Before You Arrive

• Schedule a preview planning visit! Once you’ve booked, you’re invited to visit the Science Center to plan your field trip. Simply call ahead to 502-560-7166 to schedule.
• Make sure you’ve paid. Payment is due three weeks before your visit. Without payment, we are unable to hold any spaces at Kentucky Science Center.
• Well-prepared chaperones are key to a successful visit! Provide your chaperones with a link to this page so they can prepare themselves. A Group Schedule and Map will be provided to each chaperone on your arrival to Kentucky Science Center.
• Assign chaperones and students to groups (a max of 10 students per chaperone.) Your chaperones should know who they’re in charge of, and students should know who oversees them. Chaperones should have copies of their students’ names.
• Go over the schedule and map with chaperones in advance.

When You Arrive

• There is a loading/unloading zone in front of our Main Street entrance. Bus parking is available on tenth and eleventh streets.
• When your bus arrives, a Kentucky Science Center Educator will greet the lead field trip teacher, provide chaperone stickers and scavenger hunt sheets (if requested) and direct the lead field trip teacher to the front desk to check in.
• While the lead field trip teacher checks in, a Kentucky Science Center Educator will board your bus to greet your students. This Educator will remind your students to:
  • Stay with their adult chaperone
  • Walk, and not run, during the visit
  • Use the stairs during their visit, reserving elevators for those who absolutely need them
• Lunch bins will also be provided for any group that has reserved the lunchroom. Drop lunch bags, boxes, or coolers in these bins as your group enters the building. Science Center staff will store these bins until your lunchroom reservation and take them to the lunchroom for you.

Where to Go

• First Floor (Science In Play): Science in Play is our early childhood gallery, reserved for groups that have students in the 2nd grade (8-years-old) and younger. 
• Second Floor (World Around Us; World We Create; Discovery Gallery; MakerPlace): Groups are welcome to explore the second floor at any time.
• Third Floor (Uniquely Human and Theater): If your group is scheduled to see a film, the entrance to the theater is found on the south-eastern part of the third floor (the corner of the building closest to Main Street and Subway). Groups are welcome to explore the Uniquely Human gallery at any time.

Classes

Talk to the Reservations and Logistics Coordinator via email at megan.grodey@louisvilleky.gov or by calling 502-560-7166 to help plan programs to fit your needs.

• Meet in the lobby for your class or lab, and Educators will greet your group. If you have more than one class or lab happening at the same time, please split up your group according to your schedule.
• Due to room capacity limits, we may not be able to accommodate adults exceeding the 1 adult to 10 student ratio. Additional adults will be directed to explore the exhibits or visit Kentucky Science Center’s Do Science Shop while they wait to rejoin the group.
• If your chaperones are present for a class or lab, encourage them to think right along-side the students. We believe in strong parent/caregiver engagement as a pillar to school success.

Lunch

Lunchroom reservations (25-minutes) can be made at the time of your field trip request for $0.50 per person (pricing covers operational and cleaning costs). A Team Member will greet your group at a designated meeting location to guide you to the lunchroom. Bins will be brought out to buses upon arrival to collect sack lunches. If ordering from Subway, lunched will be delivered day-of to the lunchroom before you scheduled lunch time. 

• Label your lunches.
• We are unable to refrigerate or microwave lunches.
• Lunch bins will be provided for your group. It’s a good idea to assign students or adults to carry lunches to your lunch bin when you arrive and to pick up lunch bags and totes before you depart.
• If you prefer, boxed lunches can be ordered from Subway. Contact our Reservations and Logistics Coordinator via email at megan.grodey@louisvilleky.gov or at 502-560-7166 at for the appropriate form.