North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences facts for kids
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| Established | 1879 |
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| Location | Raleigh, North Carolina |
| Type | Natural history museum |
| Visitors | 1.2 million (annually) |
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS) is a cool museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is the oldest museum in the state!
The museum has six different locations, spread across five campuses. The newest spot, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences at Greenville, opened in September 2021. NCMNS is part of North Carolina's Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Contents
History of the Museum
The North Carolina State Museum started in 1879. It brought together two collections of rocks, minerals, and farm-related items. Over the years, the museum grew a lot. It added more collections and started offering educational programs.
In the 1950s and 1990s, the museum got even bigger. Universities gave their collections to the state. In 1986, the museum was renamed the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences.
The museum kept expanding its reach. In 2000, the Museum of Forestry opened in Whiteville. This location was updated and reopened in 2015. Another spot, the Prairie Ridge Ecostation for Wildlife and Learning, opened in 2004. In 2012, the museum added the Nature Research Center right next to its main building in downtown Raleigh.
Today, the museum has over 1.7 million items! These include amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, mammals, invertebrates, fossils, plants, rocks, and even meteorites.
Nature Exploration Center
This main part of the museum is on Jones Street in downtown Raleigh. It has many exciting exhibits spread across four floors.
First Floor Fun
- Natural Treasures of North Carolina – See amazing displays of wildlife and items from North Carolina's nature.
- Coastal North Carolina – Discover fish that live along North Carolina's coast and in its rivers.
- WRAL 3-D Theater – Watch exciting 3-D movies in this 250-seat theater.
- Box Office – This is where you can buy tickets for the 3-D theater and special exhibits.
Second Floor Adventures
- North Carolina: Mountains to the Sea – Explore North Carolina's different natural areas. Travel from the western mountains to the central Piedmont and then to the Coastal Plain.
- Underground North Carolina – Learn about gems and minerals found in North Carolina. See displays about ground, soil, and even earthquakes.
- Nature's Explorers – Find out how the museum started and how scientists used to collect and keep specimens.
- Discovery Room – This is a fun, hands-on area for families to explore.
- Special Exhibition gallery – This space hosts changing exhibits.
- Covered bridge to the Nature Research Center – Walk across this bridge to get to the other main building.
Third Floor Discoveries
- Prehistoric North Carolina – Travel back in time to see ancient life in North Carolina and the southeastern United States. See a huge Eremotherium giant ground sloth fossil!
- Terror of the South – Check out fossil skeletons, including a giant Acrocanthosaurus dinosaur.
- Tropical Connections – Play with a large interactive globe that shows Earth's climate regions.
- Windows on the World – This theater hosts live animal visits, talks, and demonstrations.
- Curiosity Classrooms – Two spaces for special classes and workshops.
- An open air Bridge to the Nature Research Center – Another way to cross to the Nature Research Center.
- A dinosaur short film – Enjoy a short movie about dinosaurs.
Fourth Floor Wonders
- Arthropod Zoo – See live and static exhibits of insects, crustaceans, arachnids, and other arthropods found in North Carolina.
- Living Conservatory – Step into a dry tropical forest! See live plants and animals, including butterflies and even a two-toed sloth. You can also watch butterflies emerge from their chrysalides.
Nature Research Center
The Nature Research Center (NRC) is a huge, four-story building. It is right across the street from the Nature Exploration Center. A special walkway connects the two buildings. When it first opened in 2012, 70,000 visitors came in just 24 hours!
The NRC offers many hands-on activities. You can even watch real scientists working in their labs through glass walls! The museum also uses distance learning to share lessons and virtual field trips with classrooms all over the state.
First Floor Explorations
- SECU Daily Planet Theater – This amazing three-story theater is inside the giant globe. It hosts science presentations and shows beautiful scenes from nature.
- Our Changing Ocean – See a huge 10,000-gallon aquarium. It looks just like a typical ocean habitat off the North Carolina coast.
- Investigating Right Whales – See and even touch the skeleton of "Stumpy," a North Atlantic right whale. Her story helped create laws to protect whales.
- Exploring the Deep Sea – Climb into a model submersible for a virtual dive. Go 2,000 feet down to the ocean floor off North Carolina!
- Exploratory Gallery – Learn about new projects and discoveries in engineering, health, and modeling.
- Citizen Science Center – Find out how you can get involved in real scientific research as a "citizen scientist."
- North Carolina's Green Gems – See beautiful emeralds found in North Carolina. This includes the 64.8-carat Carolina Emperor, North America's largest cut emerald!
- Gift shop – Find souvenirs and educational items here.
- SECU DinoLab – This exciting new exhibit is planned to open by 2024. It will be home to the amazing Dueling Dinosaurs fossil!
Second Floor Research
- Researching Weather – Discover the different ways scientists study the weather.
