MUSEUM HOURS:
Monday–Saturday: 9am–5pm
Sunday: 11am–5pm
HOLIDAY HOURS:
Columbus Day: Monday, October 12: 9am–5pm
MUSEUM ADMISSION:
$13 adults, $12 seniors and college students with ID, $11 ages 3–18, free for children under 3 and RMSC members.
STRASENBURGH PLANETARIUM HOURS AND ADMISSION:
See show schedule
MUSEUM AND STRASENBURGH PLANETARIUM COMBINED ADMISSION:
$17 adults, $15 seniors and college students with ID, $14 ages 3-18
CUMMING NATURE CENTER HOURS:
Trails open five days a week: Wednesday through Friday, 9am–3:30pm; Saturday and Sunday, 9am–4:30pm (closed Mondays and Tuesdays).
CUMMING NATURE CENTER ADMISSION:
RMSC members free; General public requested donation—$3 per person; $10 per family.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
Unless otherwise noted, programs are free with museum admission.
Science Alive—Sponsored by Time Warner Cable
When the kids are off from school, we put fun science live on center stage. Exciting experiments with museum educators, hands-on explorations with science experts from our community, live animals presentations and singing lightning in the Electricity Theater are just some of the Science Alive experiences you’ll have at the RMSC.
- Live Science Shows
Exciting science demonstrations featuring fiery explosions and extreme temperatures performed by the RMSC Players in the Bausch Auditorium.
Saturdays, Sundays and School Breaks:1pm and 3pm - Science Encounters
Balance a bicycle wheel in one hand, explore nanoscience or meet some of RMSC’s live animal friends during these fun science encounters with RMSC staff and volunteers in exhibit galleries.
Saturdays, Sundays and School Breaks: 10:15am, 11:15am, 12:15pm, 1:15pm, 2:15pm and 3:15pm - Electricity Theater
Get “charged up” and see amazing arcs of lightning.
Saturdays, Sundays and School Breaks: 12pm, 2pm and 4pm - Science On a Sphere® Presentations
Engage in the wonders of our planet and beyond as you experience scientific data in three dimensions on our giant globe. See Earth and the universe in a whole new way through stunning projections of atmospheric storms, climate change, planetary activity and ocean temperature.
Saturdays, Sundays, and School Breaks: Check www.rmsc.org for specific times coming soon - Featured Presenters
Exciting upcoming programs with featured scientists and science enthusiasts from across the community! Check www.rmsc.org for details.
International Archaeology Day
Saturday, October 17: 12-3pm
Presented by: Rochester Society, Archaeological Institute of America
Learn about archeology while enjoying hands-on family-friendly activities including ancient Egyptian hieroglyph stamps, stickers, toys and a portable archaeology “dig.”
Show times are subject to change. Call 585.697.1942 to confirm. To request an interpreter for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, please call at least two weeks in advance: 585.697.1942.
Circus! Circus!
Friday, October 9–Monday, October 12: 11am-3pm
Juggling, magic, unicycles, and more! Join in on the fun as the RMSC turns into a 3-ring spectacular with special performers and awesome hands-on fun for the whole family. Test your balance by walking a tightrope, learn how to make a balloon animal and take a peek at some tricky optical illusions. Come back often because we’ll feature a special “center ring” act every day!
Friday, October 9: 1pm and 3pm
Joe Showers Juggling Shows
Saturday, October 10: 1pm and 3pm
Airplay: Cool Tricks and Big Fun with Jeff Peden
Sunday, October 11: 1pm and 3pm
Magical John: Defying Reality
Monday, October 12: 1pm and 3pm
Flower City Vaudeville
National Chemistry Week
Saturday and Sunday, October 24-25: 11am-3pm
Find out how “Chemistry Colors Our World” with members of the Rochester Section of the American Chemical Society. Try fun hands-on experiments. Meet local chemists from colleges and universities across Rochester and discover the chemistry of color!
