PERMANENT EXHIBITS
CREATION STATION
Packed with paint, clay, chalk, paper, cardboard and everything in between, Creation Station has all you need to bring out your inner artist! Let your imagination lead you to create your own masterpiece or join us for guided sessions available on Thursday and Saturday afternoons.
DISCOVERING HEALTHY FAMILIES
The hands-on activities and visual displays make the exhibit fun and informative for the entire family. Children can learn about healthy choices on the “Make Your Choice” wall, see if they can jump as high as a kangaroo in on the Jumping Wall, check their blood pressure or build the food pyramid. Parents can learn about how to make lifestyle changes for the whole family with tips from cooking together to exercising together to learning the power of colorful foods.
Discovering Healthy Families exhibit is funded in part by The HCA Foundation.
CLARK MAPLES DEPOT
Kids of all ages can put on a conductor’s hat and help run the Discovery Center trains! Future train engineers can dress up as a railroad engineer, buy a ticket, and explore the Discovery Depot. Check with the front desk for model train run times.
The train room is open for viewing during museum hours.
FARMERS MARKET
Who knew shopping could be so much fun… and healthy? Our Farmers Market is open daily and is packed with yummy fruits, vegetables, pastries, and grains. Grab your basket, load up the conveyer with food, and roll your picks down to our cash registers. Families can learn how many miles the average meal takes to arrive on their dinner plates and the importance of buying locally grown food.
FIRE TRUCK
Firefighters, get ready to take a ride on our ever-popular fire engine. Put on your hats, pull on your boots, and climb aboard our 1954 Oren Fire Truck. Visitors learn about the history of fire fighting in Murfreesboro, the importance of each piece of firefighters’ gear, as well as fire safety tips.
NATURE PLAY
Opening in 2013! Learn more about Nature Play!
SUPER SLIDE
What better way to learn about gravity than to slide down our 2 ½ story super slide!
SHADOW ROOM
Phosphorescence is “phun”! Use your whole body to explore the world of light and shadow as you freeze your shadow on a phosphorescent wall.
TENNESSEE LIVE!
Turtles and fish and snakes, oh my! Discover the aquatic world in our living stream table, enjoy a visit with our live animals, dig in our fossil pit and explore the Cherokee Nation in our Tennessee Live! exhibit.
TINY TOWN
Tiny Town is made up of five role-play environments where children can explore how people work, live, and play together. Tiny Town features a Tiny Town Kroger, Tiny Town Home Depot, Corner Cottage, postal center, and music store.
Tiny Town is sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Tennessee Pediatrics.
TOTSPACE
Tot Space, our first area dedicated solely to infants and crawlers, adjoins Tiny Town. Tot Space’s woodland theme provides the backdrop for a safe, soft-play environment designed for early spatial awareness, as well as coordination and balance. TOTSpace Sponsored by Children’s Dentistry of Murfreesboro. Murals by Norris Hall.
WATER WORKS
Crank, funnel, pour, squirt, measure, float! Discover the wonders of the Earth’s most abundant resource through an interactive system of pulleys, pumps, wheels and pipes that demonstrate how we manipulate the multi-functional power of water. Prepare to get wet as you learn about the many uses of water!
WETLANDS BOARDWALK
Enjoy our Murfree Spring boardwalk which winds around 20 acres of natural wetlands where you can explore the wonders of nature. Keep your eyes out for our river otters, blue herons and muskrats!
WINGS & WHEELS
Play on our interactive Brio Train Engine, take a trip to Coal Mountain, experience an assembly line, or engage with our ever popular Brio train table – it’s all a part of Wheels! Use wrenches, screwdrivers, and drills to rotate car tires, check oil levels, and even replace a muffler in the Nissan Super Service Center. Go back in time with displayed award-winning antique vehicles donated by Mr. Ed Delbridge, information about Tennessee’s transportation history, and hundreds of model cars. Then, you can explore the properties of air and wind, learn about Rutherford County aviation history and check out the model plane collection in Wings!
Discovery Center’s flight simulator runs for 15 minutes at certain times. Please check with the front desk for current flight times.
TRAVELING EXHIBITS
GOOD FOR YOU, HEALTHY FUN ON THE RUN
February 2 – May 5, 2013
Come visit Ginger and her friends, the Good for You Crew! Ginger is a potato-chip-eating, soda-guzzling couch potato who loves to watch TV. When her mother orders her out of the house, she and her faithful dog George begin an adventure that leads to a world of healthy foods and active play. In the introductory area, visitors listen to their heart beat and participate in hands-on activities that teach the importance of balancing good food choices (energy in) with physical activities (energy out). Visitors enter a room with an interactive video wall where they use their whole bodies to capture floating images of foods to create a balanced meal. As visitors continue through the exhibit, they pick authentic looking fruits and vegetables in Sam’s garden and take them to Maria’s Farmer’s Market where they assume the roles of shoppers and sellers as they learn about healthy food choices. To promote physical movement, children are invited into Nelson’s Treehouse for climbing and then visit Michael and Lea’s campsite where they explore a cave, traverse a rock wall and try out a kayak. Children then venture into Josh’s Living Room where families enjoy activities like building cardboard forts and playing twister showing the many ways you can be active in your own home. ”Good For You: Healthy Fun on the Run” was developed by the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga, with funding from the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Health Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Sponsored locally by:
ANIMAL SECRETS
May 25 – September 8, 2013
Where does a chipmunk sleep? What does an eagle feed its young? How do mother bats find their babies in a cave? In Animal Secrets, families will learn the answers to these questions and more as they explore the hidden habitats and secret lives of forest animals. Using imaginative role-play and hands-on activities, children will discover nature from an animal’s point of view in naturalistic environments, including a stream, woodland, meadow, cave and naturalists tent.
PLAY with animals in a realistic habitat at the Stream. OBSERVE the sights and sounds of the Meadow. PRETEND to be an eagle, chipmunk and raccoon in the Woods. EXPLORE the unfamiliar environment of the Cave. INVESTIGATE specimens from the natural world in the Naturalists’ Tent.
Animal Secrets was developed by OMSI (The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) and has both English and Spanish text panels.Sponsored locally by:
The Jennings & Rebecca Jones Foundation
Secret Sneak Peak!
Special Member Preview and Guest Lecture
Thursday, May 30
6 pm – 8 pm
Guest Speaker: Dr. Diane Roddy Nelson, Professor Emerita at East Tennessee State University
There will be a ‘meet & greet’ with Dr. Nelson for exhibit sponsors, members, and media as well as light refreshments and time to explore the exhibit from 6 pm – 7 pm. Then staff will lead children’s activities in the museum during the lecture at 7 pm. Not a member yet? Join today!
Dr. Nelson is an internationally known marine biologist who has studied giant whale sharks in the Sea of Cortez, sand tilefishes in Belize, gobies in the Red Sea, ocean triggerfish, and convict fish in the Solomon Islands and Papua, New Guinea.
Animal Secrets is sponsored locally by the Rebecca and Jennings Jones Foundation.
IT’S A NANO WORLD
September 21, 2013 – January 6, 2014
Amazing things happen that are too small to see with just your eyes! Zoom in with different magnifiers, sort “cells” in the Cell Sorters, or look for the “white blood cell” among thousands of “red blood cells” in the Giant Blood Drop. Try your skill at three pinball-style exhibits to see how germs, dust and pollen affect your body. It’s a Nano World has 16 stations of hands-on fun!
Sponsored locally by: