Dipper’s Adventure

Dipper the Bear takes young students on a fun-filled, interactive camping adventure to discover constellations, our Moon, and other daytime and nighttime objects in the sky. This live, educator-led program is great for first-time visitors to the planetarium.

Dipper's Adventure is preceded by a live, presenter-led tour of the current seasonal night sky.

Discovery Depot

This gallery stimulates the imagination, encourages exploration, and invites creative play. After a trip through the Children’s Playhouse, young chefs can enjoy nutrition-oriented role play in the kitchen center while little engineers operate the wooden train. Puzzles, books, and games provide plenty of additional opportunities for learning and fun.

Dream Big: Engineering Our World

Dream Big: Engineering Our World celebrates the human ingenuity behind engineering marvels big and small, and reveals the heart that drives engineers to create better lives for people around the world while transforming the way we think about engineering.

Layered Experience: Pairs well with Marbles, Motion, & Magnets, Engineering: Simple Machines, Engineering Encounters, and Robot Design Challenge (Classes).

Click here to access the Educator Guide!

Flight of the Butterflies

Follow the monarchs’ perilous journey, join hundreds of millions of real butterflies in the remote mountain peaks of Mexico, and discover the compelling true story of a scientist’s 40-year search to find the monarchs’ secret hideaway in this beautiful scientific adventure.

Layered Experience: Pairs well with The Traveling Trunk Show (Interactive Educational Theater) and Beetles, Bugs, & Butterflies (Class).

Click here to access the Educator Guide!

Forces of Nature

Follow scientists on ground–breaking quests to understand what triggers earthquakes, volcanoes, and tornadoes.

Geology Guided Exploration

Includes a 30-minute Solar System Gallery Guided Tour and a related 30-minute hands-on activity.

Get hands-on with geological processes and activities in the Solar System Gallery. An exhibition of minerals and fossils, including a 65-million-year-old authentic Triceratops prosus skull, will teach students about our aging planet. 

Layered Experience: Pairs well with Dinosaur Passage to Pangaea and Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia (Planetarium Show).

Geometry & Quilts

Through hands-on activities, students will recognize the real-world connections between mathematics and the craft of quilting. Students are introduced to traditional patchwork quilts and participate in art-making that supports geometry standards while reinforcing mathematical understanding.

Updated for 2019-2020!

Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean

Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of ocean pioneer Jacques Cousteau, invites you to dive into this whole new world that will leave you in awe of the beauty and diversity of the oceans – the source of all life on our planet. Secret Ocean introduces audiences to over 30 species, illuminating behaviors captured for the first time thanks to new underwater filming tools.

Click here to access the Educator Guide! 

Journaling: Learning to Look & Looking to Write

As students explore the art in the current exhibition, they are encouraged to look closely and reflect on what they see. Creative writing activities take place in the gallery, using the art on view for inspiration. These activities will sharpen observation skills as students respond to art through writing while exploring opportunities for collaboration and personal reflection. Includes tour of the art exhibition on view.

Magic Tree House Space Mission

A mysterious “M” sends the adventurous Jack and Annie on a fun-filled journey to discover the secrets of the Sun, Moon, planets, space travel, and more. This beautifully-produced show is great for Magic Tree House book fans and school audiences alike.

Layered Experience: Pairs well with The Art of Astronomy (Class), Solar System Gallery (Guided Tour), or Astronomy (Guided Exploration).

Magic Tree House Space Mission is preceded by a live, presenter-led tour of the current seasonal night sky.