Fernbank: Dinosaurs rule and IMAX stands tall
Published: Apr 2, 2009
You don’t have to be Fred Flintstone to dig the dinosaurs at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History.
Dinosaurs are the first thing you see when you enter the soaring Great Hall. The skeleton of a 47-foot-long Giganotosaurus appears poised to attack a 126-foot-long Argentinosaurus, while 24 flying pterosaurs hover overhead.
Through IMAX films, permanent and changing exhibits, the museum aims to appeal to the Indiana Jones in everyone with displays on the earth's history, physical universe, the environment and human culture.
Some exhibits will be beheath your feet. The floor is studded with 150-million year old marine fossils in the German limestone flooring used in the museum.
A variety of films play daily at the museum’s Rankin M. Smith, Sr. IMAX® Theatre, which uses the world’s largest film format on a five-story-tall and 72-foot-wide screen. Check the Fernbank website for current films and special exhibits.
For a prehistoric date night, join Friday night Martinis and IMAX® featuring cocktails, food, live music and admission to an IMAX film.
Legions of schoolchildren have visited the permanent exhibit “A Walk Through Time in Georgia,” offering a visual geographic and geology lessons about landforms, vegetation, wildlife and fossils along the way. Walk over a creaky wooden bridge in the Okefenokee Swamp as day turns to night.
Set aside on the upper floor of the museum are the Martha H. Ellis Discovery Rooms, designed to appeal to children.
In the Coca-Cola Georgia Adventure, 6- to 9-year-olds can become field researchers, study models of Georgia’s native amphibians, touch starfish other ocean objects in the Jekyll Island Pier, or build their own model city.
In the Fantasy Forest, preschoolers don “magic vests” and learn how animals use camouflage to elude predators in the wild. In Shadow Cave, kids experiment with shapes and shadows against a special wall surface that keeps the shadow for a few seconds before fading away.
In Farmer Giggler's Garden, they can slip on bee gloves and transport pollen balls to flowers. During the school year, the Children's Discovery Rooms are reserved for school educational programs Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Stargazers can get their fix in the museum’s The Star Gallery, recreating Atlanta's nighttime sky using miles of fiber optic wires that set 542 stars to twinkling.
- by Diane Loupe, Atlanta Reporter for HelloMetro
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