Learning
Field Trips
Embark on a journey of discovery with your students at the RMSC Museum & Science Center, RMSC Strasenburgh Planetarium, and RMSC Cumming Nature Center. Find the program to match your curriculum needs using the search tool below or call us at 585.697.1942 and we’ll help you identify the best program for your class.
Educator Programs
Explore school programs using our Program Search below. This tool is designed to help you find the RMSC experience that best fits your needs. As always, we’re here to help. Give us a call at 585.697.1942 and we will answer any questions you have.
Please note: as of September 1, 2022 the RMSC will no longer offer Monday school programs while the Museum & Science Center is closed. Thank you for your patience and understanding!
WE OFFER THREE TYPES OF SCHOOL EXPERIENCES TO BEST FIT YOUR NEEDS:
- In-Person Field Trips: Guided or self-guided experiences
- RMSC Delivers: Live science experiences at your site
- Virtual Field Trips: Highly interactive sessions via Zoom
bring your curriculum to life & Plan Your Visit!
Once you have perused our offerings and are ready to request a program, fill out the form below. You can expect to hear back from our Guest Services team within 3-5 business days.
Animal Adaptations
Grades PreK-4 | Beavers, bears and birds, oh my! Structure follows function as students explore the adaptations that abound in the animal kingdom!
Animal Defenses
Grades 1-4 | This adventure explores the unique defense mechanisms that our local plants, animals, and other critters use to protect and defend themselves.
Be an H2O Hero: How You Can Protect Your Watershed
Grades K-12 | We all live in a watershed… but, what’s a watershed?
Beaver Ecology
Grades 3-7 | Discover adaptations, natural and cultural history of beavers.
Black Holes Revealed
Grades 9-12 | Discover the mysteries of Black Holes through one of our most popular shows.
Climate and Changing Ecosystems – Virtual
Grades 5-10 | Explore how changing weather patterns over time create climate, and the effects of changing climates on ecosystems past, present, and future.
Climate and Our Changing Forest
Grade 5-12 | Explore how a changing climate affects flora and fauna, and collect data valuable to citizen science projects.
Day and Night On Our Planet – Virtual
Grades K-2 | Discover how the Earth and our view of outer space changes throughout the day and night.
Dinosaurs
Grades PreK-2 | Take your experience to the next level with this hands-on companion program for our show-stopping Expedition Dinosaur exhibit!
Earthskills
K-5 | Students will discover how to tune in to nature through games and activities involving stealth and observation while practicing survival skills like shelter, fire building, woodcraft, and more.
Eclipse Preview
Grades 9-12 | Prepare for the upcoming 2023 & 2024 solar eclipses.
Ecological Explorations
Grades 5-8 | Collect data from field, forest and pond communities to gain insight into communities, succession, food webs, and population dynamics.
Erie Canal Simple Machine Challenge
Grades 4-8 | Simple Machines to the rescue! It’s time to clear the path to make way for the Erie Canal, but we need your team to build a “stump puller.”
Field Journal Journey
Grades 4-12 | Explore the complexity and biodiversity of the natural world through observation and data collection using field journals.
Field Journaling – Virtual
Grades 4-9 | Discover the natural history of field journaling and what value a field journal can have for individuals and citizen science.
Flight to Freedom: Rochester’s Underground Railroad
Grade 3-8 | Follow the North Star on a journey from slavery, to the doors of abolitionists, and on to freedom during this Underground Railroad Immersion Experience in our Flight to Freedom exhibition.
Focus on Native Frogs
Grades 3-5 | This is a fun and dirty adventure that explores the amazing adaptations, lifecycle, and habit of the native frogs in our region.
Frog Adaptations
Grades 3-4 | Discover the ingenious adaptations of live frogs and why they’re important.
Gravity, Scale, and Motion – Virtual
Grades 7-12 | See how gravity influences the structure and motions of solar systems and galaxies.
Haudenosaunee School Days
Grades 4-8 | Immerse your students in the vibrant art and culture of today’s Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). Celebrate Haudenosaunee culture—past and present.
Holiday Laser
Grades K-8 | A holiday classic returns, with popular songs choreographed to dancing laser light effects.
How To Predict Eclipses – Virtual
Grades 9-12 | We review the sun and moon motions needed to produce a solar eclipse. Then we discover how to predict when those conditions will recur.
I See the Sky
PreK-K | Young children learn about day and night, the Sun and moon, bright and faint stars, constellations and meteors.
Inquiry Room Exploration
PreK | Explore science in a less structured setting as you learn and play in the unique Carlson Inquiry Room. Meet our live animals and investigate magnetism. Learn about states of matter as you experiment with vinegar and baking soda and make your own slime to take home.
Insect Investigations
Grades K-3 | Explore the wonder of butterfly metamorphosis. Learn how insects communicate and meet the live critters that make their home in the RMSC Carlson Inquiry Room.
