School Programs & Field Trips

Districts and schools within the BT-BOCES region cannot purchase the planetarium services through a COSER. The district or school would need to purchase the services directly from Kopernik.  Often schools enlist their parent organizations to underwrite the digital planetarium experience that includes the set up and tear down of the planetarium and a “tour” of the night sky by an experienced Kopernik educator.

Schools/districts outside the BT-BOCES region (DCMO, OCM, TST Boces) can purchase the planetarium services through a COSER with their regional  BOCES.

This year, we offer an upgraded experience with a new high definition projector.  The selection of the dome size can be determined based on the location of the digital dome and the group sizes of students. Our largest dome spans 20 feet across, 11 feet high, and can accommodate up to 25 students, teachers, and aides.. The smallest dome is 13 feet across and 9 feet high and can accommodate 15 students and two adults..

LEGO® Education SPIKE™ activities are designed to help students develop the abstract and critical thinking skills they need to solve complex problems. Each experience broadens students’ understanding of physics as it applies to real-life settings and design. Students are encouraged to create and then recreate their structures to solve different design challenges. All Lego® Spike™ Robotics programs accommodate up to 24 students. Cost is $120 per section.

Trained Kopernik educators provide different levels of SPIKE robotics activities, developmentally suited to age and grade level interests and skills. Each activity explores specific dimensions of engineering design and programming:

• The Perfect Swing (Grades 1-2): This experience introduces students to the concept of a robot as a machine that can complete tasks automatically. Students create a motorized swing and program it to move in a variety of ways. Students are provided an engineering design challenge to extend their thinking and build upon the initial design.
• Mini Golf (Grades 3-4): This experience introduces students to three basic laws of motion. Students create a robotic mini golf course to investigate motion, stability, forces, and interactions. After the initial set up and construction, students are presented with an engineering challenge to extend their thinking and promote problem solving and creativity.
• Ferris Wheel (Grade 4 and 5): This experience extends students’ understanding of simple machines to real world applications. The Ferris Wheel is an example of a wheel and axle. Students build a Ferris Wheel and develop a series of programs to solve different design challenges.
• Taxi Taxi (Grade 4 and 5): This experience introduces an open-ended programming challenge. Students build a motorized car and then program it to move through an obstacle course. (NEW)
• Big Bus (Grade 5 and 6): This experience introduces students to sensor-based programming. Students build a vehicle that includes a light sensor. Students program the vehicle to perform different movements based on colored objects set in its path. (NEW)

Students will make an air rocket from a 4 ¼ x 11-inch sheet of paper and card stock fins. Once the rocket is built, they will head outside and they will have their rocket launched with an air compressor. Their air rocket could possibly launch as high as 30 to 40 feet into the air and travel over 100 feet. The activity can include evaluating their launched rocket, and redesigning it for a second launch. In the event of inclement weather, we launch the rockets down a long hallway, gymnasium or auditorium. Older students can apply trigonometry concepts to calculate the highest height of their rockets. The program requires 40 minutes to an hour to complete based on the age group and program design. Cost: $120 per section of 24 students.

Kopernik Observatory & Science Center staff will introduce the students to the celestial night sky here in the Northern Hemisphere. Students will construct a Sky-wheel, also known as a planisphere, that can be used to study the movement of the sky and its constellations. After creating the star wheel, the students will learn how to use the star wheel and make a connection to a night sky simulator called Stellarium that students can use to identify objects in the sky. Cost: $120 per section of 24 students.

Planning for human habitats in space requires a different way of thinking about construction. This program provides students with an exploration in how advanced additive manufacturing technology (3D-printing) can create habitat solutions that can allow humans to live on Earth, Moon, Mars, and beyond. The students will use the engineering design process to simulate a 3D printer to extrude “regolith” (a polymer soil mixture) to design and build a small-scale human habitat for the Moon or Mars with a design challenge of a time limit and engineering constraints. $120 per section of 24 students.

Kopernik staff can work with your school or district to develop a program tailored to your curriculum, schedule, and budget. Cost per section will be determined by programs selected and number of students served.

What is an Observatory?  consists of two to four programs. The program emphasizes place-based learning to provide first grades as an extension to the first-grade science standards in two domains, Waves (PS4) and Space Systems (ESS1).  This thematic experience introduces and reinforces students’ understanding of the properties of light and patterns in the solar system by showing them what an observatory is, how it works, and what astronomers do. By the end of their visit to Kopernik, students will understand how astronomers use “giant” telescopes to learn about the solar system and universe.

