STEM school trips are expanding beyond NASA. Schools are now also visiting:
• China: AI, robotics and advanced manufacturing, particularly in Hangzhou
• Japan: space science and physics, with questions that cross subjects
• Singapore: robotics at Weston Robot, vehicle and production systems at the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre, and hydroponic farming at Kok Fah Technology Farm
NASA remains one of the most powerful ways to inspire students. The map of STEM destinations is simply getting bigger.
"International trips expose pupils to global scientific contexts, diverse cultural perspectives, and real-world applications that cannot be replicated in the classroom."
— Dr N Kiernan, High School of Dundee, STEM Japan
Is NASA still worth visiting on a STEM school trip?
Yes! For generations of students, NASA has been the gold standard of STEM experiences; standing where space exploration happens and seeing the science behind some of humanity's greatest technological achievements.
In August 2026, I visited NASA myself on our Teacher Preview trip. It's the kind of visit that can change how a young person thinks about physics, engineering, or their own future. For a student who's been quietly fascinated by astronomy or aerospace, it can make something abstract suddenly feel possible.
But the world of STEM is changing, and so is the way schools are thinking about STEM travel. Increasingly, educators are looking beyond science centres and space institutions to explore robotics laboratories, AI hubs, advanced manufacturing facilities, smart cities, and technology farms. As Dr Kiernan reflects on a study tour to Japan, the right international experience helps students "make the surreal, real", transforming the concepts they've studied in the classroom into things they can see, question, and understand firsthand.
Across China, Japan and Singapore, schools are finding destinations that are just as compelling as NASA, and in some ways even more directly connected to the world students are about to enter.
Why is international travel good for STEM learning?
International travel puts STEM theory into context. STEM education was never just about formulas and programming syntax. At its most meaningful, it shows students how scientific principles are used to solve real problems in a multidisciplinary way.
That might mean seeing a robot perform the task it was designed for, understanding how AI is woven into a city's infrastructure, exploring how food is grown using hydroponic systems, or learning how future vehicles might be designed and manufactured.
Instead of asking "How does this work?", students start asking bigger questions:
- Why was it built?
- What problem is it solving?
- Who uses it, and who doesn't?
- What happens when a technology changes the way people live?
Those questions turn a STEM trip into something genuinely interdisciplinary. As Dr Kiernan found, they can "broaden horizons, deepen understanding, and inspire future pathways" for both students and the staff travelling with them
Where can students see AI and robotics in China?
Hangzhou is a particularly compelling destination for AI, robotics and advanced manufacturing. China offers a chance to see these technologies actively developed and applied at scale, which is difficult to find elsewhere.
The city's technology sector lets students encounter robotics, humanoid machines and industrial AI in a setting where they are not exhibits but infrastructure. The city's own systems are a real-world example of AI operating at an urban level, which opens up conversations about smart cities, automation and what happens when technology becomes embedded in everyday life.
For schools already running robotics or future-skills programmes, this kind of visit adds another dimension. One educator returning from an international STEM trip noted that seeing similar technologies in use overseas offered
"the validation that our school's STEM innovation curriculum and robotics courses are on the right track."
Students are not the only ones who gain from these trips.
What can students learn on a STEM trip to Japan?
Japan offers a different perspective, one where science, engineering, and big questions about the future sit naturally alongside one another.
A STEM-focused journey through Japan can weave together space science and physics while pushing students to think beyond the immediate subject content. Space exploration raises questions about human survival, resource management, and engineering on a scale most people never consider. For students, that becomes a powerful bridge across disciplines: physics connects to space, engineering connects to human survival, scientific research connects to the challenges the next generation will need to solve.
Dr Kiernan's experience in Japan also highlights something that's easy to overlook: the value for teachers. Visiting international learning institutions, research facilities, and academic centres gave her school a chance to see how other education systems approach the skills students will need in the future, and to compare those approaches with her own. She observed that institutions overseas taught
"similar learning concepts and using the same robotic hardware and software as we did in school."
For curriculum leaders, that kind of professional insight is genuinely valuable.
What STEM experiences can students have in Singapore?
Singapore connects technology with the natural world. Within a compact, highly connected city-state, students can move between robotics demonstrations, advanced manufacturing facilities and agricultural technology, sometimes within the same programme.
- Weston Robot: students engage hands-on with robot dogs, humanoid robots and exoskeletons, seeing up close how they work and what they are designed to do.
- Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre: students explore how vehicles and production systems are being reimagined.
- Kok Fah Technology Farm: students explore hydroponic growing systems and see how science and technology are applied to food production and sustainability.
A student might spend a morning exploring AI and robotics and an afternoon in an environment where technology is used to grow food more efficiently. Both are STEM. Both are real. Together, they paint a more honest picture of the field.
How is STEM educational travel evolving?
The biggest shift is not the destinations. It is what the experience is trying to do.
The strongest programmes are moving away from the traditional model (visit a science museum, hear a presentation, go home) and towards something more connected. Students encounter STEM across an entire destination: in cities, in industry, in agriculture, in research. The result is a picture of the field that reflects what it actually looks like in practice.
That matters because the careers students may eventually enter don't sit neatly within subject boundaries. An engineer working on autonomous vehicles needs to understand more than engineering. A robotics developer needs to think about human interaction. A scientist working on sustainable food production needs to understand environmental systems, economics, and technology. STEM travel can give students an early glimpse of those intersections, before they're expected to navigate them.
NASA still matters. The map is just getting bigger.
None of this is an argument against NASA. Space exploration remains one of the most powerful ways to inspire students, and few experiences can match what a visit there offers.
But STEM itself is broadening, and the destinations available to schools are broadening with it. China, Japan, and Singapore each offer a different window into the technologies and questions that will define the coming decades: AI, robotics, sustainability, advanced manufacturing, the future of food, the future of space.
The common thread isn't the technology itself. It's the opportunity for students to see how people use science to solve problems, create new possibilities, and shape the world around them.
As Dr Kiernan puts it, the right international experience transforms abstract classroom concepts into real-world experiences that stay with students long after they return home.
And perhaps the most memorable STEM trip isn't the one that leaves students thinking, "That was an amazing robot."
It's the one that has them asking: "What could I build, solve, or change myself?"
FAQ
Is NASA still worth visiting on a STEM school trip?
Yes. Space exploration remains one of the most powerful ways to inspire students, and few experiences match a visit there.
Which destinations can schools visit for AI and robotics?
China offers AI, robotics and advanced manufacturing, particularly in Hangzhou. Singapore offers hands-on robotics at Weston Robot.
What STEM experiences does Singapore offer besides robotics?
Students can see hydroponic farming at Kok Fah Technology Farm and explore vehicle and production systems at the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre.
Do STEM trips benefit teachers as well as students?
Yes. Teachers can see how other education systems teach future skills and compare them with their own.
Are the trips only for STEM students?
No. Trips can be built around Geography, Business, Creative Arts, Food Technology, sport and culture as well as STEM.
How do international trips help students’ learning?
They turn classroom concepts into things students can see and question first-hand, and build confidence, cultural awareness and independence
Do teachers travel free?
Yes. Teachers travel free on school trips with Educating Adventures
