Group Visits

Group Visits and Class Trips

The Sciencenter is the perfect place for a group, camp, or school field trip! We offer a fun, memorable, and educational experience for kids, teachers, and chaperones alike. You can make the most of your visit by choosing the package that works best for you: a basic self-guided museum experience – or enrich your visit with an interactive educational program. Small groups may also want to consider a stroll on our Sagan Planet Walk.


Hands-On Field Trip Programs

Enrich your group’s visit by combining your self-guided museum exploration with an interactive educational program!

Visit the ocean… right here in the Finger Lakes!

We’re all connected to the ocean! Our local waterways eventually flow into the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf of Maine, home to horseshoe crabs, sea stars, hermit crabs, marine snails and more. Participants will wonder at the diversity of life in the ocean, consider the relationship between humans and this important natural resource, and meet various species in our live animal salt water Tidepool Touch Tank.

Program Structure & Duration:
Begins with an interactive presentation, after which small groups (10 or fewer students with an adult chaperone) take turns visiting the Touch Tank in staggered intervals. Total trip length should allow for at least 10 minutes at the Touch Tank per small group. While not at the Touch Tank, small groups may freely explore other exhibits and galleries throughout the museum.

NGSS Themes: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems (K, 2, 3), Structure, Function, and Information Processing (1, 4), Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems (5)

Want to get messy with science?

Students review the properties of solids, liquids, and gases and observe the transitions between states. They then investigate Oobleck, a strange substance that defies the classification standard.

Program Structure & Duration:
Begins with an interactive show for the whole group, followed by hands-on exploration for sections of up to 26 students at a time. Allow at least 20 minutes/section.

NGSS Themes: Matter and its Interactions (K), Structures and Properties of Matter (2)

How will we power our future? We all have a role to play.

Students identify benefits of renewable energy, then get to work to design, build, and test a model wind turbine. This sustainability focused program emphasizes collaboration, problem-solving, and the engineering design process.

Program Structure & Duration:
Begins with an interactive presentation about our climate and energy future to the whole group, followed by a hands-on engineering workshop for sections of up to 24 students at a time. Allow at least 45 minutes/section.

NGSS Themes: Structures and Properties of Matter (2), Energy (4), Earth’s Systems (5)

Self- Guided Tour of Sagan Planet Walk (Grades K-12)

Questions and Reservations:

For more information about group visits, class trips, and reservations, please contact Cori Thompson, at (607) 272-0600 ×116, by email, or by completing the following form:

*required

Please Note: filling out this form does not guarantee reservation.

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Find us

Sciencenter 601 1st Street Ithaca, NY 14850
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Museum & Store Hours

  • Tuesday, 10 am - 5 pm
  • Wednesday, 10 am - 5 pm
  • Thursday, 10 am - 5 pm
  • Friday, 10 am - 5 pm
  • Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm
  • Sunday, 10 am - 5 pm

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