Students engage in a variety of hands-on activities to explore the properties of light and how a telescope uses these properties to help us see far away objects.

• “Blocking” light beams:  Students explore how shadows are created by the relationship between an object and a beam of light.
• “Bouncing” light beams: Students explore the ways in which light bounces or is reflected off of surfaces. They explore the ways in which mirrors can change the path of a light beam. (Reflection)
• “Bending” light beams:  Students explore the ways in which lenses bend light to change the shape of objects. (Refraction)

1A. Program: What is an observatory?
Students will tour the night sky using Kopernik’s room-sized digital planetarium to experience what astronomers can see through telescopes. They will understand that constellations are patterns that astronomers use to understand the stars in the sky. Astronomers see these objects because they give off light or reflect light. Students will tour the observatory domes and see the large telescopes that are used to look at the sky. Cost (Kopernik Campus): $130 per class section for up to 24 students.

1C. Program: How does light move?
Light travels in a straight line. But light can be reflected and bent so it can go in different directions. Using a laser, we make visible to students the way a light beam travels and refracts or “bounces” off different surfaces. Students will explore the property of refraction for themselves as they work in teams to move a light beam through an obstacle course to a target using an array of mirrors. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

1D. Program: What is a shadow? 
A shadow is formed when light is blocked by an opaque object. Students will explore designing and drawing shadows using three dimensional objects and a fixed light source. Students will experience and document the transformation of a shape based on its positioning in a beam of light. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

“Why do we have mountains and rivers?” is a question second graders can ask and answer in exploring the core idea of  Processes that Shape the Earth.  Each program presents hands-on explorations in understanding the different processes that form and reform the earth’s surface either slowly or quickly.  The programs provide students with an age-appropriate experiential understanding of the geologic processes aligned to NGSS Earth Systems Science grade 2 standards.

In planning Earth System: Processes that Shape the Earth for your school or class, you can select from four programs. Earth System: Processes that Shape the Earth is best as an on-site experience at the Kopernik campus to allow for access to the observatory’s stream tables and portable planetarium.

In addition to Earth System: Processes that Shape the Earth, schools may request the Lego® Spike™ Robotics program, The Perfect Swing in which students create a robotic swing arm to investigate motion, energy, stability, forces, and interactions.

Kopernik staff can work with your school or district to develop a program tailored to your curriculum, schedule, and budget. Each program is designed for class sections for up to 24 students.

2A. Program: Stream Tables
How does water form and transform the earth’s surface?  Using stream tables,  students experiment with the ways in which water interacts with land features to create rivers, valleys and estuaries. They will explore the influence of flowing water on landforms, experiment with erosion resistant designs, and identify patterns of erosion. Cost: $130 per class section for up to 24 students.

2B. Program: Glaciers 
How do glaciers change the shape of the land? In this activity, students use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.  The big idea for this lesson is, glaciers have drastically changed and shaped our land for over thousands of years. This aligns to the NGSS cross-cutting concept, “Stability and Change”- things may change slowly or rapidly. It also focuses on the science and engineering practices of understanding and developing models, and obtaining, evaluating, communicating information. Students will be able to observe, diagram, and record how glaciers can change the land using a model.  Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

2C. Program: Creating Diagrams and Models of Landforms
What can models tell us about landforms? In this activity, students develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area. Students will create a diagram of an imaginary island to incorporate landforms and bodies of water. The students will use symbols and a key to complete their diagram.  Using this diagram, students will create a 3-D model of their island on a paper plate using clay or playdough and labeling the landforms and water with flags.  Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

2D. Program: The Shape of Planets — Planetarium Experience
Do other planets have mountains and valleys? What does the surface of other planets look like? The planetarium show will focus on learning about the physical features of the planets in our solar system, that would extend students’ understanding of landforms, while also reinforcing Gr.1 standards in space systems. After the planetarium show, students tour the observatory’s telescope domes. Cost (Kopernik Campus): $130 per class section for up to 24 students.

Program (Supplemental): Lego® Spike™ Robotics
Perfect Swing: Students create a robotic swing arm to investigate motion, energy, stability, forces, and interactions. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

Forces and Motion consists of programs offering active hands-on experiences in understanding the ways in which the forces of gravity and magnetism interact with objects to create motion. The programs in this unit provide students with an age-appropriate experiential understanding that is aligned to the NGSS standards on Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions. 

In planning Forces and Motion for your school or class, you can select from three programs. Forces and Motion is best as an on-site experience at the Kopernik campus but can be adapted for presentation at a school location. Kopernik staff can work with your school or district to develop a program tailored to your curriculum, schedule, and budget. Each program is designed for class sections for up to 24 students.

