In our portable planetarium dome, students will have the chance to experience the changes in the sky (both night and day) and make predictions about their motion based on patterns they observe. The planetarium allows us to adjust time, date and location on the Earth so we can observe changes over hours, days months and seasons.
South Carolina Standards Connections: 1-PS4-1, 1-PS4-2, 1-PS4-3
Recommended Audience – 1st
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The portable planetarium is an inflatable dome that participants enter and can comfortably fit about 25 students at a time plus their teacher and our instructor. It must be set up in a large indoor space. If needed, we will accommodate a single class of up to 30 students, but for health safety reasons we do not allow combining classes at this time even if the classes are very small. At least one teacher or other school staff person is required to enter the planetarium dome with each class in order to assist our instructor with managing behavior. For safety reasons, students are not permitted to exit and re-enter the dome once the program has begun. For this reason, we recommend having all students use the rest room prior to their scheduled start time.
Schools may choose either a 30 or 50 minute session. Up to six 30 minute or four 50 minute sessions may be scheduled in one school day. Schools with more than this many classes will need to schedule multiple visits.
The portable planetarium dome requires and indoor space with open floor space that is a least 20’x30’ in size and ceilings at least 11’ high. If your space is just a little bit smaller than these dimensions, it is worth asking as we may be able to make it work depending on the exact dimensions. All furniture must be cleared from this area and nothing can be suspended from the ceiling into this space. A working 3-pronged electrical outlet is needed to power our equipment. No other activities can take place in the room where the dome is set up during program times. Other activities may be okay during setup and breakdown times, and in between program time depending on the activity. If the room can be divided with a sound insulated barrier, then activities throughout the day may be okay if they are not too loud.
Gyms are usually ideal, but we have successfully set up in many other spaces including cafeteria’s, stages, music rooms, media centers and even some regular classrooms (with especially high ceilings).
| 30 minute sessions | |
| 1 Session | $150 |
| 2 Sessions | $200 |
| 3 Sessions | $250 |
| 4 Sessions | $300 |
| 5 Sessions | $350 |
| 6 Sessions | $400 |
| 50 minute sessions | |
| 1 Session | $175 |
| 2 Sessions | $235 |
| 3 Sessions | $295 |
| 4 Sessions | $355 |
Outside Greenville county a travel fee of $0.95 per mile applies.
1st and 4th or 5th grade Portable Planetarium programs can be combined into the same visit or multiple day visits.
For multiple day visits a one session discount will be applied to the total for each additional day if we are permitted to store the equipment at the school in between visits.
This program can travel up to 2.5 hours from Roper Mountain for a single day trip. Sites farther from Roper Mountain (up to 5 hours) can request an overnight visit. A flat $200 per night fee is added for each night to cover hotel and meals for our instructor. There is a travel fee of $0.95 per mile for all sites outside of Greenville county. We use Google Maps to calculate drive times and distances. It can be beneficial for more distant locations to team up with other sites in your area to combine trips and split travel fees.
Sessions are 30 or 50 minutes long depending on booking site’s choice. Maximum of six 30 minute or four 50 minute sessions in a day. Multiple days may be scheduled if needed to serve all the classes. 45 minutes is required for setup. 30 minutes is required for breakdown. 10 minutes is required to reset the program between sessions. If the programs extend through lunch time, a 30 minute or longer break between programs is requested so the instructor can eat lunch.
Greenville County schools: First session can start as early as 8:15 a.m.
Out of County Schools: Calculate the drive time from Roper Mountain Science Center to your school, then add that amount of time to 8:00 to determine your earliest assembly start time. If it is a one hour drive from Roper Mountain to your school, add one hour to 8 a.m. and the earliest start time is 9 a.m.