FREE DIY Virtual Field Trip | Create Your Own VFT | Student Project

FREE cross-curricular student project for Grades 6–12. Students research a topic, choose meaningful real-world locations, and build their own 6–8 stop virtual field trip with the WanderListen DIY Virtual Field Trip Builder.

This is a student-creation project, not a prebuilt tour. Students decide what their audience should learn, which places best support the topic, what evidence visitors can observe, which sources support the explanation, and how the tour should be organized.

What students practice

• Research: locating and using reliable sources before choosing exact stops.
• Evidence-based explanation: separating what a visitor can observe from the explanation, interpretation, or significance of that evidence.
• Place-based learning: using real named locations and useful Google Maps / Street View links when they strengthen a stop.
• Communication: writing concise 70–120 word stop explanations and purposeful viewer tasks.
• Digital creation: building, previewing, testing, exporting, reopening, and revising a portable .wanderlisten project file.
• Peer review: learning from another student's tour and responding to specific feedback.

What's included

• 10-page cross-curricular Teacher Guide
• One-page Student Assignment
• 24-point Final Project Rubric
• Optional Day 1 Topic Research & Tour Ideas worksheet — digital + print versions
• Optional Day 3 Technical Test & Repair worksheet — digital + print versions
• Optional Day 4 Peer Tour Learning Assessment — digital + print versions
• Optional Two-Tour Comparison — digital + print versions
• Optional Day 5 Constructive Feedback worksheet — digital + print versions
• Start Here PDF with the WanderListen DIY Builder link

Flexible classroom use

The worksheets are optional scaffolds, not required busywork. Use the full five-day sequence, compress the project to three days, or let more independent students work primarily in WanderListen. Day 2 intentionally has no separate worksheet because building the tour is the student work.

How the project works

1. Research: learn the topic and record at least two reliable starting sources.
2. Build: choose exact real-world stops while working in WanderListen and seeing what maps, photos, and Street View actually provide.
3. Write: create a clear title and about 70–120 words for each stop, including a source and purposeful viewer task.
4. Test: preview every stop, open saved links, export a copy, and have a classmate take the tour without coaching.
5. Revise: strengthen weak explanations or links, retest changes, and download the final .wanderlisten file.

Best fit

Grades 6–12 science, history, geography, social studies, ELA, interdisciplinary research, project-based learning, digital literacy, place-based learning, enrichment, independent projects, and end-of-unit synthesis.

Technology

Students need an internet-connected Chromebook, laptop, or desktop. No WanderListen student account is required. The project uses the free WanderListen DIY Builder and can connect stops to Google Maps / Street View resources when useful.

Open the builder: https://tours.k12movieguides.com/virtual-field-trips/create

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