Thank you for your interest in planning a summer field trip to IHMEC. We offer a variety of docent-led tour options for your students and encourage you to review the options below to determine the best fit for your school and students' needs.
At the Museum, students have the opportunity to learn the core lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides through firsthand testimony, artifacts, and docent-led discussions.
Students’ tour participation allows them to make connections between the history of the Holocaust and their local and global communities today. Students are taught to “take a stand,” acting as upstanders in their everyday lives.
To learn more about IHMEC's field trips for students in grades 3-12, please select from the following options:
- Tour Options > Learn about the basic timing and tour content for each docent-led field trip.
- Policies > Basic information to review before requesting your tour.
- FAQ > Frequently asked questions about IHMEC field trips.
Ready to request a field trip?
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Request Form > Book your summer 2012 field trip online.
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Scholarship Information > Learn about how to apply for a scholarship.
Already scheduled a field trip?
- Pay Online > Submit your $50 deposit (per trip) or pay in full using our online system.
- Pre-Visit Information > Download our Pre-Visit Information with information on how to prepare for your field trip, including tour logistics and classroom activities for your students.
- Pre-Visit Checklist > Remember to complete our Pre-Visit Checklist items before arriving for your field trip.
Scholarship Information
The Museum is pleased to be able to provide a limited number of IHMEC Opportunity Scholarships to support field trip expenses for summer schools and camps in Illinois. The program enables us to offer subsidies for transportation and/or admission to the Museum for students and chaperones.
Opportunity Scholarships are available on a limited basis for summer schools and camps in financial need who would otherwise not have the ability to visit the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.
Qualification Requirements:
- School or camp located in Illinois
- Field trip date confirmed with paid deposit
- Field trip scheduled between June 15 and August 31, 2012
- Demonstrated financial need
- Scholarship application submitted at least 30 days before scheduled trip
- Maximum two scholarships per school or camp per summer
Actual admission fees and/or transportation costs will be subsidized at the discretion of the Museum, based on need and availability of funds. While most scholarships are partial, the maximum amount granted will be $1,000. Please indicate on your scholarship application what costs you would like covered.
Subsidies cover the cost for students, chaperones, and medical/behavioral aides. The subsidy will be paid in the form of a waiver at the time of field trip check-in.
How to Apply
To apply for an Opportunity Scholarship, please complete and submit an application, which requires the following information:
1) Summer school or camp information
2) Group leader information
3) Field trip information
4) Financial need
5) Short answer questions about objectives and benefits of trip
The application must be signed by both the applicant (group leader) and school principal/camp administrator.
Applications can be submitted via email (scanned with signatures), fax (847.967.4804), or hard copy no later than 30 days before the scheduled field trip:
Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center
Attn: Opportunity Grants Program – Education
9603 Woods Drive
Skokie, IL 60077
Applications will be reviewed and rewarded on a rolling basis. If you do not hear back within 15 business days of submitting your application, please contact us via email.
Field Trip Deposit
The $50 non-refundable deposit toward your trip will not be reimbursed. The Museum believes each school or camp should maintain a minimum amount of financial "buy-in" toward the trip. This deposit covers the cost of processing your original field trip request, as well as your Opportunity Scholarship, and is needed to continue the program in the future.
Transportation Scheduling & Reimbursement
Feedback
Opportunity Scholarships are a program of
The Miller Family Youth Exhibition
&
The Mayor Richard M. and Maggie C. Daley Education Fund
In Our Voices (Grades 7 +)
Explore the history of the Holocaust by taking an inquiry-based walk through our Karkomi Permanent Exhibition. Investigate the experiences of Holocaust survivors, witnesses, resistors, and rescuers through artifacts and testimony. Analyze the human and moral implications of individual choice, responsibility, and memory through connecting galleries and themes. Discover what influences our decision to act as bystanders or upstanders.
Your tour may also include stops in other Museum exhibitions:
- Temporary Exhibition
- Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition
- Legacy of Absence Gallery
Whenever possible, the Museum will schedule an eyewitness to the Holocaust from our Speakers’ Bureau as part of the field trip.
Length: 3 hours
Times: 9:30, 10:30, 11:30 (weekdays), 11:00 (weekends), 5:00 (Thursday evenings)
Group Size: 160 students maximum
Become a Witness (Grades 6 and above)
Learn about the power of one voice in taking a stand for positive change. Draw connections between the lessons and themes of Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition to the lessons and themes of a study of the Holocaust and genocide.Explore the following exhibitions:
- Karkomi Permanent Exhibition – Post-war Immigration; Skokie
- Discussion of artifacts related to pre-war Jewish life, the rise of Nazism, and the Kindertransports
- Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition
- Legacy of Absence Gallery or Temporary Exhibition
Whenever possible, the Museum will schedule an eyewitness to the Holocaust from our Speakers’ Bureau as part of the field trip.
Length: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Times: 10:00 (weekdays), 11:30 (weekends), 5:30 (Thursday evenings)
Group Size: 80 students maximum
Memory, History, Culture (Grades 5 and above)
Discover different ways to become more actively involved in your local and global communities through the hands-on activities in Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition. Learn how identity, social responsibility, and community tie into a discussion of human and civil rights and introductory study of the Holocaust and genocide.Explore the following exhibitions:
- Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition
- Karkomi Permanent Exhibition – Post-war Immigration; Skokie
- Discussion of artifacts related to pre-war Jewish life, the rise of Nazism, and the Kindertransports
- Legacy of Absence Gallery or Temporary Exhibition
Length: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Times: 10:00, 12:00 (weekdays), 11:30 (weekends), 5:30 (Thursday evenings)
Group Size: 80 students maximum
Take a Stand (Grades 3 and above)
Through hands-on, interactive activities, discover what it takes to care for yourself and others, learn how to speak up for those being bullied, and understand core values of respect, compassion, justice, and citizenship. Develop the strategies and tools necessary to not only identify a problem, but also to identify and overcome any obstacles to solving that problem.Explore the following exhibitions:
- Make a Difference: The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition
- Legacy of Absence Gallery or Temporary Exhibition
Length: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Times: 10:00, 12:00 (weekdays), 11:30 (weekends), 5:30 (Thursday evenings)
Group Size: 60 students maximum
Stand Up, Speak Out (Grades 3 - 6)
Featuring outdoor activities (weather permitting) and tours in the Make A Difference! The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition, 8 – 11 year olds will learn how to develop and build identity, community, and social responsibility. Summer tours include virtual-reality video games, craft-making activities, interactive computer modules, outdoor explorations (weather permitting).Explore the following exhibitions:
Make A Difference! The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition
Length: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Times: 10:00 (weekdays)
Group Size: 60 students maximum
Skokie, IL