The International Spy Museum
NEW 2010 Field Trip Guide
SPY ON US!
- Four newly created Experiential Packages
- Updated Standards-Based Student Programs
- Additional a la carte options to customize your field trip
Booking Options
Curriculum-Rich Packaged Experiences
Go beyond the average museum field trip to provide your students with an in-depth, multi-faceted examination of a topic. Grounded in national curriculum standards, each experience provides a targeted exploration of the Museum's galleries; a museum-educator led hands-on workshop, and optional lunches.
Field Trip A la Carte Options
In addition to the museum visit you may choose to add on the following options:
- Operation Spy: a 1-hour experience in which students can do act and feel like a real spy.
- Spy in the City: a 1.5-hour experience in which students explore the surrounding city blocks of the Spy Museum on a geo-caching mission.
- Spy City Tours: a 2-hour bus tour of Washington, D.C. where spy sites are revealed and spy mission adds to the adventure.
- Bag lunches
Minute by Minute: The Role of Intelligence in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Grades 7 to 12 | 75 minutes | Per student price: $25
Can students change the course of history? Enliven your teaching of the Cold War by participating in a case-based simulation in which students play the role of intelligence analysts at the CIA in 1962. By examining declassified intelligence documents and U-2 photographs at various stages of the crisis, students “live” the crisis rather than only read about it. In this social studies standards-based lesson, students are challenged to make decisions and recommendations based on primary documents and photos. The outcome of the crisis is in their hands: will their analysis provide President Kennedy with the information he needs to avoid nuclear catastrophe?
Key concepts and skills
- History: Cold War/Cuban Missile Crisis
- Government: how intelligence is interpreted and informs policy decisions
- Using and interpreting primary documents
- Critical thinking and decision-making skills
- Verbal and written skills
Experiential Package Includes:
- Pre-visit activity packet
- 75 minute simulation in the Museum's private classroom
- A classroom copy of the Minute by Minute publication
- Museum admission and focused Museum Activity Sheet
- Museum Admission
The Spy's Eye View
Grades 5 - 12 | 30 minutes | Per student ticket price: $25
Your students can gain first-hand knowledge of the shadow world of spying in a spy debriefing with a former CIA Case Officer. In this 30-minute program, students will learn about the life of a spy, how intelligence is collected, and the role of spying in American government. Students will also have an opportunity to “interrogate” the speaker. A pre-visit classroom guide will be provided to assist you in preparing your students for this unique opportunity.
Scheduling is subject to availability of speaker
Key Concepts and Skills
- Government: how intelligence functions in American government and its impact on foreign policy
- Current Events: intelligence in the news
- Verbal and written skills
Experiential Package Includes:
- Pre-visit activity packet
- 30-minute briefing with a Spy (former intelligence officer) followed by a Q&A in the Museum's private classroom
- Museum admission and on-site activity
Operation Spy Student Adventure
Grades 7 - 12 | 90 minutes | Per student price: $30.
Do your students have what it takes to be a spy? Click here to get the facts on OPERATION SPY!
Following that 60-minute experience, students will participate in a 30-minute debriefing that will engage them in a discussion about the outcomes of their real time problem-solving as U.S. Intelligence Officers. Students will also learn about the real intelligence case of scientist A.Q. Kahn, considered to be the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, who inspired the storyline in Operation Spy. Students will debate the real decisions and intelligence questions facing the CIA in this currently unfolding case.
Key Concepts and Skills
- Government: how intelligence is interpreted and informs policy decisions
- Current events: intelligence in the news
- Teamwork and conflict resolution skills
- Critical thinking and decision-making skills
Includes
- Pre-visit activity packet
- On-site program and post-visit "debriefing" plan
- Museum Admission
Operation Code Cracker
Grades 5-7 | 60 minutes | Per student price: $25
Sure your students are crafty, but can they become a code cracker on a top secret mission? Addressing national mathematic curriculum standards, this program provides an up close and personal viewing of one of the Museum's most famous artifact, the German WWII Enigma machine. Students will learn about how the Enigma functioned to shorten the war and how codes and ciphers in general function in the world of espionage. After this, students adjourn to the classroom where they become intelligence officers in the field making and breaking codes. In teams, they run a short mission in which they use various methods of enciphering and deciphering messages. Methods used for code cracking include a skytale, Caesar cipher wheel, and Cardono grille.
