Mid-Missouri Field Trip with a Free Printable Scavenger Hunt

Homeschooling in Mid-Missouri can be great because you have two large cities complete with zoos, museums, and other great field trips within a couple hours. But a couple hours can get old real quick especially if you are trying to take a whole group! 

There are educational field trip options if you look for them though. I recently tapped into the local University of Missouri for some co-op field trips. Having attended there several years before, I knew there was definitely some cool things to see, and recently it was pointed out to me that Tucker Greenhouse on the University campus was willing to host field trip groups. Unfortunately, we needed two tours because of size restrictions of the actual greenhouse rooms. That meant finding something to entertain half the group while waiting. 

This is where the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources main buildings come in to play.  Within their halls but open to the public during regular hours reside several exhibits. 

Enn's Entomology Museum

Located in the hall of the Mizzou Agriculture building houses numerous boxes full of interesting insects. Some you will recognize as local, but many insects are from around the world and some very unique. This is where we started our journey.

Glen Smart Collection

After walking through the entomology museum, we headed through the breezeway into the Anheuser Busch National Resources building and the hall of birds. That is what the Glen Smart Collection is waterfowl and upland game birds. Many cases stuffed with stuffed birds! 

Tiger Mount

After exiting the hall of birds through the double doors we walked across the atrium of the Natural Resource building through a second set of double doors. This is where we found the mount of a full tiger skin on display. 

Yeckel Collection

After leaving the tiger display and heading down the hall, you run into the Yeckel Collection which is a collection of taxidermized animal heads and a few full animals from Africa, Eurasia, and North America.

Tucker Greenhouse

While the greenhouse portion of our trip that was in a separate building, it was a awesome field trip for those interested in plants or just wanting to see some unusual plants like a Mexican Hat plant or a Cacao tree.

CAFNR Scavenger Hunt

These collections are all fun to look at on their own for sure, but seeing that I had to be sure to keep a group busy for an hour while the other group went through the greenhouse, I made up a scavenger hunt to go along with the exhibits. This was great for slowing everyone down just a bit and keeping the kids interest a longer. 

Of course, you don't have to visit the greenhouse to visit the collections in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. This could be a field trip on it's own! Or you could pair it with other sites on the University of Missouri campus like the Museum of Art and Archeology or a trip to Buck's Ice Cream. 

So if you are homeschooling in mid-Missouri don't overlook free field trip options like this one, and if you head out to look at all these animal species, feel free to print some copies of my scavenger hunt to get the kids more interested in what they are seeing! 

Scavenger Hunt Link

A Word of College Field Trips

Many colleges offer field trip opportunities if you look for them. We have attended plays at a few colleges, museums at others, and even a herpetology department complete with lots of up close encounters. However, please be sure to talk to the kids (and parents) prior to the field trip. Most of the time when you are attending these locations students are in class and researchers are working in labs. They do not want kids running and screaming through the halls. So, just be sure to remind your group to be respectful of the people who utilize these places everyday that way we can be sure to continue to have these opportunities. 

Are you in Mid-Missouri and needing more field trip ideas? If this is a need, please let me know, so I can share other educational opportunities we have found around the area.