Roper Mountain Monthly Newsletter

March 2020

Your monthly news & updates

Our Mission

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

MOUNTAIN UPDATES

2020 Summer Exploration Camps registration is well underway. Don’t worry if you haven’t registered yet – we still have several openings in camps from completed K5 through age 12+.

Visit the Summer Camps page on our website to see current openings, view our Summer Camp Guide , or to register now!

We are accepting new Public Day Volunteer applications from rising 8 ^th graders (new!), high school and adults on our Volunteer page on our website.

We hope you’ll sign up to join us today!

Did you know you can participate in the 2020 BMW Charity Pro-Am and support Roper Mountain at the same time?

When you Buy Tickets , select Roper Mountain for your ticket proceeds to come to us.

If you want to Volunteer , we will receive $20 for every day you help out!

And if you can’t make it to the tournament but still want to support us, please consider participating in the fun Birdies for Charity event where there are some amazing prizes in it for you!

As a facility of Greenville County Schools, our buildings are not open to the public during the week. We are busy facilitating engaging, hands-on learning for hundreds of students from all around the state and beyond within our walls. Please check our website or social media for details on when we are open to the public for special events.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Friday Starry Nights

• 6:00pm Feature Show:

Perfect Little Planet

• 7:30pm Feature Show:

Extreme Planets

Details & Tickets

Space Day Second Saturday

Saturday, March 14

9:00am - 3:00pm

Mark your calendar for our next Second Saturday event of 2020.

Details & Tickets

DEPARTMENT UPDATES

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY BUILDING UPDATES:

The outside of the new facility now has a walkway tied in from the street to the building, completed roofing, and continued work on the exterior skin to close in the structure. Inside there's steel framing and a completed elevator shaft, as well as permanent power established throughout the facility.

MOUNTAIN HIGHLIGHT - HARRISON HALL OF NATURAL SCIENCE:

We now have a Curly Hair Tarantula on display in the Invertebrate Zoo in the Ecology Lab. These arachnids are typically nocturnal burrowers and are native to Costa Rica. Their body hair tends to have a bit of a curl to it compared to other tarantula species, hence their name. Be sure to come meet this new addition at Space Day on March 14!

The next time you are here for a public event, visit these new exhibits:

Come see our life-sized model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skull , which is part of the new dinosaur exhibit coming in the summer of 2021.

In our shark exhibit we've added a life-sized model of a Thresher Shark . This special shark has an unusually long tail it uses as a whip, which generates a wave force; some scientists think this force stuns its prey!

OTHER PROGRAM UPDATES:

Jasmin Poor, our virtual field trip teacher, will present at the International Educational Technology Conference on June 28 and 29. Her lectures will highlight the virtual field trip programs we provide at Roper Mountain Science Center.

DID YOU KNOW?

…that we have "discovery drawers" in our Harrison Hall of Natural Science labs that hold many of our collections? This photo shows the "discovery drawer" in the Ecology Lab with museum study specimens of birds – many of which were prepared in the 1950's. These studies and many of our animal mounts were donated by the Columbia Museum of Science and Art and came to Roper Mountain Science Center around 1985. On your next visit, be sure to check them out!

SUPPORT THE MOUNTAIN

Spread The Word About Roper Mountain

Please consider visiting our Facebook page, TripAdvisor page, Google listing and / or Yelp page to leave a review and help us spread the word about all that we have to offer.

Give Back To Roper Mountain:

Have you considered making Roper Mountain one of the charities you support? Without donations, we wouldn’t be able to invest in the hands-on, story-based lessons children come to know and love when here for school field trips; we wouldn’t be able to be the “place of yes” for visitors who attend our public programs; and we wouldn’t be able to invest in our current and future workforce in the community. Please consider making a gift to Roper Mountain today.

AmazonSmile

What if you could contribute to science education without spending a dime? Go to Smile.Amazon.com and choose Roper Mountain Science Center Association as your charity. Bookmark the site – which looks exactly like the regular Amazon site – so that when you make your normal purchases, we will be credited.

THANK YOU COMMUNITY PARTNERS!

Visionary:

Duke Energy Foundation

Fluor Foundation

Greater Greenville Sanitation

Greenville Water

John I. Smith Charities

The Jolley Foundation

Ernest and Betty Lathem

Lockheed Martin

Michelin Charity Golf Tournament

Piedmont Arthritis Clinic, PA

ScanSource

Symmes Foundation

Explorer:

Community Foundation of Greenville

Greenville Evening Rotary Charities, Inc.

Bill and Jean Schmidt

Voyager:

BMW Manufacturing

South Carolina Charities, Inc.

Wells Fargo Foundation

Adventurer:

Aeronix, Inc.

Chick Fil-A of Pelham Road

Milliken

Ron and Tommie Reece

State Farm Insurance

Innovator:

AFL Global

Fluor

ZF North America, Inc.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

We welcome feedback on what you like to read about or see more of when you visit Roper Mountain. Email Amanda Lenar to share your thoughts.