY DO
What Students Do on a STEM Field Trip
- Your students leave the desks behind and watch the concepts they study at work in real labs, real launch sites, and real careers.
- Get hands on. Design and launch rockets, build and program robots, and run real experiments in working labs.
- Go behind the scenes. Walk the floors of NASA centers, university research labs, aquariums, and engineering firms.
- Imagine the future. Meet scientists, engineers, and researchers, and discover how classroom concepts become careers.
- Bring class to life. Every stop connects back to a unit you teach, so the trip reinforces your teaching instead of interrupting it.
Custom tours since 1974
Why Science Teachers Choose ET Tours
Most companies hand you a numbered package and ask your class to fit it. We work the other way around.
Your itinerary follows your learning goals, not a template someone else wrote. Teaching aerodynamics this spring? Your trip centers on flight and engineering sites, on the dates your calendar allows. Studying marine biology? Coastlines, aquariums, and research stations instead. The trip serves the units you’re actually teaching.
The planner who quotes your trip stays with you through it. The same person who designs your proposal makes your revisions and supports your group on the road. One point of contact who knows your trip because they built it with you.
Transparent custom pricing, no upsells, no surprises. You see what every part of your trip costs and why, with no package tiers and no add ons later. The quote you approve is the trip you take. Payment plans and fundraising support are built in, so cost never has to be the reason a student stays home.
The Difference a Custom STEM Trip Make
The alternative is familiar. A numbered package, a bus schedule that ignores your syllabus, and a group leader spending the trip on hold with a call center. It is fine, and plenty of groups settle for fine. But a trip built for your class makes your subject the reason for every stop.
How a Trip Comes Together
Three ways a custom STEM trip could take shape. Yours would start the same way, with what you teach.
8th grade physical science · Houston · 3 days
Picture a class mid unit on forces and motion. We would anchor the trip at a NASA center, add a rocketry workshop where every student launches a model they built, and time it so the unit test comes after the trip. Physics lands differently once you have launched something.
Engineering elective ·
Bay Area · 5 days
Imagine a group of juniors deciding whether engineering is for them. We would walk them through university research labs and a working robotics firm, put them face to face with people doing the job, and end each day connecting what they saw to what they study.
7th grade life science ·
Pacific coast · 4 days
Take a life science class studying ecosystems. We would trade the textbook for tide pools, a day alongside a working marine research station, and an aquarium visit focused on the food webs they diagrammed in class. The chapter becomes a place they have stood.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
STEM School Trip FAQs
How much does a STEM school trip cost?
Price depends on destination, trip length, group size, and inclusions, so we quote each trip individually. We build to your budget, and payment plans and fundraising support bring the per student cost down. If you are comparing affordable student travel providers for middle school science tours, ask each company to show costs line by line the way we do.
Do you work with middle school science classes?
Look for real customization rather than a fixed catalog, hands on activities instead of walkthrough visits, transparent pricing, strong safety accreditation, and a single planner who stays with you from quote to return. That is what separates the best student educational tour planners for STEM trips from catalog sellers.
How far in advance should we start planning?
Six to nine months is ideal for venue availability and pricing, but strong trips come together on shorter timelines too.
Can the trip match what we are teaching this year?
Yes. That is the whole point. Tell us your units and learning goals and the itinerary is shaped around them, not the reverse.
How are students supervised?
Named tour managers travel with the group, chaperone ratios are planned into the itinerary before booking, and every stop is scheduled in advance.
How do parents stay informed?
Look for real customization rather than a fixed catalog, hands on activities instead of walkthrough visits, transparent pricing, strong safety accreditation, and a single planner who stays with you from quote to return. That is what separates the best student educational tour planners for STEM trips from catalog sellers.
I went on my first Educational Tours trip in 1996 and again in 1999 as a high school student. Because of the core memory I wanted to give this opportunity to the next generation. This last year I started up the history tour back in the local towns high school and contacted Todd and his team. And you can see they have many years of experience and connections. They were so easy to work with and the communication was amazing. They did so much work and made this trip a success. We are looking forward to doing it again!
Mike Hess Jr.
Drew Atkins
Last weekend we took our choir to Tuacahn with Educational Tours and had the best experience! They took care of everything – payments, tickets, dinners, workshops, hotels — all for such a reasonable price. Our group had a flawless trip. We would definitely do it again!
Amanda Tesch
Safety & Support for Parents
Parents, this section is for you. Your student travels with named tour managers, vetted transportation, and vetted accommodations. A 24/7 emergency line reaches our team at any hour of the trip. From enrollment onward we communicate with you directly, so you always know the schedule and who to call. We are accredited by SYTA, IATAN, ARC, and NTA. Full details, insurance information, and our incident protocol are on our Safety page.
Request a custom proposal
Tell us what you teach and where you want to go, we’ll handle everything else.