Spooky Science and Trick-or-Treating
Saturday, October 31: 11am-3pm
Never fear! Join us for a host of hair-raising activities and events that will help you ring in the Halloween season in style. Enjoy a special magic show from The Amazing Magic Joe, get messy with glowing slime and other fun, hands-on activities. Experience fun trick-or-treating throughout the exhibit galleries. Costumes are strongly encouraged.
Simulator Rides
Enjoy special limited-time only simulator rides throughout the year. Most* special rides are $1 per person (members included). Visitors can enjoy the Lake Ontario ride daily for free.
Wall of China – New HD Ride
Experience the Great Wall of China in a runaway rickshaw
October: Daily
Hurricane Simulator
Experience the power of 75mph hurricane-force winds! Several people can experience at the same time for the price of one simulation.
*$2 charge per simulation (members included).
Daily
DIY Wearables
Youth Workshop: Ages 9-11 and 12-15
Explore the design process and the rising trend of wearable technologies through a series of courses. Incorporate interactive light components into your design as you learn about circuitry, LED lights, and smart textiles. Engage with local professionals in both the science and fashion industries and then “do-it-yourself” to create a wearable piece of your very own. Light up the runway and showcase your designs at the RMSC’s illuminated runway event.
• Saturday, October 3: 9:30am–12pm
• Saturday, October 10: 9:30am–12pm
• Saturday, October 17: 9:30am–12pm
• Full Dress Rehearsal: Saturday, October 24: 5:30–7:30pm
• Runway Event: Friday, October 30: 6–9pm
Registration required. For costs and registration information, visit www.rmsc.org or call 585.697.1942.
RMSC After Dark: Monster Bash
Friday, October 23: 7–11pm
RMSC After Dark events are sponsored by City Newspaper
Check-in Sponsor: Yelp Rochester
Theme Sponsor: Arlene’s Costumes
Must be 21+ to attend
Calling all witches, monsters, ghouls and goblins. Come to the Halloween party of the season featuring, you guessed it, SPOOK-tacular science! Our “mad scientists” bring science to life in our electrifying Electricity Theater. Perform a dissection and other squeamish experiments. Explore crypt-like objects from our vaults, view old horror films and do the “Monster Mash” with a live DJ. Scary good snacks and cash bars. Dress up for the costume contest.
Tickets are limited. Pre-purchasing tickets is strongly encouraged. Past events have sold out. Visit www.rmsc.org for details.
Pre-sale tickets: RMSC Members: $12; General Public: $17
Day of tickets: RMSC Members: $15; General Public: $20
Richard C. Shultz Science on The Edge Lectures
Explore cutting-edge science, Museum exploration and meeting with the speakers in a unique after-hours experience. RMSC Bausch Auditorium. Lectures start at 6:30pm
Discovery of the God Particle: A Brief History
Dr. Carl Hagen
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Green Infrastructure: Solutions to Stormwater Pollution
Caroline Kilmer
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Playing an Instrument Changes your Brain
Molly Jaynes, PhD candidate
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Tickets: Adult RMSC Member: $13, Adult General Public: $15; Student RMSC Member: $7, Student General Public: $8
Register: 585.697.1942 or at www.rmsc.org
Celebrate the International Year of Light 2015
Activities all year long
Get excited about light-based technologies and experience this colorful world as we dive into the hands-on fun of optics and reveal the vital role light plays in our daily lives. Illuminate that drive within as you shed light on your path toward a bright future. Visit www.rmsc.org for details on RMSC activities and roctheYOL.com for a full list of community events.