3A. Program: Playground Physics
What can playgrounds teach us about the laws of force and motion? In this activity, students explore the physics of playground equipment they commonly use – the slide, see saw, and swing. Students draw on their rich playground experiences to learn about simple machines (lever, inclined plane), devices (pendulum)and the laws of motion that influence their movement.  In this activity, move between three learning stations based on the physics of three playground features: the swing (pendulum), the slide (inclined plane) and the see saw (lever). Cost: $140* per class section for up to 24 students (*requires three educators).

3B. Program: Magnets and Motion
How do magnets create motion?  In this activity, students explore magnetism and the forces of polarity through hands-on experiences. They will learn how magnetic forces act to create motion and how this motion is used in engineering design. Students will experience magnetic levitation and its application to engineering design. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

3C. Program: Lego® Spike™ Robotics
What can robotics teach us about forces and motion? In this activity, students participate in hands-on robotic design and programming. Students create a robotic “mini” mini golf course to investigate the three basic laws of physics. After the initial set up and construction, students are presented with an engineering challenge designed to extend their thinking and promote problem solving and creativity.  Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

The Kopernik program, Waves and Motion explores the understanding that “waves cause objects to move.”  In Waves and Motion students experience how wave energy occurs in the form of light waves, seismic waves, and sound waves. It promotes an understanding of waves as the way in which energy is transferred between objects, or converted from one form of energy into another. Students explore different types of models of waves to describe wave patterns and to demonstrate waves as a force of motion.

In addition to Waves and Motion, schools may request the Lego® Spike™ Robotics program, Taxi Taxi which introduces an open-ended programming challenge. Students build a motorized car and then program it to move through an obstacle course.

In planning Waves and Motion for your school or class, you can select from three programs. Waves and Motion is best as an on-site experience at the Kopernik campus but can be adapted for presentation at a school location. Kopernik staff can work with your school to develop a program tailored to your curriculum, schedule, and budget.

4A. Program: Earthquake Engineering (New)
How do seismic waves affect a built structure? Students explore how seismic waves impact built structures. Students work in teams to engineer a structure. Using a specially designed seismic table, students test their structure by exposing it to lateral (back and forth) and vertical (up and down) seismic waves. This activity includes an overview of plate tectonics to support an understanding of seismic movements.  Cost: $120 per class section of up to 24 students.

4B. Program: Visible and Invisible Light
Is there light we cannot see? In this activity, students explore the properties of light and an understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum to compare “visible” light (that can be seen by the human eye) and infrared light (visible to some insects and animals, and through specialized devices). Students learn about infrared light and its applications in daily life. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

4C. Program: Seeing Sound (NEW)
How do waves create sounds we can hear? In this activity, students explore sound phenomena as a form of mechanical energy that can be seen and felt. Students look at the way in which sound is converted from mechanical energy to electrical energy so it can be carried over distances. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

Program (Supplemental): Lego® Spike™ Robotics
Taxi Taxi (Grade 4 and 5): This experience introduces an open-ended programming challenge. Students build a motorized car and then program it to move through an obstacle course. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

The Kopernik program, Earth Systems: What processes shape the Earth? focuses on geologic processes. The programs in this unit provide students with an age-appropriate experiential understanding of the aligned NGSS standards on Earth Systems.

In planning Earth Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth for your school or class, you can select from five programs. Earth Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth is best as an on-site experience at the Kopernik campus but can be adapted for presentation at a school location.

Kopernik staff can work with your school or district to develop a program tailored to your curriculum, schedule, and budget. Each program is designed for class sections for up to 24 students.

4A. Program: Earthquake Engineering (New)
How do seismic waves affect a built structure? In this activity, students explore the ways in which seismic waves impact built structures. Students work in teams to engineer a structure. Using a specially designed seismic table, students test their structure by exposing it to lateral seismic waves. They evaluate how different designs respond to seismic movement and determine what works best. This activity includes an overview of plate tectonics to support an understanding of seismic activity. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

4E. Program: Plate Tectonics and the “Ring of Fire”
What causes earthquakes? In this activity, students create models of different kinds of plate boundaries to understand how earthquakes occur. This activity extends the key understanding that the Earth sits on large moveable plates. Earthquakes are caused by the movement of these tectonic plates. Students describe what may happen when plate boundaries meet (e.g., earthquakes, tsunami, faults, mountain building) and discover the connection between volcanoes and earthquakes as they graph data on a map of the Ring of Fire along the Pacific Rim. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

4F. Program: Stream Tables
How does water form and transform the earth’s surface?  Using stream tables students experiment with the ways in which water interacts with land features to create rivers, valleys, and estuaries. They will explore the influence of flowing water on landforms, experiment with erosion resistant designs, and identify patterns of erosion. Cost: $130 per class section for up to 24 students.