Insects – Virtual
Grades K-3 | Explore the incredible world of insects and the important roles they play in our ecosystem.
Introduction to Natural Communities
Grades 2-5 | Explore the woods to discover how all living things are connected through food chains and the relationships between consumers, producers and decomposers.
Journey of Sound
Grades PreK-4 | Explore how sound travels by experimenting with tuning forks, a spouting bowl, and instruments. Investigate of sound vibrations by creating a croaking frog!
Light Up the Martian City: Alternative Energy Challenge
Grades 2-8 | Become part of an elite team of astronauts as you construct an energy grid for the first human settlement on Mars.
Live Science: Electricity Theater
Grades 1-12 | Two six foot tall Tesla Coils throwing 8 foot arcs of plasma (lightning) and the arcs actually play music. Our Faraday Cage can make the day of many in attendance electrifying!
Live Science: Solids, Liquids & Gases
Grades 2-12 | Our coolest demonstrations, literally! This program explores temperature’s effect on solids, liquids and gasses using liquid nitrogen.
Maple Sugaring
Grades K-5 | From the Haudenosaunee to the American pioneers, and on to modern day methods, the time-honored tradition of making maple syrup blends both history and ecology.
Native American Environments & Culture
PreK-3 | Take a closer look at the Algonquin, Apache, Haida, Pueblo, Inuit, Haudenosaunee and Plains cultures. Compare and contrast the past material culture of these various groups of Native Americans living across North America.
Naturalist in the Zoom! Custom Programs
Grades Pre-K-12 | What are your students curious about in the natural world? What seasonal events, animal activities, bug perplexities, strange phenomena or wild finds might stump the Naturalist?
Nature Awareness
PreK-2 | Discover the beauty and complexity of the natural world through activities that engage all the senses.
Our Changing Earth
Grades 6-12 | Take a closer look at how scientists determine the health of our planet.
Planet Spectacular
1-2 | Depart Earth, visit Pluto and all the planets in our solar system!
Plastic Lakes: A little Litter Goes a Long Way
Grades 6-8 | Plastic pollution has been widely studied in the ocean, however scientists have only recently started to study this problem in the Great Lakes.
Plates in Motion
Grades 4-8 | Examine earthquakes, volcanoes and seafloor structures to evaluate the theory of past plate motions.
Predicting Weather
Grades 3-8 | Discover the complex interactions and movement of air masses on our 5 ft. interactive globe.
RMSC DELIVERS: Bats
PreK-2 | This fun and interactive program will help your students to understand bats, and the important part they play in our ecosystem.
RMSC DELIVERS: Dinosaurs
PreK-2 | This very interactive program expands the students’ imagination as they learn about and “create” a fossil. Students become “paleontologists” in a mock “dig”, and then role play as dinosaurs to explore how they move, eat, and defend themselves.
RMSC DELIVERS: Energy
Grades 1-12 | The question is: “What is energy?” Demonstrators guide students in exploring these different forms of energy, how they connect, and how they are used.
RMSC DELIVERS: Field Journaling
Grades 4-9 | Discover the natural history of field journaling and what value a field journal can have for individuals and citizen science.
RMSC DELIVERS: Insects
Grades K-2 | This fun, interactive program will get your class buzzing about insects. Students will take on the role of dragonflies, bees, crickets, and other insects, as they learn about insect anatomy, eating habits, and how they communicate.
RMSC DELIVERS: Light and Color
PreK-12 | Explore how and why we see colors in this fun, interactive show. Experiment with color mixing and learn about the different kinds of primary colors.
RMSC DELIVERS: Rocks and Minerals
Grades 3-7 | This outreach gives the student a hands-on understanding of geology.
Rochester Changemakers
Grades 4-12 | Discover the stories of regional women from the past and present who changed the world. Walk in the steps of diverse leaders who have organized, advocated, invented, and enterprised to bring about change in American society.
Rocks, Fossils and More
Grades 1-5 | Explore fossils from the RMSC teaching collection. Sort rocks into three groups and learn about the minerals that make up rocks.
Rotation and Revolution
Grades 3-6 | Take a virtual trip from Earth’s surface into the solar system to see vividly how rotation and revolution produce the cyclical sky changes we see.
Roving Robots
Grades 1-5 | Discover how robots are programmed to perform tasks. Program a robot to complete a mission in space. Build a robot to communicate to extraterrestrial life!
Scale of the Universe
Grades 9-12 | Expanding our view by powers of ten, we survey the universe from human scale to the limit of the observable universe, 100 to 1026 meters. Visualizations based on real NASA data.
Self Guided Nature Walk
PreK – 12 | Embark on a self-guided nature walk at Cumming Nature Center!
