Secondary (Grades 7-12) and Undergraduate Field Trips

On-site or virtual field trips help students understand the impact of the Holocaust, genocide, human rights violations, and standing up for others. Pre and post-visit activities aid educators in extending students’ learning and fostering meaningful learning experiences.

Choose from a variety of on-site or virtual learning experiences to engage your students with subject matter related to the Holocaust, genocide, universal human and civil rights, and other important topics. 

All field trips listed below support Common Core State Standards in English/Language Arts and Literacy in History Social Studies, Illinois Social Science Standards, and the C2 Framework for Social Studies Standards.

In Our Voices

Field Trip for Grades 7-12 | Available On-Site & Online

In Our Voices transforms history into lessons for today, inviting students to consider the power of choice, responsibility, citizenship, and human rights, with the goal of discovering what influences our decisions to act as bystanders or Upstanders. Through guided exploration, students investigate the history of the Holocaust as told through the personal belongings, photographs, historical records, and stories of Chicagoland Survivors and eyewitnesses. Students are encouraged to use this knowledge to make connections to their world today. The field trip includes suggested pre and post-visit activities.

Voices of Genocide

Field Trip for Grades 7-12 | Exclusively On-Site

As the distance between the Holocaust and the generations we teach expands, students increasingly seek to understand how and why a genocide could happen. In this field trip, combining two of the Museum’s core exhibitions, participants engage with the new Voices of Genocide Exhibition to learn about common conditions that exist across genocides and how to recognize warning signs. In the Take a Stand Center®, students develop agency and explore strategies to work toward intervention and prevention of genocide and the promotion of human rights, locally and around the world. 

On-Site Group Size:
10 students minimum, 80 students maximum

On-Site Tour Length: 1 hour 45 minutes

Dedicated VOG field trips will take place July-October; and weekends. Please reach out to us directly if you are interested in booking a VOG field trip outside of these dates at education@ilhmec.org

RESILIENCE: A SANSEI SENSE OF LEGACY

Field Trip for Grades 6-12 | Available December 16, 2024 through June 1, 2025

In 1942, in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law Executive Order 9066. The law ordered the forced imprisonment of all Japanese Americans living on the west coast of the United States, which had the second largest population of Japanese people living outside of Japan. This field trip showcases eight Sansei (third generation) Japanese American artists whose work reflects the effect of EO9066 as it resonated from generation to generation.  

On this field trip students will discover how the artists featured, working in different mediums and voicing different points of view, express a common history and the deep-rooted emotions that demonstrate courage, vulnerability, resilience, pain, and cultural identity passed down through generations. The featured art will allow students to think about the issues portrayed, but also how they can use art as a vehicle for transformation and change. 

Photo credits: Scott Edwards; Kathleen Hinkel; Emily Mohney