EXHIBITS:
Frogs: A Chorus of Colors traveling exhibition
Opens October 16
Discover fascinating living frogs, each adapted ingeniously for survival in locations around the world. Examine them as they jump, climb and glide in their natural environments recreated in astonishing detail. From the tropical forests, frozen tundras and scorching deserts, observe a large collection of rare and unusual frogs up close and in seldom-seen detail. Explore the striking variety of frogs including the sure-footed tree frogs and the jewel-toned poison dart frog. Camouflage, poison and mimicry are strategies that have shepherded these vulnerable creatures through time. Many frogs serve as important signs of our environment’s health and stability. In addition to observing these amphibians, immerse yourself in a frog-filled world as you find hidden frogs, activate frog calls and perform a virtual dissection. It’s a full hands-on, minds-on adventure as you leap into nature’s rainbow-colored ecosystem and discover the important role frogs play in our lives.
Special live animal shows every weekend of the duration of the exhibition.
Science On a Sphere
Permanent experience
Engage in the wonders of our planet and beyond as you experience scientific data in three dimensions on our giant globe. See Earth and the universe in a whole new way through stunning projections of atmospheric storms, climate change, planetary activity and ocean temperature.
Illumination: The World of Light and Optics
Experiment with lasers, lenses and mirrors as you explore the nature of light and optics. Immerse yourself in more than fifteen hands-on exhibits that demonstrate exciting scientific concepts including reflection and refraction, radio waves and color temperature. Crank, spin and illuminate to make light bend, sound emanate and shadows dance. Spark a passion for science within as you and discover the true wonders of light.
The American Civil War: The Impact of the Industrial Revolution
Now–Friday, January 15, 2016
Industry and new technologies had a huge impact on the military during the Civil War. Learn how the railroad, telegraph, photography and other advancements influenced the war. Discover unique items on display including rifles, military equipment, diaries and uniforms worn by local soldiers.
Inventor Center
Supporting Sponsor: Xerox Foundation
Media Sponsor: Democrat and Chronicle Media Group
Made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Constellation, an Exelon company and Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor
Hours: 10am–4:30pm on weekends and holidays and 2–4:30pm Monday–Friday
Power cities, build cars, harness wind and fire catapults. Dive into a hands-on exploration of the inventive process. Participate in engineering and design challenges as you tinker with raw materials to create working inventions that can be tested and shared. Challenges change every 3-5 months.
Challenge: Make it Fly, Make it Shine.
A dark storm is approaching! Build a device that can fly in a storm and shimmer through the darkness.
Nano Mini-Exhibit
(Located in Strasenburgh Planetarium)
Imagine and discover a world smaller than you can see! Get the family together and become engaged in the world of nanoscale science, engineering and technology. Hands-on exhibits present the basics of nano, introduce real-world applications and explore the implications of this new technology.
Electricity Theater
Featuring “singing” Tesla coils, Electricity Theater is a display of brilliant lightning zaps accompanied by popular music. Visitors watch the dark theater become splashed with light via twin solid-state Tesla coils, and allow that spark in them to ignite as they explore the excitement of electricity and all that goes with it. Visit and experience our new Faraday cage!
Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays (Including School Breaks): 12pm, 2pm and 4pm
Erie Canal Lock
Crank open those lock doors and operate a tugboat. Get hands-on insights into how canal locks work in the real world.
KEVA Planks
Come build with us! Construct wooden masterpieces of all shapes and sizes with KEVA Planks, a building exhibit experience. Precision cut, identical construction blocks, KEVA Planks stack with surprising stability. Using only gravity, visitors dabble with physics in order to achieve balance, optimum proportion and strength.
Under Construction: Building Careers
Founding Supporters: Builders Exchange of Rochester, Max & Marian Farash Charitable Foundation, UNICON, John W. Danforth Company, LeChase Construction Services, LLC, Manning Squires Hennig Company, Inc. and O’Connell Electric Company
Drill into an exciting hands-on exploration of construction trades. Built in-house by RMSC staff, the exhibition features the fascinating jobs of electricians, plumbers and other trade specialists. Maneuver a giant crane on the “job site,” install plumbing for a sink and much more. Also, learn from local trade professionals who built the Sustainability Institute Hall, home of the Golisano Institute for Sustainability on campus at RIT.
