Your Monthly News & Updates |
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Our Mission
To ignite the natural curiosity of all learners to explore and shape their world
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Afternoon Explorations
Looking for after-school activities? Continue your children’s learning adventures throughout the school year starting Sept. 14 in some of your favorite spaces at Roper Mountain as part of our Afternoon Explorations Public Program:
● Explore the Environmental Science and Sustainability Building which is home to the highly popular Nature Exchange, Our Water Story, and the Sustainable Future exhibits.
● Search for life-size models of both young and adult dinosaurs along our outdoor Dinosaur Adventure Trail.
● Enjoy a stroll through our beautiful Butterfly Garden.
● Engage in creative outdoor play in Wildwood.
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Friday Starry Nights
Magic Tree House:
Space Mission
Sept. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
4:30 p.m.
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Friday Starry Nights
Legends of the Night Sky: Perseus and Andromeda
Sept. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
6 p.m.
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Friday Starry Nights
Exploding Universe
Sept. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
7:30 p.m.
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Halloween Laser Shows
Mark your calendars and join us for a Laser Spooktacular! On Oct. 21 and 28, the Hooper Planetarium will feature two laser light shows: Laser Halloween, a family-friendly collection of spooky songs, and Laser Stranger Things, a laser trip to the upside-down in the safety of the dome. Grab your tickets and join us for a spooky time!
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The priority deadline to schedule world-class field trips at Roper Mountain is quickly approaching. Get your requests in by Sept. 9 to ensure your classroom has a memorable educational experience on the Mountain.
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Our Virtual on Demand program recently received the Pinnacle Award for the 2021-2022 school year. Content providers receiving the annual accolade are recognized as having programs with high educational value that actively involve learners at their level, and are professionally delivered via videoconferencing technologies. The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) is a nonprofit organization that connects teachers with the finest content providers from all over the world, giving students the opportunity to learn from people they may never meet in places they may never experience. |
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Roper Mountain was also entered into the CILC Hall of Fame for outstanding programs and reviews. |
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Roper on Demand will start booking Sept. 12 for the 2022-2023 school year and will again be free for Greenville County Schools and discounted for schools in South Carolina. Our Live from Roper programs are currently booking and will begin the week of Sept. 12.
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The 2022 Science PLUS summer program has wrapped! We served nearly 200 public school teachers across 68 counties and six charter schools in South Carolina. These teachers received in-depth training in one of 19 courses spanning first through twelfth grades. At the conclusion of their multi-day training session, each teacher received up to $1,000 in supplies for their classrooms to replicate their new lesson plans! |
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MOUNTAIN HIGHLIGHT:
SYMMES HALL OF SCIENCE
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STEM Days of Summer 2022
STEM Days were special events during Summer Adventure where we engaged over 5,000 visitors in hands-on activities directly with local scientists, technical staff, and engineers. Our STEM Days kicked off with a celebration of International Women in Engineering on June 23.
Throughout the summer, visitors had the opportunity to explore what STEM professionals do in their everyday lives with wind-powered cars, electromagnetic cranes, human powered race track cars, circuits, water quality chemistry, catapults, 3D design with Legos, specialized robots, and conveyor belts!
We would like to give our sincere thanks to our community partners: Greenville Water, BMW, Dodge, Michelin, Greenville Soil and Water Conservation, ReWa, Fluor, AFL, Lockheed, GE, Duke Energy, Society of Women Engineers, and ZF.
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Staff Highlight: Jeremiah Tobin
At the end of the summer, we said a bittersweet goodbye and good luck to our lab assistant Jeremiah Tobin as he began a new journey at the University of South Carolina-Columbia as a biomedical engineering student. He started at Roper Mountain as a camper many years ago, served as a dedicated volunteer for over four years, and in the last two years worked diligently as a part-time lab and summer camp assistant (and all-around great guy!). He will be greatly missed, but he reassured us that he will be back next summer.
