Permanent Exhibits
Visit these family-friendly exhibits every day:
At the EcoTarium, you can see exhibits that delve into freshwater and forest ecosystems, minerals, energy, water, microscopic life, and more.
Secrets of the Forest
Lions and buzzards and bears? Fungus? Explore the amazing variety of creatures that live in the forest and the roles they each play-- from a living fungus spreading through a dead log to a mountain lion perched on high. Surprising use of artifacts, video, and hands-on activities present a familiar New England scene in a whole new way.
The Green Carnivores: A community exhibit
Stop by the museum's middle level for a look at marvelous and bizarre plants with an appetite for bugs.
Pitchers of digestive fluid, sticky bug traps and jaws with tooth like projections! See them at work in a community exhibit created by the New England Carnivorous Plant Society featuring tropical pitcher plants, cobra lilies, Venus flytraps and sticky sundews. To find out more about these bug-eating plants, visit http://www.necps.org
Water Planet
Discover why we need water to live and the role it plays around the world. Find out how it shapes our planet, what creatures do to live in it, strategies people use to store and conserve water and the future of Earth's most precious resource.
Freshwater Ecosystems
Explore a woodland stream, bog, marsh, pond and swamp to discover the inhabitants and workings of nature's own water purification system. Find turtles, frogs, fish and salamander in their waterlogged habitats.
Look, Touch, Explore
This visual and tactile investigation of a New England woodland invites visitors to open drawers and cabinets to reveal forest artifacts and specimens such as birds' nests, pine cones and nuts, insects, leaves, bark, animal tracks and living wildlife. The exhibit includes artwork made from and inspired by the forest.
MicroDiner
A replica of a 1950s-style diner, this is an interactive, staffed exhibit that uses microscopes to look closely at common objects. Visitors can sit at the counter and order the daily specials to examine microscopic life in pond water, rotting wood and sea shells. Call (508) 929-2700 for more information.
African Communities
Beautiful dioramas depict African environments-- such as grasslands, woodlands, riverbanks, bushlands and valleys--and the animals which inhabit them. The exhibit defines each animal's role in its community and explains how over-population can cause competition for food, water and space.
Thinking Globally, Abiding Locally
This exhibit focuses on energy use and the effects overuse has on our environment and examines conservation technology. Extinction rates for species are 10,000 times greater than before man lived, and climate changes occur 40 times more quickly than before the last Ice Age.
Minerals
These gems, including ores and crystals from around the world, demonstrate properties of light, color, luster, shape, structure, magnetism and hardness.
Curator's Workshop
This staffed exhibit reproduces a 19th-century naturalist's studio with real artifacts from the museum's natural history collections. This is a "yes, touch" area where visitors can explore crystals, shells, scientific instruments and taxidermy. An interpreter answers questions about the tools and discoveries made more than 150 years ago when the museum's founding organization, the Worcester Natural History Society, was established. Inquire with the Information Desk about availability.