- Window on Animal Health – Watch veterinary staff, students, and interns working on real medical procedures. You can even talk to them and see close-ups on video screens! They care for reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds, small mammals, and invertebrates.
- Naturalist Center – See some of the museum's 20,000 educational specimens. These include fossils, bones, and preserved animals. You can also listen to and watch videos of certain specimens on interactive tabletops.
Third Floor Discoveries
- Unraveling DNA – Learn about DNA replication and model organisms.
- From Dinosaurs to DNA – See the new tools and techniques used in natural sciences research today.
- Postcards from Space – Check out a cool collection of meteorites from outer space.
- Ice Age Giants – Explore exhibits about giant Ice Age animals and how the Ice Age ended.
- Early Life Explosion – See Ediacaran fossils. These are some of the earliest complex life forms on Earth, from over 542 million years ago!
Investigate Labs
The Nature Research Center has three "Investigate Labs." These are hands-on spaces where you can explore and learn.
- Natural World Investigate Lab (second floor) – Use different tools to observe and study the natural world around you.
- Micro World Investigate Lab (third floor) – This lab focuses on amazing advances in biotechnology and microbiology. Learn about tiny protozoa and genetic engineering.
- Visual World Investigate Lab (third floor) – See how modeling and simulation technologies work. You can also take classes in electronics and computer programming here.
Research Labs
The Nature Research Center also has four research labs. These are usually "behind-the-scenes" areas. But here, they have clear glass walls so you can watch real scientists at work!
- Biodiversity and Earth Observation Research Laboratory (second floor) – Scientists here study the plants and animals of our community, state, and planet. They might study how mammals move, for example.
- Astronomy and Space Observation Research Laboratory (third floor) – Astronomers in this lab use huge telescopes around the world. They investigate how our Solar System began by studying gas clouds around forming stars.
- Genomics and Microbiology Research Laboratory (third floor) – Biologists in this lab do many molecular genetic studies. They look at DNA to understand how primates are related (this is called comparative evolutionary genomics).
- Paleontology and Geology Research Laboratory (third floor) – This lab focuses on the shape, evolutionary relationships, and ancient environments of theropod dinosaurs. This group includes the famous Tyrannosaurus rex and all living birds!
Other Museum Locations
Prairie Ridge Ecostation
Prairie Ridge Ecostation is a 45-acre outdoor classroom. It is about 6 miles from the main museum in Raleigh. It has a Piedmont prairie, forests, ponds, and a stream. It also shows off sustainable building features that help wildlife.
Prairie Ridge helps people understand and appreciate the natural environment. It is an outdoor learning space and shows how renewable and sustainable energy can be used. A fun Nature PlaySpace opened here in 2013.
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences at Whiteville
This location used to be called the North Carolina Museum of Forestry. Its goal is to celebrate the natural history and cultural heritage of North Carolina's forests. It has exhibits, educational programs, and items that show the long relationship between forests and people.
You can find interactive exhibits, an outdoor Tree Trail, and a Fossil Dig Pit. The museum also offers special events.
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences at Contentnea Creek
This satellite location is in Grifton, North Carolina. It used to be known as the Grifton Nature & Science Center. It has hiking and paddling trails along Contentnea Creek. There is also an observatory and an outdoor classroom.
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences at Greenville
This location in Greenville, North Carolina was formerly called A Time For Science (ATFS). It reopened in September 2021 after being updated with new exhibits. The Museum at Greenville is similar to the Raleigh facility. However, it focuses more on topics important to northeastern North Carolina, like pirates and pollinators. It also uses resources from East Carolina University.
Cool Annual Events
NCMNS hosts many special events throughout the year. Here are some of the most popular:
- Groundhog Day – Every February 2nd, Sir Walter Wally, the museum's groundhog, makes his prediction for spring! He's pretty good at it, with a 58% accuracy rate.
- BugFest – Held every mid-September, this is a free, day-long festival all about insects! Over 35,000 people visit each year. A smaller version, BugFest South, happens at the Whiteville location in May or June.
- First Night Raleigh – NCMNS takes part in this big New Year's Eve celebration every December 31st. In 2012, 80,000 people came to the area around the museum for First Night!
The Dueling Dinosaurs!
The Dueling Dinosaurs is an incredibly well-preserved and scientifically important fossil. It was found in Montana and shows a Triceratops and a Tyrannosaurus that might have been fighting!
This amazing fossil was discovered in 2006. For over ten years, people tried to sell it to museums or private collectors. Then, in 2016, the NCMNS started talking about buying it. The museum's nonprofit group, Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, helped raise the money.
After some legal issues were solved in 2020, the museum officially announced it had bought the fossils! They are now a permanent part of the museum's collection. The Dueling Dinosaurs exhibit is set to open in the Nature Research Center in 2024.