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New Labs for 2022-2023 School Year
The Symmes team is excited to create new lab experiences for the 22-23 school year to meet the new South Carolina College- and Career- Ready Science Standards.
Fluor has donated funds for our new fifth grade chemistry lab, Revealing Reactions. In this lab, students will solve a mystery by gathering evidence about chemical changes. They will get up close and personal with chemical reactions while making detailed observations through our new microscopes. The new microscopes will have screens to allow seamless group collaboration. Special thanks goes to Fluor for their generous sponsorship!
In addition to our new fifth grade labs, the Symmes team is working on Chemistry to the Rescue, a new chemistry focused experience for seventh grade students; WOW Science, a first grade stage show that highlights all areas of Roper Mountain; and our new Force, Impacts and Energy eighth grade stage show. We are very excited to engage students with these lessons and we will be sharing more information on them throughout the school year.
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Upstate SC- First Lego League (FLL) Kick Off
We are excited to announce we are the host site for the First Lego League (FLL) Kick-Off for the Upstate of SC. Catherine Zende, FIRST Director for SC, will be organizing the event for FLL teams all across the Upstate. The event will take place on Saturday, Sept. 10, in the Environmental Science and Sustainability Building. This event is for FLL teams; learn more today.
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...that practicing Leave No Trace in the outdoors helps save animals like the Hellbender, which is on display in our Environmental Science and Sustainability Building? |
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The Hellbender is the largest and most robust salamander in North America. It relies on the spaces under river rocks for their homes and to find their
favorite food: crayfish. Most importantly, they require cavities under large boulders to breed. Moving rocks around in streams destroys the delicate homes
and breeding grounds of this giant salamander, which is now a rare species.
Cairns, man-made rock piles of boulders or small rocks in rivers, are major threats to the hellbender population. Even small cairns disturb important habitat
for larval and juvenile Hellbenders. Man-made dams and tube chutes also make large rocks unavailable to hellbenders and slow down water flow, decreasing flow and oxygen they need in their water. Moving rocks for any of these uses has the potential to crush any animals living underneath them, including hellbenders.
Check out our Hellbender on display when we reopen to the public during our Afternoon Explorations later this month. Look for the broad, flattened head or
tail that helps it hide under rocks in streams that it inhabits. Remember, you can help save the Hellbender and other river animals by practicing Leave No Trace by not moving rocks!
Submitted by Life Science Specialist Tim Taylor
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Buy A Brick
Leave your legacy at Roper Mountain. Purchase a personalized brick by Sept. 16. It will be installed along the front entrance path to the Environmental Science Building.
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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.
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AmazonSmile
You can support Roper Mountain in the Amazon Shopping app on iOS and Android mobile phones by turning AmazonSmile on through your settings and completing onscreen instructions to select us as your non-profit to support.
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THANK YOU COMMUNITY PARTNERS |
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Visionary:
BMW Manufacturing
Bosch Community Fund
Community Foundation of Greenville
Daniel-Mickel Foundation
Dodge Industrial
Duke Energy Foundation
Fluor Golf For Greenville
Greater Greenville Sanitation Commission
Greenville County Litter Prevention
Greenville Water
The Late Ernest and Betty Lathem
Lockheed Martin
MetroConnects
Michelin Charity Golf Tournament
Piedmont Arthritis Clinic, PA
ReWa
South Carolina Farm Bureau
Explorer:
Fluor Foundation
General Electric
South Carolina Charities
WK Dickson
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Voyager:
Debbie Bell
Tom and Linda Hamilton
The Darrell Harrison Family
Ron and Tommie Reece
Brad Wyche and Diane Smock
Adventurer:
Bank of Travelers Rest
ScanSource Charitable Foundation
Hal and Minor Shaw
Innovator:
AFL Global
John R. and M. Margrite Davis Foundation
Rob and Katie Howell
Les and Kay Knight
Piedmont Natural Gas
Scott and Pam Powell
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We welcome your feedback. Email Roper Mountain to share your thoughts.
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