Our Case for Support | The Museum's accomplishments and plans

The new $1.5 million Dinosaur Trail opened!

It's a 2-acre outdoor environment featuring life-sized, scientifically-accurate Cretaceous dinosaur models and a fossil dig site for visitors to find and keep their own small fossils. Additional updates across our campus include the soundSpace exhibit, created in partnership with Duke University researchers and funded with a grant from SunTrust, enabling visitors to learn about math and music in a fun environment. The Museum also installed Flip It, Fold It, Figure It Out – offering math experiences without numbers through tiling, origami, experimenting with volumes and more.

A varied schedule of special events is now offered

both on- and off-site, featuring topics like “Wild About Animals,” “Robot Rumble” or “Fall Harvest.” For adults, the Museum has a monthly science café series called Periodic Tables where up to 100 community participants gather to discuss real science in a relaxed environment. Our popular website continues to attract learners of all ages, both locally and world-wide, with innovative offerings and opportunities for co-creation of content.

Educational programs

Continuing our strong track record for K-8 educational experience, we manage the science kits that form the hands-on science curriculum for Durham Public Schools (DPS) through a subsidized contract. We have increased the capacity and offerings of our camps and classes to meet demand. The Museum secured a grant to launch “Genome Diner”, a program to engage DPS students with scientists working in human genomics. Expanding our reach with high school students, the Museum has a new partnership with the Contemporary Science Center to offer immersive, day-long experiences with the real science of Research Triangle Park in a newly renovated Museum laboratory.

As we look ahead to 2010 and beyond, the Museum will focus on offering an excellent visitor and learning experience on our campus through exhibit improvements, member and visitor programs and services and enhancing our educational offerings. 

Highlights of our plan include:

Opening “Contraptions” (a new exhibit on building simple machines in the old Treehouse space) and hosting “Holiday Springs and Sprockets” traveling exhibit. Additional exhibit development including “re-invention” for one additional old exhibit gallery and adding new technology components throughout our exhibits.

Exhibit renewal and remediation to improve the visitor learning experience including improvements to the train, upgrades for our old classrooms and adding another outdoor classroom. Providing more learning experiences for adults through Periodic Tables, our monthly science café, and improvements to our meeting spaces.

Incorporating sustainability initiatives including a large composter for Museum waste, conducting an energy audit thanks to Triangle J Council of Governments, begin updating our lighting grid for energy efficiencies and continuing to explore with a number of partners ideas including solar energy at the café or a plug-in station for an electric car.

Continuing to add value to the member experience as the Museum seeks to grow membership to over 8,500 households. Launch a pilot project to serve historically underserved communities in Durham with a new “Ignite Learning” membership initiative.