4G. Program: Rock Identification (NEW)
What can the rocks we see tell us about the processes that shape the earth? In this activity, students identify and examine the three types of rock — sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic – as clues to the earth processes that created them. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

4H. Program: The Shape of Planets — Planetarium Experience
Do other planets have mountains and valleys? What does the surface of other planets look like? The planetarium show will focus on learning about the physical features of the planets in our solar system as a way to extend students’ understanding of landforms.  After the planetarium show, students will tour the observatory’s telescope domes. Cost (Kopernik Campus): $130 per class section for up to 24 students.

4I (Extension) Program:  The Shape of the Moon (NEW)
Why does the surface of the moon look the way it does? The moon is the first celestial object that students come to see and recognize. In this program, students will learn about the impact craters of the moon. They will create impact craters, and then analyze their results to better understand what they see when they look at the moon with their unaided eye, or with binoculars, and to be able to identify the largest impact craters, including Copernicus, Kepler, and Aristarchus and Tycho. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

Where does the water around us go? We all live in a watershed. All the water we use as well as all the streams, lakes, creeks and rivers around us flow into the Susquehanna or Delaware rivers and these rivers flow into the Atlantic Ocean. This thematic unit introduces students to the dynamics of a watershed. Students explore the dynamic interaction of water and landforms to understand how the biosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere are complex systems that affect how we live and where we live, and the shape of the land around us.

5A-1. Program: Welcome to Our Watershed -Susquehanna River
Where does the water around us go?  Susquehanna River is the longest river on the East Coast flowing 444 miles from New York, through Pennsylvania and into Maryland where it flows into the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. This program introduces students to the Susquehanna River watershed, and its main local tributaries, the Tioughnioga and Chenango River.  In a hands-on activity, students explore the dynamic  interaction of water and landforms. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

5A-2. Program: Welcome to Our Watershed -Delaware River
Where does the water around us go?  The Delaware River Watershed is the longest free-flowing river in the Eastern United States. Its streams, lakes, rivers, and reservoirs flow into the Delaware Bay, and eventually the Atlantic Ocean.  This program introduces students to the Delaware River Watershed and its importance. In a hands-on activity, students explore the dynamic interaction of water and landforms. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

5B. Program: The Flow of Water
What is surface water?  Using a model, students explore the way in which surface water travels downstream, making its way into streams, lakes,  and rivers.  Students will track how contaminants on the surface are carried downstream. Using a model and maps of landforms, students can see one way human activity impacts the hydrosphere and biosphere. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

5C: Program: Mapping the Hydrosphere
How are landforms mapped? Contour maps are a critical tool for understanding the ways in which watersheds are carved in the landscape. Students will work with contour maps and elevation models to experience the way in which three dimensional forms can be shown in two dimensions.  Students will study regional contour maps to identify and trace the three critical tributaries that form this region’s hydrosphere and geosphere. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

5D: Program: The Water Cycle – Virtual Reality  Experience
The water cycle connects the four earth systems – hydrosphere, geosphere,  atmosphere and biosphere. This workshop consists of two parts and requires classes sizes greater than 16 students to be divided into two groups. Students use VR headsets to explore dimensions of the water cycle and regional water shed.  Students work “offline” to chart the virtual world they explore in the VR headset. Cost: $140 per class section for up to 24 students.

This program is an in-depth experience that extends students’ capacity to identify stars according to their brightness, age, and position in the night sky. Learning about star brightness, students will see this as a relationship between the life cycle of a star and its distance from the Earth. Students learn to identify constellations and distinguish between seasonal and circumpolar constellations.  This program also introduces students to the science of spectroscopy to answer the question, How do we know what stars are made of?

In planning Space Systems: Stars and the Solar System for your school or class, you can select from four programs. Space Systems: Stars and the Solar System is best as an on-site experience at the Kopernik campus but can be adapted for presentation at a school location. Kopernik staff can work with your school or district to develop a program tailored to your curriculum, schedule, and budget. Each program is designed for class sections for up to 24 students.

