After Charleston we stopped in Raleigh, North Carolina, for the grand opening of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences' Nature Research Center. The grand opening started at 5 p.m. on Friday evening and continued through the night until 5 p.m. Saturday. We attended Saturday afternoon, and it was CROWDED.
They had anticipated about 50,000 visitors in those 24 hours, but Saturday afternoon an estimated 60,000 people had come through the doors. They actually closed the doors at 4, an hour early, because of the crowds. It was gratifying to see how much the community supports the museum.
It was interesting to see the use of multimedia in the exhibits, labs exposed through glass, and classrooms equipped with high-tech equipment. Nicely done. It helps to have the state legislature buildings right across the street, so that legislators are constantly reminded of the museum's existence. I wish the Academy of Natural Sciences had similar support. It is so worthy of it!
Below are two views of one of the labs, through glass. People were very engaged:
In the photo below is one of the classrooms, with all kinds of specimens to examine and touch:
And two of those new-fangled table computers, one pictured here:
This idea has been talked about at the Academy as well:
One of the new exhibits of single-celled organisms includes a diatom:
Look at the equipment in this classroom!
The obligatory green roof:
Finally, a view of the older museum:
Fi
It is worth a visit. They did a nice job, although I hope they have a huge IT department to take care of all the high-tech equipment!
Signing off from Washington D.C.,
Eileen