Key Concepts and Skills
- Substitution
- Frequency Analysis (beginning level)
- Number permutations
- Factorial numbers
- Binary codes
- Logical thought
- Sequencing
- Patterns
Experiential Package Includes:
- Pre-visit activity packet
- 60 minute experience in Operation Spy
- 30-minute mission debriefing in the Museum's private classroom
- Museum admission
A La Carte Options Adding to the Standard SPY Field Trip
Book these options to add on to the standard field trip visit or book them as a stand-alone experience
Spy in the City
Time is ticking...a terrorist operation is unfolding in DC...sleeper agents are ready to activate a device that will bring the city to its knees. Can you find the hidden password to deactivate it before the terrorists launch their attack? In the ultimate intelligence game, you will piece together clues and decipher messages that reveal a world of ruthless terrorists and deadly choices. As a Special Security Division (SSD) agent armed with a Geo-COBRA, the latest high tech device issued to counterintelligence field agents, you prowl the streets of DC uncovering secret messages, tracing hidden signals, scanning for fingerprints, and breaking codes. Can you foil the plot? Only your wits and time will tell...
Critical Mission Intel:
- Each Agent receives a Geo-COBRA GPS unit and disposable earphones. To optimize secure communication (and be a spy who saves the environment) you are encouraged to use your own earphones that plug into any MP3 player.
- Allow 1.5 hours for your Mission (1.2 mile circuit) - it depends on your spy skills!
- $14 per person.
- Recommended for anyone 10+ who wants to be a spy. Agents under 16 must be accompanied by an adult handler.
- You will be walking outside on the streets of D.C. for the whole Mission, so please dress in appropriate spy garb (blend in, be comfortable, prepare for weather).
Operation Spy
Do your students have what it takes to be a spy? Now they can find out. In an action-packed hour, students take on the role of U.S. intelligence officers on an international mission to locate a missing nuclear device on the verge of being sold to a rogue nation. This intense experience combines live-action, video characters, themed environments, special effects, and hands-on activities. Participants take part in an intrigue-filled adventure based on an actual case drawn from the files of U.S. intelligence. Challenged to “feel, think, and act” like real intelligence officers, they uncover layers of deception to reveal a world of double agents and corrupt officials. In a setting where all is not as it seems and everyone has a hidden agenda, they must decide who they should trust. Will their decision be the right one? Will they find the device? In a high-stakes finale, the team must debate and determine its final course of action. Some teams will succeed and others will fail...their actions will determine their unique ending and ultimate score. Students leave Operation Spy either congratulated on their success or aware of their failure, and conscious of the real challenges of participating in the “great game” of espionage.
Critical Mission Intel:
- Agents must be at least 12 years old to accept this mission
- Allow 1 hour for your mission
- Agents will encounter some low light levels and confining spaces, an elevator, motion simulators, sound effects, and physical and mental challenges. There is one set of stairs that participants must walk up and down; however, there is no crawling, climbing, or jumping. Operation Spy is accessible to all.
Spy City Tour
Spy City Tours® blows the cover off some of the most notorious spy cases ever to unfold in the nation's capital.
From World War to Cold War to the present, this tour, brought to you by the International Spy Museum and Gray Line's Blue Diamond Collection, will feature some of the most spy-tingling sites in downtown DC from the last 65 years of espionage history. As a “Recruit” in Spy School 101, your students will be briefed by a “Training Officer” on key sites linked to intelligence triumphs, disasters, and mysteries, and hear tales of spies who've left their invisible mark on the city. High-level former intelligence officers provide video briefings and tradecraft secrets as the tour winds its way through the city. Your students can go deep undercover into the realm of espionage, intrigue, deception, and betrayal in the spy capital of the world.
This two hour tour features over 25 of Washington's most notable espionage sites used by some of the nation's most infamous spies!
The tour includes a top-secret interactive mission in which students (AKA Recruits) complete an undercover operation. Your spy skills of observation, evasion, and code-breaking will be put to the test as you strive to outwit the enemy.
Intelligence insiders will share with Recruits the truth about their own experiences in the great game of espionage via video briefings. Former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin will reveal what it was like to work undercover as a Radio Moscow correspondent while stationed in Washington, DC. Former CIA Operations Officer and Founding Executive Director of the International Spy Museum, Peter Earnest, will disclose key spy concepts, lingo, and recruitment strategies. Former CIA Chiefs of Disguise Tony and Jonna Mendez will demonstrate the art of the “quick change” and how to move through hostile territory without attracting attention.