5E. Program: Constellations and the Movement of the Night Sky
Why do we see different constellations each season? In this program students explore the dynamics of stars in the night sky. They learn about constellations, and how constellations change through the seasons. Students distinguish between the movements of rotation and revolution related to the circumpolar progression of stars and constellations across the sky. Students will learn how to create and use Star Wheels to collect, analyze and interpret data about the seasonal appearance of constellations in the night sky to explain how constellations change with the seasons. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

5F. Program: What Stars Are Made Of
How do astronomers understand and classify distant stars? In this activity, students learn about the different kinds of stars and how they compare to our own star, the Sun. They will learn how the color and size of a star shows what stage of the star life cycle it is in. With this experience, students experience the process of spectroscopy that was used by early astronomers to learn about what stars are made of and the life cycle of stars. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

5G. Program: Digital Planetarium and Observatory Tour
The 5th grade planetarium experience reinforces the themes and topics relevant to the 5th grade Space Systems standards. Students see for themselves the relationship between seasonal and circumpolar constellations, they explore regions of the universe where stars are made, learn about the evolution of stars, and compare star brightness to star distance and size. The planetarium experience is combined with a tour of the observatory facilities. Weather permitting, students will safely view our star, the Sun. Students will learn about how observatories work and the science of observational astronomy. Cost: $130 per class section for up to 24 students.

5H. Program: Virtual Tour of the Solar System (NEW)
How can we experience the magnitude of our solar system? In this new program offering, students use virtual reality headsets to tour the solar system and experience a multisensory introduction to the planets and our star, the Sun. Combined with this activity is either a tour of the observatory telescopes, or an introduction to the Stellarium web-based astronomy application. Maximum 16 students. $140 per group of 16 students.

5I. Program: The Scale of the Solar System (NEW)
How can a model best represent astronomical distance? Students create “pocket solar systems” to represent the distances between the planets of the solar system. Students learn about fundamental differences between the planets, distinguishing between inner terrestrial planets and gas giants. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

5J. (Extension) Program: Mars Exploration
What are the engineering challenges of planet exploration? Beginning in 1976, the surface of Mars has been explored using increasingly more advanced robotics. Using a room-sized elevation map of Mars surface, students walk across the surface of Mars to learn about the evolution of Mars exploration missions. This is followed by students using augmented reality to select and then drive a Mars rover across the surface of Mars controlled by an iPad. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

Program (Supplemental): Lego® Spike™ Robotics – Big Bus
This experience introduces students to sensor-based programming. Students build a vehicle that includes a light sensor. Students program the vehicle to perform different movements based on colored objects set in its path. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

This year Kopernik is expanding its offerings to include middle school experiences.   The sample programs below are intended to support the piloting of our virtual reality (VR) classroom – a set of 16 VR headsets supported by classroom management software which we can use to lead students on virtual experiences of the solar system and universe.  We are interested in working with school faculty on adapting and developing programs suited to their specific space systems topic or themes.

MS-A. Titans of Space: A Virtual Reality Experience of the Solar System
Explore the Solar System in this interactive virtual reality experience! Hop aboard a spacecraft and tour through our cosmic neighborhood! At any point, enter Zero-Gravity mode to exit your spacecraft and visit the Sun, planets, moons, and more up close. Compare the inner and outer planets and witness the sheer scale of objects in the Solar System.   Maximum 16 students. $140 per group of 16 students.

MS-B. Program: What Stars Are Made Of
How do astronomers understand and classify distant stars? In this activity, students learn about the different kinds of stars and how they compare to our own star, the Sun. They will learn how the color and size of a star shows what stage of the star life cycle it is in. With this experience, students experience the process of spectroscopy that was used by early astronomers to learn about what stars are made of and the life cycle of stars.  Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

MS-C. Program: Mars Exploration
What are the engineering challenges of planet exploration? Beginning in 1976, the surface of Mars has been explored using increasingly more advanced robotics. Using a room-sized elevation map of Mars surface, students walk across the surface of Mars to learn about the evolution of Mars exploration missions. This is followed by students using augmented reality to select and then drive a Mars rover across the surface of Mars controlled by an iPad. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

MS-D. Program: Understanding Black Holes
Is a black hole really a hole?  Students are intrigued by the concept of a black hole. This program uses modeling to show students the relationship between gravity and matter to understand what a black hole is, and its place in the life cycle of stars.   Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.

Program (Supplemental): Lego® Spike™ Robotics – Big Bus
This experience introduces students to sensor-based programming. Students build a vehicle that includes a light sensor. Students program the vehicle to perform different movements based on colored objects set in its path. Cost: $120 per class section for up to 24 students.