lectures, gallery tours- free (unless otherwise advertised)
Field trips- $5 per student (in classroom or at museum available)
The IVDM offers field trips for schools, scout packs, troops, camps, birthday parties, etc. throughout the year. Field trips are designed to meet grade level specific curriculum standards through engaging, hands-on experiences in areas like visual arts, social studies, and the sciences.
1. Hike
Students are led on a short walk on museum grounds. One of our most popular modules, students explore the desert, learning about geology, the desert, and adaptation to the desert by plants, animals, and peopl
2. Coiled Clay
Students explore the traditional art of making pottery using the paddle and anvil method. This method has been used by the Kumeyaay and other Native Americans on the southwest for over 1,000 years.
3. Geology
Students use maps, microscopes, and rock samples to take an in-depth look at the geology that makes the Imperial Valley: volcanoes, earthquakes, plate tectonics, fossils, and volcanic rocks. This section is altered to focus specifically on the sciences being taught in each grade
4. Exhibit Tour New!
As our new permanent exhibit is installed, we add a tour of the museum to our field trip. Students will learn about life on the shoreline of Lake Cahuilla through our interactive object theater- a diorama where they will watch the lake fill and recede, discover the desert as a toolbox and see how Native Americans adapted to living in the Imperial Valley both with and without the lake's presence.