Experiential Learning Activity Resources from Experiential Learning Depot

Are you looking for experiential learning activity resources? You've come to the right place! Here you'll find all kinds of great learning activity resources geared toward high school students that are authentic, real-world, active, and more!

My experiential learning activity resources and teacher tools provide the materials for educators to facilitate these experiences in the classroom, in homeschool environments, in the community, on field trips, traveling around the world, and beyond. 

Follow Experiential Learning Depot on TPT for resource updates, new resource alerts, and free offers.

Note: The experiential learning activity resources that I create are geared toward middle/high school students. 

Free Experiential Teaching Tools to Get You Started

Before diving into Experiential Learning Depot's experiential learning activity tools and resources, grab a few of our free experiential learning activity tools from our mini-bundle to help get you started and organized.
  • Teacher Quiz: Which experiential learning activity types are right for your students?
  • Experiential Learning Activity Planning Mind Map
  • Experiential Learning Implementation Spreadsheet
Looking for more information on experiential learning? Start with these blog posts from Experiential Learning Depot:

Getting Started with Experiential Learning Activity Resources

Experiential Learning Depot helps you become a leader in experiential education in your school or home learning environment. I highly recommend our experiential learning activity tool kits bundle, which goes along perfectly with the free experiential learning activity tools mini-bundle mentioned above. 

Note: If you are not interested in a full experiential learning activity bundle, but would prefer just one tool kit or two, each bundle below can be broken down into individual tool kits.
"This bundle is PACKED with amazing resources to get students started with experiential learning. Thanks!!" - Senora Jota Jota, 11th Grade, Experiential Learning Activity Bundle

Self-Directed Project-Based Learning Activity Resources

Project-based learning is taking the world by storm. Life is really a series of projects to manage, so having your high school students design and direct their own project-based learning experiences helps prepare them for this reality.

Students learn how to manage, organize, and execute their own PBL's. The following experiential learning activity resources guide students through self-directed project-based learning, gradually giving them the tools to develop and manage projects.
"This product is the gift that keeps on giving!!!" - Katrina W. (used with 10th, 11th, 12th), Current Events Project-Based Learning Activity

College and Career Readiness Experiential Learning Activity Resources

An essential piece of experiential learning is developing job ready career skills that are relevant and important for the 21st-century work place. Some of my most popular resources among teachers and students are college and career readiness based. Take a look!
  • Self-Directed Project Learning Activity Bundle for Resume Building - This bundle is packed with experiential learning activity resources for resume building with a project-based learning emphasis. Resume builders include learning new skills, starting a club, event planning, and more.
  • ​Senior Experience Bundle: Help Graduates to be College and Career Ready - This is by far my favorite experiential learning activity bundle. Students use the materials in this bundle to prepare for life beyond high school and beyond classroom walls. They explore careers, service their communities, build their resumes, build 21st-century competencies, and develop a career portfolio that showcases all of their amazing skills and experiences.
  • ​College Career Ready Digital Career Portfolio Templates  - This experiential learning activity template is specifically designed to showcase career skills and attributes. Students develop portfolios through experiential learning activity experiences and add them to their portfolios to bolster their credentials.​
Check out the following blog posts for additional information and tips on experiential learning activity ideas related to college and career readiness:
​
"An excellent set of resources for teaching seniors either in person or in self-paced mode. This represents (and saves) countless hours of work and thought." - Andrea R., 12th grade, 5/5 stars, Senior Experience

Science-Based Experiential Learning Activity Resources

I was a high school experiential science teacher for 10 years, so have built a nice portfolio of experiential learning activity resources related to science all of which engage students in challenging and abstract life science concepts. The following are some of my favorite experiential science resources, which include a variety of different experiential learning activity types.
Experiential Learning Activity Science Single Resources:

  • Wind Pollinator STEM Challenge - This experiential learning activity is really fun, as it challenges students meet their goal as a team. Students develop wind pollinator models after studying wind pollinator adaptations, and create a simulation of wind pollination between the models.
  • Sources of Water Pollution Experimental Inquiry - Experimental inquiry is a great experiential learning activity for any topic as it asks students to design and execute their own experiments. Students, in this case, design their own experiments around testable questions related to sources of water pollution.
  • Habitats Project-Based Learning - Project-based learning is a great way to introduce ecological concepts. Students can take a first-hand, active learning approach to habitats, communities, populations, symbiotic relationships, etc.