Are you looking for a spy's eye view of Washington, DC? Do you enjoy history, mystery, espionage...and fun? If so this is the tour for you!
Boxed Lunch Options:
-For boxed lunches, guests may order from option 1, 2, or 3 but not a combination of the packages. Sandwiches cannot be modified and substitutions cannot be made amongst the menus. These boxed lunches can be consumed in the Spy City Café, but seating is on a first come, first served basis.
Option 1: $10.00 per lunch
Includes a gourmet sandwich, piece of fruit, jumbo chocolate chip cookie and potato chips, all wrapped up in a bag! Add soda for an additional $1.50 per bag
Sandwich selections:
a. Chicken Caesar Wrap: Sliced chicken breast and julienne romaine lettuce with fresh tomatoes, fresh parmesan cheese and Caesar dressing in a spinach wrap.
b. Peanut Butter & Jelly: On Texas toast
Option 2: $10.00 per lunch
Includes a gourmet sandwich, piece of fruit, jumbo chocolate chip cookie and potato chips, all wrapped up in a bag! Add soda for an additional $1.50 per bag
Sandwich selections:
a. Market's Garden: Sliced cucumbers, fresh avocado, tomatoes, blended cheese and buttermilk ranch dressing on homemade focaccia bread
b. The Classic Tuna Salad Wrap: Roma tomatoes and crisp lettuce in a wrap
c. Roasted Turkey Breast: Roma tomatoes, romaine lettuce and jalapeno-rosemary Dijon on a hearty white roll
Option 3: $10.00 per lunch
Includes a gourmet sandwich, piece of fruit, jumbo chocolate chip cookie and potato chips, all wrapped up in a bag! Add soda for an additional $1.50 per bag
a. Roasted Vegetable: Portabella mushrooms, asparagus, brie and sherry-tarragon aioli on homemade focaccia bread
b. Honey Baked Ham & Swiss: Thinly sliced ham with Swiss cheese, lettuce, sliced tomatoes and caramelized onions on farmhouse wheat
c. Rare Roast Beef: Sliced roast beef with sliced Roma tomatoes and romaine lettuce with a horseradish-caper mayo on a baguette
d. Turkey BLT: Includes mayonnaise, turkey, bacon, lettuce, and tomatoes on a hearty white roll
Field Trip Matrix
| Cold War | U.S. Gov't/History | Science & Technology | World History | English Language Arts | Math | Decision-making/conflict resolution | |
| Minute by Minute |  |
|
|
|
|||
| Spy's Eye View | |
|
|||||
| Operation Spy | |
|
|||||
| Operation Code Cracker | |
|
|
|
|||
| Spy In The CIty | |
|
|
||||
| Spy City Tour | |
|
|
|
|
Planning Your Trip
| Program | Cost Per Student |
w/Breakfast Buffet | w/Boxed Lunch | Chaperones |
| Cuban Missile Crisis | $25 | $34 | $33+ | $15 |
| Spy's Eye View | $25 | $34 | $33+ | $15 |
| Operation Code Cracker | $25 | $34 | $33+ | $15 |
| Operation Spy Student Adventure | $30 | $39 | $35+ | $15 |
| Museum Only | $16 | $20 | $20+ | $10 |
| Spy In The City | $14 | $18 | $18+ | $10 |
| Spy City Tour | $59 | $68 | $67+ | $50 |
+ Boxed Lunch prices differ with options ($8-$12 per person)
Please Note: Groups must have a minimum of 1 chaperone per 10 students. Additional chaperones will pay the student rate.
Information you will need when you reserve:
*Please note these packages are designed for groups between 15-50 students. For customization please contact Kelly Martin at kmartin@spymuseum.org or 202-654-0943.
Educator and Student Resources at SPY
- Educator Spy Guides
- Spy for a Day: Student Spy Guide
- Enemy Within: Educator Guide
- Language of Espionage
- SPY Bibliography
- Spy Casts
- Educator Workshops
- Preview Visits for Teachers
New Publication:
Minute by Minute: The Role of Intelligence in the Cuban Missile Crisis