ENERGIZE it
Support from Rochester Gas & Electric
Built in-house by RMSC staff and volunteers, ENERGIZE it is a multi-sensory, highly physical experience where YOU hold the power. Compare types of energy, power a city and learn about which forms are “green.” Cycle, push and pump to create power and discover the outcome—wind blows, water flows and lights shine.
AdventureZone
Dive to the bottom of Lake Ontario in the Deep Submergence Vehicle simulator. Test your strength on the Genesee Gorge climbing wall. Explore Rochester weather. Experiment with wind currents, stream erosion and more.
Expedition Earth
Explore your connections to the natural world in this spectacular, interactive natural science exhibition. See how our region’s landscape and life forms have changed over hundreds of millions of years.
How Things Work
Discover the science behind everyday devices. Through fun, hands-on investigation, find out how mechanisms such as light switches, thermostats and traffic signals work.
Raceways
Discover the principles of moving objects. Experiment with momentum, friction, gravity and acceleration as you send wooden balls looping and racing over ramps.
Flight to Freedom: Rochester’s Underground Railroad
Presented with support from: the City of Rochester and the Underground Railroad Heritage Trail, a program of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
Explore stories of courageous African Americans who traveled through Rochester on their way from slavery to freedom. Find out about local people who helped them.
At the Western Door
The hundreds of objects displayed show the Seneca’s and Haudenosaunee’s creative responses to new technologies and materials introduced following European contact. Clan and family continue to bind communities together and define who the Seneca and Haudenosaunee are.
The Rochester Business Hall of Fame
Presented by the RMSC in partnership with Junior Achievement of Rochester and the Rochester Business Journal. Sponsored by Bank of America
This interactive exhibit celebrates exemplary Rochester leaders who have made outstanding, enduring contributions to business and community in the greater Rochester region.
STRASENBURGH PLANETARIUM
657 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607
24-hr. recorded info: 585.271.1880 | Weekends & Evenings: 585.697.1945 | Weekdays: 585.697.1942
Shows subject to change | See full schedule at www.rmsc.org
Giant-Screen Films
Admission: adults $7; seniors and college students with ID $6; ages 3–18 $6; RMSC members $3, children under 3 free. Children under 5 years old are admitted to daytime shows only.
Giant-screen films on Wednesdays and Saturdays include open captioning on the screen with support from the Theatre Development Fund TAP Plus program, in cooperation with the New York State Council on the Arts.
“The Living Sea”
Length: 45 min. For all ages.
Explore a world beyond land. Colorful underwater photography, a hopeful message, music by Sting and narration by Meryl Streep. Show times: www.rmsc.org/StrasenburghPlanetarium
“Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia”
Closes October 4
Length: 50 min. For ages 6 through adult.
Huge, thundering beasts darken the sky as they tower over you in the Star Theater dome. Never before seen in Rochester, this documentary-style film transports you to the dinosaurs’ world with computer graphics a generation beyond Jurassic Park in accuracy and realism.
Show times: www.rmsc.org/StrasenburghPlanetarium
Star Shows
Admission: adults $7; seniors and college students $6; ages 3–18 $6; RMSC members and children under 3 free.
“Pluto At Last”
Closes October 3
Length: 60 min. For ages 6 years to adult.
Join us for the latest discoveries as the New Horizons space probe plays back the rich trove of pictures and data from its fast flyby of Pluto.
Show times: www.rmsc.org/StrasenburghPlanetarium
“The Earliest Light”
Opens October 10
Length: 60 min. For ages 6 years to adult.
Light from the Big Bang surrounds us, but was discovered only 50 years ago. Plunge into the deep autumn night to see how the “cosmic microwave background” tells us about the early Universe. Part of RMSC’s participation in the International Year of Light.
Show times: www.rmsc.org/StrasenburghPlanetarium
“Saturday Night Skies”
Length: 30 min. For ages 5 years to adult.
This concise tour of the stars, constellations and planets in the current sky uses new solid-state lasers to guide you through the Planetarium’s magnificent indoor starfield.