Simple Machines & Fantastic Forces
Grades K-4 | Explore simple machines while experimenting with pulley systems and ramps. Learn about friction, gravity and inertia while investigating the forces of motion.
Solar System Science
Grades 3-8 | Surrounded by the best images from recent space missions such as the New Horizons Pluto flyby projected at giant scale, students encounter the majesty, mystery and wonder of our solar system.
Solar System Science – Virtual
Grades 3-8 | Surrounded by the best images from recent space missions such as the New Horizons Pluto flyby projected at giant scale, students encounter the majesty, mystery and wonder of our solar system.
Stories in Stone
Grades 2-9 | Get hands on with rocks, minerals and fossil and discover the Earth Systems that shaped our local geology.
Stormy Science
Grades K-3 | Button up your raincoats and get ready to chase some storms!
Sun, Moon and Stars
Grades K-2 | Observe the Sun’s path through the sky from east to west. After sunset, find key constellations of the season by looking for distinctive features such as Orion’s Belt. Travel to the moon, returning just in time for sunrise.
Take it Down! Organizing Against Racism
Grades 3-12 | Explore the story of a local, racist carousel panel and join in the meaningful dialogue it encourages regarding individual, institutional, and structural racism.
The Haudenosaunee
Grades 4-8 | Discover the rich culture- past and present – of the Haudenosaunee people, more commonly known as the Iroquois Confederacy.
The Sky Tonight and the Life Cycles of Stars
Grades 9-12 | Get a unique view of what’s in the sky tonight
Ticks Up Close
Grades 3-8 | Students will use microscopes to observe local tick species, learn how the most common tick species on the East Coast spread Lyme disease, and discuss the many ecosystem and climate factors that control tick populations.
Ticks! – Virtual
Grades 3-7 | Ticks are amazingly adapted! Take a microscopic look at local tick species to learn more about them.
Tour of the Solar System
Grades PreK-2 | Explore beautiful cutting-edge images of our solar system as you travel through space and learn the properties of each planet.
Water Monitors
Grades 5-12 | This field study examines the features of clean water. Students will collect usable data on a Cumming Nature Center creek by collecting benthic macroinverebrates, performing chemical tests, measuring physical characteristics of one of the healthiest creeks in the region.
What Tells Us That There Was a Big Bang? – Virtual
Grades 9-12 | Review the three pillars of evidence that our universe is emerging from a Big Bang.
What’s the Matter? (Solids, Liquids, and Gases)
Grades PreK-2 | Explore the states of matter by comparing and contrasting solids, liquids and gases. Do hands-on experiments about liquid density and chemical reaction. Learn about polymers and make slime to take home.
Winter Ecology
Grades 5-12 | Examine how plants and animals adapt to winter.
Winter Ecology – Virtual
Grades 5-12 | Examine how plants and animals adapt to winter. Hunt for tracks and other evidence of animal activity. Snow science investigations.
Did you know that teachers & educators can visit all three of our locations absolutely free?
Visit at any time to preview exhibits for planning purposes, and to explore the learning opportunities available at the RMSC. Valid ID required. Additional charges for special exhibits and programs may apply.
Camps
Curiosity Campers enjoy unique, rewarding, and fun-filled educational experiences, interactions with scientists and other professionals, and exploration into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) topics. Get ready to share in new adventure and explore exciting experiments for minds ages 2–15!
Scouts
Experience instructor-led classroom activities and experiments along with exhibit exploration at the RMSC Museum & Science Center and outdoor programs at the RMSC Cumming Nature Center. Join us with your Den, Pack, or Troop here at the RMSC! Scout programming is centered on the Scouts BSA and Girl Scouts of America badge requirements.
Forest School at the CNC
Forest School at Cumming Nature Center (CNC) provides children with the space to nurture their relationship with nature through curiosity-driven learning, unstructured play, hands-on projects and basic outdoor skills development.
The Walden Project – NY is a year-long educational experience for high school and gap year students located at Cumming Nature Center in Naples, NY. We offer interdisciplinary education in an outdoor setting with an emphasis on academic independence and freedom.
More Ways to Learn with the RMSC
Whether you are a lifelong learner, researcher, retired educator, or have a passion for STEM, discover even more ways to learn at the RMSC.
Internships
Explore internship opportunities for students seeking career-readiness experiences. We accept applications from students and recent grads.
Joe Wilson Science Consultant Program (JWSCP)
Join this volunteer based program in partnership with the Rochester City School District and Webster Central School District! Visit classrooms as a science expert to lead interactive programs in STEM, igniting students’ curiosity.
Discover three floors filled with over 200 interactive science and history themed exhibits and science demonstrations.
Take a trip across the universe in our 65ft domed Star theater. Explore Star shows, laser shows, and featured giant screen films.
Explore 15 miles of hiking and ski trails, a Visitor Center, and year-round events and environmental education programs.