Fernbank Museum Sets Official Opening Date for All-New Children’s Exhibition, Fernbank NatureQuest

Fernbank Museum of Natural History has officially announced the grand opening date for its expansive new children’s exhibition, marking March 19, 2011, for the unveiling of Fernbank NatureQuest. The nearly 7,000-square-foot exhibition is one of the most significant and exciting additions to the Museum since the world’s largest dinosaurs moved into Fernbank’s Great Hall in 2001.

This all-new $8 million exhibition will offer Fernbank’s youngest visitors a different kind of museum experience, where children will be engaged through over 100 interactive encounters on a journey to explore an immersive, nature-inspired environment filled with live animals, hands-on learning, the inspiration to discover, and the thrill of following curiosity’s path.

“When we set out to design a new children’s exhibition over four years ago, our goal was to create an experience where visitors would be challenged, engaged and able to explore in ways that cultivate curiosity—just like real scientists,” said Fernbank’s President and CEO, Susan Neugent. “This was our opportunity to create a museum experience like no other, where children are part of the exhibition, not just observers. The sophisticated experiences in NatureQuest will inspire further investigation year after year.”

Fernbank NatureQuest provides an open-ended experience for visitors, where an unexplored world exists all around them. Inside the clubhouse, visitors can find exploration cards that offer tips on how to explore, where to look, and what to search for next, including suggestions for parents on how to investigate each habitat, special scavenger hunts for deeper explorations, and “ologist cards” that provide a directed investigation of the exhibition through the eyes of different scientists, such as an archaeologist, geologist, a zoologist, a marine biologist, and others.

For more information, visit Fernbank Museum of Natural History.

Fernbank NatureQuest Opens March 19, 2011

Get ready to explore the nooks and crannies of a multi-level clubhouse. Shimmy up spiraling netting to discover the insides of a mighty red oak tree. Walk through a virtual waterfall and investigate the rock work and live animals behind it. This new, exiting exhibition at Fernbank Museum of Natural History will be a hit for families everywhere.

A few updates and highlights of Fernbank NatureQuest:

* There are trees “growing” in the exhibition! Fernbank NatureQuest will be filled with nature-inspired trees, plants and more. Children love to climb big, sturdy trees, so they’ll be excited to see there are opportunities to explore a cypress tree and a red oak from the ground up!

* The virtual river that flows through the exhibition has been installed. Two areas of the river include special “motion recognition software” that allows visitors to “dip” a toe in the water and see how the fish respond. Will they scatter? Will they swim up to greet you?

* Work is nearly complete on the kids’ clubhouse. This unique “fort” will offer multiple levels of exploration and opportunities for programming such as storytelling.

* A theme throughout Fernbank NatureQuest is to discover what lives in each of the habitats. Live animals will live within many of the habitats featured in the exhibition, but visitors will have to discover them by investigating each region. A few of their live nature ambassadors have already moved in at Fernbank while their new homes are being built!

For more information and to see photos of the work-in-progress, visit Fernbank Museum of Natural History.