Saturdays at 7:30pm (show times subject to change—confirm at www.rmsc.org/StrasenburghPlanetarium)
“My Planets”
Length: 35 min. For children ages 3–5 and the adults with them.
Especially for young children, this friendly introduction to the planetarium features worlds in our solar system as they appear in the sky and through a telescope.
Show times: www.rmsc.org/StrasenburghPlanetarium
“Saturday Sun, Moon and Stars”
Length: 45 min. For ages 5 to 7 and the adults with them.
This relaxed, enjoyable family show presents prominent constellations and takes the audience on a quick trip to the moon. See what Earth looks like from a quarter million miles away, and return home in time for sunrise.
Show times: www.rmsc.org/StrasenburghPlanetarium
Saturday Night Laser Shows
Sponsored by City Newspaper
Thanks to its pure wavelengths, laser light provides an intense color sensation whether faint or dazzlingly bright. Our new solid-state lasers put brighter and more intense color than ever before among the stars inside the Planetarium dome, accompanying great songs on a top-quality sound system.
October Shows
U2 Laser Saturdays at 8:15pm | Led Zeppelin Laser Saturdays at 9:30pm
Length: 60 minutes each. Children under age 5 are not admitted to this show.
Admission for ONE show: adults $7; seniors, college students, students ages 5–18, RMSC members $6.
Admission for BOTH shows, back-to-back: adults $11; seniors, college students, students ages 5–18, RMSC members $9.
Check www.rmsc.org/StrasenburghPlanetarium for playlists and showtimes.
CUMMING NATURE CENTER
6472 Gulick Road, Naples, NY 14512
585.374.6160 | www.rmsc.org
Hours: Trails open five days a week: Wednesday through Friday, 9am–3:30pm; Saturday and Sunday, 9am–4:30pm (closed Monday and Tuesday).
Admission: RMSC members free; General public donation requested—$3 per person; $10 per family.
Nature in Motion exhibit by Susan Jenkins
Now open
Abstract to realistic, Jenkins’ work is a reflection of the organic movement and dynamism that exists in nature, mimicking the kinetic qualities of matter in its purest form. A visual eruption of brushstroke, print, pattern, color and texture. A Rochester, New York artist, Jenkins has established herself as a nationally recognized painter and mixed media “sculptor.” With a degree in Studio Art from The Nazareth College of Rochester, Jenkins’ artwork has been exhibited throughout the United States.
Wildflower Hike:
Saturday, October 3: 10am- 12pm
Explore CNC looking for and identifying the many different species of wildflowers. Discover which wildflowers are native or invasive to this area, and how do they benefit humans and animals.
Falling Leaves:
Saturday, October 10: 10am- 12pm
Discover why trees lose their leaves in the autumn and explore how animals prepare for winter.
Fall Fest:
Saturday, October 17: 1–4pm
Visit the Cumming Nature Center to celebrate the season. Families can make their own scarecrow, carve a pumpkin and enjoy a Leaf Peeper walk. Bring old clothes to dress your scarecrow and a pillowcase to make a head. Pumpkin included. *Reservations Appreciated! $3 per scarecrow for members and general public.
The Missing Rainbow:
Saturday, October 24: 10am–12pm
Be an investigative reporter as you search for colorful pieces of the missing rainbow. Travel through various habitats. Bring a small bag to collect a few objects to take home to reconstruct the rainbow.
Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC) includes the Science Museum, Strasenburgh Planetarium and Cumming Nature Center. Offering experiences at the Museum with more than 200 interactive exhibits, Planetarium with a 65-foot dome and Nature Center on 900 acres, the RMSC stimulates community interest in exploration. In addition, the more than 1.2 million RMSC collection items tell the story of Rochester’s past including its rich history of innovation and invention. RMSC receives major funding from Monroe County, where it is one of the top three most visited attractions serving children and families. For more information about RMSC, visit www.rmsc.org. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