Experiential Learning Activity Science Bundles/Units/Courses:

  • Invasive Species Problem-Based Learning Curriculum - 
  • The Science of Climate Change Unit/Course - Climate science is a tricky topic for high schoolers. The concepts can be abstract. This experiential learning activity unit/course on climate change covers every essential piece of climate content from an experiential, science-based, approach. 
  • The Earth and Human Activities Experiential Learning Bundle - I have a background in environmental science, so this bundle was a lot of fun to make. It includes experiential learning activity resources focused on not only the environmental issues created by human activities, but student-generated solutions to those problems as well.
  • Wildlife and Conservation Bundle - This experiential learning activity resource bundle is great for high school science teachers and homeschoolers that are looking to incorporate NGSS, build essential life skills, and engage learners in real-world, authentic, experiential science experiences.
One of the reasons I got into experiential learning is because of my background and experience working in the field on endangered species research projects. Get inspiration from my blog post on why I became an experiential educator, and how that led to my career as a high school ecology teacher with an experiential philosophy.
"This was really well organized and challenges the students to work on their time management skills as they work through the projects. They have lots of flexibility and choice in the style of product they create, but with lots of help keeping them on track with the guidelines provided. It was really cool fostering the creativity of students in my science class using this structure. Wonderful!" - Anonymous, 9th/10th/11th, Wildlife and Conservation Bundle

Educational Travel ​Experiential Learning Activity Resources

Travel offers such amazing learning opportunities including those that helps learners build skills and develop content-knowledge. And adding self-directed experiential learning activity opportunities to those educational travel experiences is even better. There are a variety of benefits to educational travel. Check them out on the blog (links below).
  • Educational Travel Adventures Planning Templates - If you're not in need of the entire travel bundle, check out these individual resources. This particular resource gives you templates for planning educational travel experiences. Consider giving this template to your students/children as an experiential learning activity where they plan the trip themselves!
  • Free Travel Brochure Mini Project - I love this free experiential learning activity. This one doesn't require that your students actually travel. The trip they plan can be entirely hypothetical. 
  • Free educational Travel Experience Learning Reflection Questions - An important phase of any experiential learning activity is reflection. Use these free questions to guide reflection after any educational travel experience. Students can also extend the reflection experience with my travel reflection slideshow template.
  • Project-Based Learning Activity: Plan a Trip Around the World - This is another experiential learning activity resource that does not necessarily require actual travel. It's hypothetical. But it gets students really working on life skills, and has all of the guiding materials to guide them through planning such an epic (hypothetical) travel experience.

***Save money with the educational travel resources bundle.
My educational travel blog series has been one of of my favorites to write! Check out these posts that go along well with these experiential learning activity resources:

"WOW! I am creating a curriculum for my school next year that revolves around the skills needed to travel domestically and internationally. This gave me a lot of resources and ideas. THANK YOU!" - Hope (a comment in reference to my blog post on project-based learning activity ideas for educational travel experiences.)
Life Skills Experiential Learning Activity Resources
Experiential learning is an approach that emphasizes real-world learning experiences that can be applied to life beyond a classroom. I have built experiential learning activity resources around 21st-century soft skills such as critical thinking and creative problem-solving; that is the nature of experiential learning.

But what about life skills such as budgeting, planning meals, making informed decisions for one's well-being and family? These experiential learning activity resources focus on the skills that are beneficial and necessary for being an independently functioning adult.
​
  • Plan a Road Trip on a Budget - This is a favorite experiential learning activity resource among my students. Students build skills such as budgeting and planning, but because it is student-led, they get to make a variety of choices such as the road trip route, making the experience personally relevant and meaningful.
  • Service-Learning Tool Kit - Self-direction is a great skill to have in adulthood. This experiential learning activity tool kit guides students through not just any self-directed learning experience, but one that involves serving the community around real-world needs. Because service-learning is community-based, it also helps students network, which is another great skill to have.
  • Plan a Dinner Party Challenge - This experiential learning activity resource is one of my best sellers because it is relevant and engaging to students as well as a great skill-builder.
  • Problem-Based Learning Tool Kit- Problem-solving is a great soft skill, but is also, in my opinion, an important hard skill. This problem-based learning tool kit is designed to guide students through solving problems, including those that students are facing directly, by looking at a variety of perspectives, and utilizing a diverse set of resources.
"I used it to lay the groundwork for service-learning projects. It gave me a great place to start!" - Heather, Student-Led Service Learning Tool Kit

Favorite Free Experiential Learning Activity Resources

If you're new to experiential learning, want a sneak peek, or simply just want to try out a couple of free experiential learning activity resources, check these out. I offer a variety of experiential learning resources from printables, to digital tools and resources, to video trainings for experiential teachers. Here are a few of my favorites.
Writing a project based learning driving question can be a challenge for teachers and students alike. Check out this blog post for tips and an example of driving question for project-based learning activities.
"I’m planning to incorporate PBL this year and did not know where to begin. This resource is a gift! I’m building around the template to modify for my units." - Vicky, 6th grade, PBL Project-Based Learning Activity Brainstorming Tool

Experiential Learning Activity Resource Testimonials

Check out these testimonials from teachers using Experiential Learning Depot's experiential learning activity resources!
Developing a K12 Experiential Learning Program?
If you are looking for guidance, not necessarily with experiential learning activity resources, but more along the lines of developing an experiential learning program (school, classroom, homeschool, summer camp, etc.), grab my free 10-point checklist for k12 experiential learning programs.