Travel Tips

Travel Tip: Shadow Days, Educational Vacation Experiences

Locations in this article:  Los Angeles, CA

Are you trying to come up with an educational vacation experience for your child?

You may want to look for something called Shadow Days where they can get real hands-on learning experiences.

What is a Shadow Day? This is where participants can learn about the various careers and jobs by following around—or shadowing—professionals.

Best of all, they only require a few hours at a time, so even out of towners can participate.

Students in grades 6 through 12 can follow animal caretakers, educators, and behaviorists during Shadow Day at the South Carolina Aquarium.

The Aquarium Education Program at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California offers a variety of three-hour programs where you can shadow their specialists including an aviculturalists, otherwise known as a bird keeper.

Aquariums aren’t the only animal habitats with these programs.

Zoo Boise in Idaho has a four-hour Career Shadow Program for students ages 13 and up, where they can assist zookeepers or education staff perform their daily duties.

The Fort Wayne’s Children Zoo assigns participants to a zoo keeper for animal’s daily cleaning and feeding.

You have some say in the animals you work with, but of course the more dangerous animals are excluded. Hey, these kids aren’t professional just yet!

For more great kid-centric experiences, check out our Kids Programs section.

And check out the rest of our Daily Travel Tips here.