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.

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🎁 GIVE THE GIFT OF LEARNING!

Not all school districts have the resources to bring their students for an immersive experience like a field trip at the RMSC.

Through the generous investments of members and supporters like you, we are able to offer financial assistance to schools with financial needs. Please consider a gift to send a curious mind on a field trip they will never forget!

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!

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • Guided Exhibit Workshops, Virtual Experiences

  • Be an H2O Hero: How You Can Protect Your Watershed

    Grades K-12 | We all live in a watershed… but, what’s a watershed?

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • RMSC Delivers: Experiences at Your Site, Virtual Experiences

  • Beaver Ecology

    Grades 3-7 | Discover adaptations, natural and cultural history of beavers.

    • Cumming Nature Center, Virtual
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences

  • Dinosaurs

    Grades PreK-2 | Take your experience to the next level with this hands-on program!

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Inquiry Room Investigation

  • 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.

    • Cumming Nature Center
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences

  • Eclipse 2024!

    Grades 9-12 | Prepare for the upcoming 2023 & 2024 solar eclipses.

    • Strasenburgh Planetarium
    • Planetarium Digistar Presentation

  • Ecological Explorations

    Grades 5-8 | Collect data from field, forest and pond communities to gain insight into communities, succession, food webs, and population dynamics.

    • Cumming Nature Center
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences

  • 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.”

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Engineering Design Lab

  • Field Journal Journey

    Grades 4-12 | Explore the complexity and biodiversity of the natural world through observation and data collection using field journals.

    • Cumming Nature Center, Virtual
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences, RMSC Delivers: Experiences at Your Site, Virtual Experiences

  • 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.

    • Cumming Nature Center, Virtual
    • Virtual Experiences

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • Guided Exhibit Workshops, Virtual Experiences

  • 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.

    • Cumming Nature Center
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences

  • Frog Adaptations

    Grades 3-4 | Discover the ingenious adaptations of live frogs and why they’re important.

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • Inquiry Room Investigation, Virtual Experiences

  • Holiday Laser

    Grades K-8 | A holiday classic returns, with popular songs choreographed to dancing laser light effects.

    • Strasenburgh Planetarium
  • I See the Sky

    PreK-K | Young children learn about day and night, the Sun and moon, bright and faint stars, constellations and meteors.

    • Strasenburgh Planetarium
    • Planetarium Digistar Presentation

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Inquiry Room Investigation

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Inquiry Room Investigation, Virtual Experiences

  • Insects – Virtual

    Grades K-3 | Explore the incredible world of insects and the important roles they play in our ecosystem.

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • Virtual Experiences

  • 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.

    • Cumming Nature Center, Virtual
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences

  • 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!

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • Inquiry Room Investigation, Virtual Experiences

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • Engineering Design Lab, Virtual Experiences

  • 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!

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Demonstration (Live Science)

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • RMSC Delivers: Experiences at Your Site, Virtual Experiences, Demonstration (Live Science)

  • 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.

    • Cumming Nature Center
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Guided Exhibit Workshops

  • 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?

    • Virtual
    • Virtual Experiences

  • Nature Awareness

    PreK-2 | Discover the beauty and complexity of the natural world through activities that engage all the senses.

    • Cumming Nature Center
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences

  • Our Changing Earth

    Grades 6-12 | Take a closer look at how scientists determine the health of our planet.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Science on a Sphere

  • Plant & 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.

    • Cumming Nature Center, Virtual
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences, RMSC Delivers: Experiences at Your Site, Virtual Experiences

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Science on a Sphere

  • Plates in Motion

    Grades 4-8 | Examine earthquakes, volcanoes and seafloor structures to evaluate the theory of past plate motions.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Science on a Sphere

  • Predicting Weather

    Grades 3-8 | Discover the complex interactions and movement of air masses on our 5 ft. interactive globe.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Science on a Sphere

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • RMSC Delivers: Experiences at Your Site

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • RMSC Delivers: Experiences at Your Site

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • RMSC Delivers: Experiences at Your Site, Virtual Experiences

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • RMSC Delivers: Experiences at Your Site

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • RMSC Delivers: Experiences at Your Site

  • RMSC DELIVERS: Rocks and Minerals

    Grades 3-7 | This outreach gives the student a hands-on understanding of geology.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • RMSC Delivers: Experiences at Your Site

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • Virtual Experiences

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Inquiry Room Investigation

  • 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.

    • Strasenburgh Planetarium
    • Planetarium Digistar Presentation

  • 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!

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Inquiry Room Investigation

  • Self Guided Nature Walk

    PreK – 12 | Embark on a self-guided nature walk at Cumming Nature Center!

    • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Inquiry Room Investigation

  • Solar System Science

    Grades 1-12 | 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.

    • Strasenburgh Planetarium
    • Planetarium Digistar Presentation

  • Stories in Stone

    Grades 2-9 | Get hands on with rocks, minerals and fossil and discover the Earth Systems that shaped our local geology.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Guided Exhibit Workshops

  • Stormy Science

    Grades K-3 | Button up your raincoats and get ready to chase some storms!

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • Inquiry Room Investigation, Virtual Experiences

  • Survival of the Slowest

    Grades PreK-8 | Enjoy a special guided experience in our visiting exhibition, Survival of the Slowest!

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Guided Exhibit Workshops

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Immersive Day Programs

  • The Haudenosaunee

    Grades 4-8 | Discover the rich culture- past and present – of the Haudenosaunee people, more commonly known as the Iroquois Confederacy.

    • Museum & Science Center, Virtual
    • Guided Exhibit Workshops, Virtual Experiences

  • 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.

    • Cumming Nature Center
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Science on a Sphere

  • 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.

    • Cumming Nature Center
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences

  • 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.

    • Museum & Science Center
    • Inquiry Room Investigation

  • Winter Ecology

    Grades 5-12 | Examine how plants and animals adapt to winter.

    • Cumming Nature Center
    • Cumming Nature Center Experiences


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!

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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.

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The Walden Project

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.

Collections & Library

More information coming soon!


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.