Van decorated with artwork that shows a boy looking through a telescope is parked in front of the museum's main entrance

Outreach

The South Carolina State Museum is on the move bringing fun-filled learning experiences across the state and beyond!

Bringing fun-filled, learning experiences across the state 

The AstroSphere Portable Planetarium is an inflatable dome with a portable star projector that transports you and your students through the solar system and beyond! Please see the information below to learn more about the program, standards, room requirements, and more!

Program Information:

  • Educator Led programs are 45 minutes long, blocked in 1 hour time periods to allow for proper resetting and safe entering and exiting of the dome.  Please note: A maximum of four, 1-hr programs can be done in a single day.
  • General Skytour Curriculum will take you and your students on a celestial journey covering a variety of topics that may include: basic navigation star colors/brightness, constellations, asterisms, Earth's rotation and axis tilt, a brief viewing of the solar system or the Moon if time allows. We are happy to make minor customizations upon request.
  • Standards to build upon: 
    • 2014 SC Academic Standards for Excellence: 1.E.3A; 4.E.3A, 4.E.3B 
    • 2021 SC Academic Standards for Excellence: 1-ESS1-1, 1-ESS1-2; 5-ESS1-1, 5-ESS1-2 
    • NGSS: 1-ESS1-1, 1-ESS1-2; 5-ESS1-1, 5-ESS1-2 

Room Requirements:

  • A totally silent space is required. The portable dome must be completely isolated from all other noise and activity. It should be the only thing happening in the room at any given time. No sound or other activities can be in the room while programs are going on. We are also unable to break down and reset the dome within a single day.
  • An indoor location must be chosen as we cannot safely setup the dome indoors. We are also unable to setup the dome on a stage for safety reasons.
  • Capacity: 25 smaller students (3rd grade and below) can fit in the dome at once. About 20 older students can fit in the dome at one time. The bigger they get, the tighter the space.
  • Room Requirements: 24ft of cleared floor space and 10.5ft ceiling clearance (including light fixtures or anything else that may be hanging down) is required. We will need two accessible, working outlets to inflate the dome and run the projection system.
  • If your school uses internet/wifi blockers we will need a way to bypass that system. Please notify us of this ahead of time so we can properly present and our staff can properly communicate with us if needed.
Boeing

Portable Planetarium Information

Schedule

Dates Available for Booking

Tuesdays - Fridays

January - May, 2024

Outreach bookings will pause during the summer and will resume September 2024.

Cost

$175 for the 1st program $125 for each additional program within the same day (maximum of 4 programs a day) .

To Book

 

Please send us an email and we would love to work with you on booking your outreach experience!

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