Afternoon Explorations is back this fall!-September 2024

September 2024

Your Monthly News & Updates

Our Mission

To ignite the natural curiosity of all learners to explore and shape their world.

Visit RoperMountain.org

UPCOMING EVENTS

AFTERNOON EXPLORATIONS

Afternoon Explorations is back beginning September 12th! Open every Thursday and Friday from 1:30PM-5:00PM (last entry at 4:00PM). During each visit you’ll have the opportunity to explore some of your favorite parts of Roper Mountain including Environmental Science Building, Harrison Hall, the Living History Farm, Pirate Playground, and so much more!

Get a jump start and mark these Afternoon Explorations Special Event Days in your calendar:

Spooky Science: October 25th
Fall on the Farm: November 15th
Holly Jolly Science: December 13th
Scales and Tails : January 17th
For the Love of STEM: February 14th
Earth Day Celebration: April 17th

Afternoon Explorations Information & Tickets

FRIDAY STARRY NIGHTS

Friday Starry Nights

Legends of the Night Sky: Perseus and Andromeda

September 6, 13, 20, 27

4:30 p.m.

Details and Tickets

Friday Starry Nights

Experience the Aurora

September 6, 13, 20, 27

6:00 p.m.

Details and Tickets

Friday Starry Nights

Exploding Universe

September 6, 13, 20, 27

7:30 p.m.

Details and Tickets

MOUNTAIN HIGHLIGHT

Symmes is excited to debut our new 6th grade lab rotation! Students will solve engineering problems around the mountain with thanks to our Sponsors, Fluor and Milliken.

In Thermal Engineering, they will explore heat transfer using thermal cameras and experiment with insulators and conductors to design a safe glove to handle dry ice.

Sneak peek: conduction of heat through metals and non-metals through a thermal camera.

In Program Engineering, they will program LEGO Spike Prime robots to simulate animal responses to different stimuli, linking robotics with biological concepts and creating an interactive “Robot Zoo.”

Sneak peek: Turtle eating lettuce and furblets.

In Wave Engineering, they will experiment with speakers and lights to optimize sound and light design across Roper Mountain.

Sneak peek: Sloth and dinosaur with lighting options.

MOUNTAIN UPDATES

Presenting Our Planet: Life On Our Planet (Oct 7) and Our Planet: Frozen World (Apr 1) film screening and lecture events at the Peace Center. The Our Planet Live Lecture Series is a new and immersive live show featuring behind-the-scenes stories from the explorers, filmmakers, scientists and adventurers that created some of the most eye-catching footage captured in Netflix’s immensely popular series by the same name.

Check out our social media to enter to win 4 tickets!

During the 2023-2024 school year, we expanded our outreach to high poverty schools outside Greenville County, organizations that support underserved or disabled members of our community, and families with demonstrated financial need.

Through the generous support of our Community Partners, Supporting Members, and donations to the Guiding Star Fund, we have provided free onsite and Science on Wheels programming, free admission to public programs, and reduced rate memberships to 12,000 individuals and families during the 2023-2024 school year, which represents a total investment of over $88,000.

A special thanks to Lockheed Martin, SEW-EURODRIVE, Spartanburg County Foundation, Greenville Federal Credit Union, TD Charitable Foundation, all Originator and Creator supporting members, and other individuals who made donations to the Guiding Star Fund who made this possible.

Your support helps reinforce our mission to be a pinnacle of innovative learning, an engine for community engagement, and a national leader in science education. Thank you for making a difference in our community.

For more information on the Guiding Star Fund and how you can make a difference, visit us here

https://www.ropermountain.org/pages.asp?titleid=donate

DID YOU KNOW...

Do you know the tree in our Butterfly Garden that has one of the largest native edible tree fruits in North America? Our Pawpaw tree or shrub now has very large, green-yellowish mature fruits hanging from its branches and some so heavy they have fallen from the tree.

The Pawpaw, with large leaves, grows naturally as an understory tree in our forests, often in “Pawpaw patches”. It grows from the bottomlands to the slopes in our forests. I often see it on my hikes in the mountains along with Zebra Swallowtail butterflies that lay eggs on this host plant. We feature the pawpaw in our Butterfly Garden for this reason, as the only host plant providing larval food for the beautiful Zebra Swallowtail.

In early spring, just as new leaves are coming out, pawpaw trees begin to bloom with their small, maroon flowers. These flowers look and smell somewhat like carrion, attracting beetles and flies that pollinate them. To produce fruit, a pawpaw flower must receive pollen from another tree, usually from another pawpaw patch since the trees in a patch are often genetically identical. Pawpaw trees take about 5-7 years from seed before becoming mature enough to support fruit clusters.

Scientists think pawpaws have evolved to attract megafauna that are now extinct, like mammoths and ground sloths. These large animals helped disperse the large seeds in their dung. These days, animals that may be attracted to our pawpaw tree fruits in the garden include gray foxes, raccoons, and opossums. Of course people enjoy pawpaw fruits as well, sometimes comparing their texture and flavor to papayas or bananas. If you have not tasted a pawpaw yet, now is the time!

DONOR SPOTLIGHT

This month we say thank you to AFL Global and Dodge Industrial, two of our valued Community Partners who have not only provided funding for our learning labs, but also donated many hours of volunteer time helping out with various projects around our campus. They are always a big hit during the STEM Days of Summer program, bringing interesting and engaging experiences for kids of all ages.

Support from partners like AFL Global and Dodge Industrial enable us to continue to provide unique hands-on educational experiences for both students and adults. Thanks for helping us fulfill our mission to ignite the natural curiosity of all learners to explore and shape their world.

MEMBERSHIP

Members receive 10% off all t-shirt and hat purchases. Mention that you are a member to receive your discount.

PLUS earn an additional 25 points each time you wear your t-shirt to Nature Exchange!

SUPPORT THE MOUNTAIN

Spark Good

Walmart recently launched Walmart Spark Good Round Up where customers can round up their purchases to the nearest dollar and donate the change to their favorite charity. We would love for you to choose Roper Mountain Science Center as your charity to receive these donations every time you shop on Walmart.com. Just select us from the drop down menu when you checkout!

Give Back to Roper Mountain

We appreciate your consideration in making a donation to support our mission to help lay the foundation for future successes for school and public programming.

Make a gift to Roper Mountain today.

Spread The Word About Roper Mountain

Visit our Facebook page, TripAdvisor page, Google listing and/or Yelp page to leave a review and help us spread the word about our public and school programming.

THANK YOU COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Visionary:

BOSCH Community Fund

The Daniel-Mickel Foundation

Dodge Industrial, Inc.

Fluor Foundation

Fluor Golf for Greenville

Greenville Water

Lockheed Martin Corporation

ReWa

South Carolina Farm Bureau

Explorer:

BMW Manufacturing

SEW-EURODRIVE

Voyager:

Audacy Communications

Greenville Federal Credit Union

Rose Ball Committee

Milliken & Company

Spartanburg County Foundation

Adventurer:

AFL Global

Bank of Travelers Rest

Bannon Foundation

Brian Cauthen

Contec, Inc.

HDR

Koops, Inc.

Ryobi Power Tools

Minor and Hal Shaw

South Carolina Charities

TD Charitable Foundation

Innovator:

Greenville Master Gardeners

Kay and Les Knight

Carla and Brian Olson

Piedmont Natural Gas

Publix Super Market Charities

ScanSource Charitable Foundation

Kathryn and Jerry Smith

South Carolina Humanities

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

We welcome your feedback. Email Roper Mountain to share your thoughts.