Discovery Center School Programs

Facilitated Workshops

A museum educator leads children through an in-depth one hour program, providing engaging explorations and exciting learning adventures $135 (25 student max).. Your visit is completed with museum play, optional snack or lunch time in our café, and a field trip you’ll never forget. To make a reservation, contact Nicki Barnard at 773-8661 ext. 205.

Program choices: Grades Pre-K & Up

The Colors of Our World * NEW *  (Grades Pre-K-2)

Miss. Spider’s Friends * NEW * (Grades Pre-K-3)

The More We Get Together (Grades PreK-5)

Who are the people in our neighborhood? The Discovery Center brings community members and local classrooms together for a look at the work that community helpers do and the services they provide. Students rotate through the museum to meet special guests in the exhibit that represents their profession: meet a firefighter in the fire house, a nurse in our hospital, a construction worker in Widgets and Gadgets, a policeman in Cody. A great enrichment to community helper theme units! Note: Featured guests are subject to availability. NYS Standards:  OCC 1;  SS 5

Under the Sea * NEW *  (Grades PreK-3)

H2O: BUBBLES AND BEYOND Grades Pre-K-5
NYS Standards: MST 1, 4 Arts 1,2 ELA 1,4
Come explore the fascinating world of water & bubbles - without all the fuss in your own classroom! Students will move through stations designed to help them explore how the science concepts behind bubble making and water play. Our younger friends will enjoy bubble art, sink and float, and sailing dino friends out to sea while our older will work on scientific reasoning skills to compare and contrast bubble blowing with their ‘Bubbleology Challenge Cards.’ Note: Offered seasonally, April-June.

IT’S A BLUSTERY DAY Grades Pre-K-5
NYS Standards: MST 1,4 ELA 1,2,4 ARTS 1
Become meteorologists for the day as we explore the ups and downs as weather. Recreate the water cycle and learn how water controls the weather. Make a rain storm with lightning right inside the classroom! Whether the weather is snowy or sunny, the forecast is for fun and learning.

Program choices: Grades K & Up

THE SENSATIONAL FIVE SENSES Grades K-3
NYS Standards: ELA 1, 2, 4 ARTS 1, 2
Indulge your senses! Learn about each of the five senses and how we use them. Students will explore their bodies with interactive experiments and activity stations. At each station, earn a stamp on their “You’re Sense-ational” portrait to complete the picture of how our body works.

FABULOUS FOSSILS Grades K-5
NYS Standards: MST 1,4,6 ELA 1,3, 4
Grab your tools and get digging, as you become a “paleontologist” for the day. Students will examine the paleontology process through hands-on discovery in a recreated dinosaur dig. Handle authentic dinosaur fossils- a 65 million year old dinosaur egg, a raptor claw, a T-Rex tooth and more.

WRITE ALL ABOUT IT! Grades K-5

Mr. Imagination brings story writing to life with this exciting Jan Brett inspired program.  Students identify story elements in one of Brett’s magical tales. Who is the author? The illustrator? Who are the characters? After an interactive retelling of a Brett book of your choice students apply their understanding of the story writing process to create a book of their own.

 Choose from:

1. Hedgie’s Surprise      -  Grades  K-2
2. The Umbrella    -  Grades 2 & up
3. Armadillo Rodeo        -  Grades 3 & up
4. * NEW * The Three Snow Bears – Grades K-3

NYS Standards:  ELA 1,2,3 & 4;  Arts 1,2

Candy Mathematics (Grades K-5)
NYS Standards:  MST 1,3,6,7;  ELA 1,4

Math has never looked so yummy! Use sweet treats of all kinds to explore and practice pattern making, basic operations, numeration and counting, weighing and measuring, and so much more.

Program choices: 1st grade and up

MATH ON YOUR MIND Grades 1-5
NYS Standards: MST 1,3,6,7 ELA 1, 4
Using the Discovery Center’s exhibits as our learning lab, students will experience just how fun math can be! Rotate around the museum to complete math tasks in various exhibits: measure and pour water in our bubble room, shop in our Giant Market, learn about geometry as you build structures in Widgets and Gadgets, and search for symmetry in Studio 60 using tiny mirrors. Age appropriate activities will be selected by teacher upon registration. * Note: This program requires 4 adults to rotate with small groups of children and facilitating tasks along the way.
This program can be done any day and any time at The DiscoveryCenter Sept.- Jan. It can only be done on Mondays from Feb.- June.

BOOKS ALIVE! THE STORIES OF JAN BRETT Grades 1-5
NYS Standards: ELA 1,2,4 ARTS 1,2,4
The stories of Jan Brett are brought to life in this exciting three part series complete with live animals, painting. and plays.  Learn Brett’s creative illustration process by working with a naturalist to study and paint a picture of a live animal (session 1). The second workshop guides children through mask making using characters from one of Jan Brett’s books. In the third and final session, students work with their masks and a professional storyteller to reenact the chosen story. An unforgettable experience!
Choose all three workshops or just one.

Program choices: 3rd grade and up

Unraveling the Web of DNA * NEW *  (Grades 3-5) 

Take a glimpse into the world of insects and the qualities that makes them so intriguing. Become a scientist to explore DNA and just how it makes all creatures- spiders, ladybugs, trees, cats, and humans alike- so unique. The program concludes as we don our goggles and gloves for a DNA extraction lab for a first hand look at what DNA truly is. 

NYS Standards: MST 1, 3, 4, 5

TOUCH LOCAL HISTORY 1 (Grades 3-5)

Travel back in time with us to early America, as we examine and analyze fascinating primary source documents and artifacts.  Learn why settlers immigrated to the New World and in particular, the Southern Tier. Come explore 18th and 19th century methods of transportation and land acquisition, and the natural resources used to make various products for survival and trade. Participate in fun-filled role plays and then rotate through our hands-on stations featuring materials from several livelihoods of the colonial and post-colonial period.

NYS Standards:  SS 1,3,4;  ELA 1,3,4

TOUCH LOCAL HISTORY 2 (Grades 3-5)

We now move ahead in time to the industrial age in the Southern Tier to witness the move from rural farms to newly-created towns with local industries such as cigar making, clock and computer manufacturing (IBM), Crowley and the Endicott Johnson Shoe Company. Learn about factory work and the lives of our area workers.  Engaging primary source materials again serve to guide our exciting journey into the lives of migrants and immigrants to the tier.

NYS Standards:  SS 1,3,4;  ELA 1,3,4

3…2…1…BLAST OFF! Grades 3-5
NYS Standards: MST 1,4 ELA 1,3,4
Have you ever flown or tried to fly? Learn about what makes flight possible as we explore the magical properties of air and the basic laws of motion. Students will do exciting experiments with projectile motion and propulsion. They can check out new and old flying machines and design one of their own. Of course no flight is complete with a test run. So, get ready for take off!

YOU’VE GOT LEVERAGE! SIMPLE MACHINES Grades 3-5
How can you become an inventor? It’s simple- simple machines that is. All you need is imagination, persistence, and a lever, pulley, wedge, wheel, inclined plane, or screw in the right place. Through hands on demonstrations and fun filled cooperative group activities, students learn about work, gravity, force, balance and how the six major types of simple machines help us work in our everyday lives.

To make a reservation, contact Nicki Barnard at 773-8661 ext. 205.

Or email Nicki at edu@thediscoverycenter.org

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