Venue Confirmed:

• Summer 2009: New York Hall of Science (Queens,NY)
  
• Fall 2009: Miami Science Museum (FL)
  
• Winter/Spring 2010: North Museum of Natural History & Science (Lancaster,PA)
  
• Fall 2010: Orlando Science Center (Orlando, FL)
  
• Winter/Spring 2011: Minnetrista (Muncie, IN)
  
• Summer 2011: Museum of Nature and Science (Dallas,TX)
  
• Summer 2012: Nebraska State Museum (Lincoln, NE)
  
• Fall 2012 and Winter/Spring 2013: Carnegie Museum of Natural History
  

Venue Open:

• Fall 2011
  
• Winter/Spring, 2012
  
• Summer & Fall 2013
  
• Winter/Spring, Summer & Fall 2014
  

Charlie and Kiwi's Evolutionary Adventure is an original, focused experience that invites visitors to:

• see evidence of evolutionary connections between dinosaurs and birds
• enjoy the story of Charlie, whose curiosity leads to his understanding of how evolution works
• engage in activities about variation, inheritance, selection, time and adaptation (VISTA), key evolutionary concepts.

The exhibition is organized into three parts:

Story Theater
Charlie and Kiwi's adventure unfolds in an intimate theater on a giant digital storybook screen. Audiences travel back in time during the 13minute video, Charlie and Kiwi's Evolutionary Adventure, joining Charlie and his great, great, great, great grandfather as they discover how and why the flightless kiwi is still a bird. Through the charming drawings by Peter Reynolds, award- winning illustrator of Judy Moody and other children's books, visitors see how Charlie comes to understand the origins of birds and why they are all so different from each other.

Exhbits

• Intro Panel - See how life changes over time. Flamingos! Penguins! Robins! Eagles! They're all birds but they look so different. Travel back in time and join Charlie and Kiwi on their Evolutionary Adventure.
• Charlie's World Vignette - Find where kiwis are from on the map of New Zealand and see a real, modern-day kiwi (stuffed) and a fossil replica of Archaeopteryx (a prehistoric bird).
• Which is a Bird? Which is a Dinosaur? The Bones Show It - See evidence that dinosaurs are the ancestors of modern birds by viewing the homologous bones of a bambiraptor (a dinosaur), an archaeopteryx (one of the first birds) and a modern crow.
• The Clue of the Matching Bones Puzzle - Find where the matching bones go in this puzzle: a meat-eating dinosaur, early bird and modern bird. Three special bones (the wishbone, toes and hip bone) show scientists that birds evolved from dinosaurs.
• Why is a kiwi like a kiwi? Or How Evolution Works - Did birds really come from BIG dinosaurs like this? How could a dinosaur evolve into a bird? Is evolution like tadpoles changing into frogs?
• Dino to Bird - A computer-based interactive allows visitors to speed up time so they can see the evolution of birds happen with their own eyes.
• Finches Puzzle - This puzzle shows how finches have adapted to a variety of environments. Put the finches in the forest where they can find a meal.
• Natural Selection of Ground Finches - A computer-based interactive allows visitors to measure the beaks of finches that lived on the Galapagos Islands. See why the finches with larger beaks, that enabled them to open large tough seeds during hot, dry weather conditions, went on to reproduce.
• Meet the Budgies - Observe differences in live birds of the same species by examining the colors, shapes and sizes of their beaks, legs, and feet.
• Moa Bird Bone Dig - Use the tools (brush and wooden sculpting tool) to find fossils (half-skull and femurs of Moa birds) hidden inside the rock.

Discovery Box Area
Twelve discovery boxes enhance understanding of evolutionary concepts with activities, puzzles, fossil bird bones and skulls.

Call for Updated Schedule

Dinosaurs! features seven, half-sized roaring robotic dinosaurs including the king – Tyrannosaurus rex – Triceratops, Pachycephalosaurus, Dimetrodon, Stegosaurus and a mother Apatosaurus protecting her newly hatched babies. Take visitors beyond the bones through a primordial swamp to see how these prehistoric creatures may have looked, and sounded, when they roamed the earth millions of years ago. Exhibit includes seven animatronic units, air compressor, plus silk plants, trees, wooden stanchions and decorative mulch to create your own primordial swamp.

• Austin Children's Museum: September 24, 2011 - January 16, 2012
• Available Spring 2012 and after

Crossing the threshold of this exhibit means traveling back in time to explore the Age of the Dinosaurs! As visitors move through the exhibit, they encounter unfamiliar landscapes, touchable dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes, and opportunities to investigate clues about what the dinosaurs left behind. This exhibit builds on the popular fascination with dinosaurs and includes science activities to challenge all ages. The exhibit features three distinct sections: Land of Fire (a warm dinosaur habitat), Land of Ice (a cold dinosaur habitat), and a Field Research Station (complete with a Big Dig component). While the warm environment is based on content that is familiar to most visitors, the cold environment incorporates recent scientific research about dinosaurs that lived in cold climates like Alaska. Science inquiry skills are essential in the Field Research Station as visitors uncover dinosaur bones in a dig station and examine fossils to identify dinosaurs. Each section of the exhibit is divided by a series of low walls that give adults visual access to the entire exhibit while keeping each section distinct and autonomous. Extensive and detailed muraling throughout the exhibit ensures an immersive, environmental aesthetic.

astevenson@mcm.org

http://www.mcm.org/about-the-museum/exhibit-rentals/dinosaurs2/

Venues Open:

• Summer 2012
• Fall 2012
• Winter/Spring 2013
• Summer 2013
• Fall 2013
  

Venue Confirmed:

• June - September 2011: Springs Preserve (Las Vegas, NV)
• October 2011 - April 2012: Sawmill Museum (Clinton, IA)

Exploring Trees Inside and Out will help children discover nature through multiple perspectives and will inspire them to get outdoors, explore the wonders, and develop connections with the natural world. While visiting the exhibit children can experience a glimpse of the wonders that await them outside their own backyards and neighborhoods. These interactive exhibits provide an innovative visual-spatial experience designed for whole body, open ended participation to raise the awareness and understanding of trees.

While visiting the exhibit children will be able to:

• Explore the heart of a tree trunk
• Jump into a giant bird's nest
• Crawl through a giant tree structure
• Hear the sounds of animals that live in the forest
• Soar over the tree tops like a giant bird with the blue screen experience (Complete with costumes!)

Visitors will be given the opportunity to explore and discover many aspects of trees from the inside out, from roots to leaves, as a habitat for other living things and as a resource for people. The exhibit serves as an "experience" about trees that visitors will be able to transfer to the out-of-doors at home, at school, in the park or on a hike in the woods.

Some exhibit elements include:

• Climbing Tree -- Larger than life, the trunk invites children and adults to enter and discover that a tree is an amazing, living thing.

• Sensation stations -- Throughout the exhibit are a myriad of activity opportunities, including Scents and Sounds of Nature, and Art in Nature, that will help advance the messages about trees that permeate the exhibit and to sharpen observation skills to look at trees in new ways.

• Giant Leaf, Leaf and Slide Pile -- From the canopy, visitors will discover they can actually climb inside a giant leaf. From here, they will be able to hear, see and feel a leaf as if they were a very small bug.

• Giant Acorn -- Children can enter a larger than life and discover the baby oak with a ready packed "lunch" all ready to grow. Children can help the little acorn germinate and begin its growth to a mighty oak.

• Dancing with Trees -- Guests can wear animal costumes including a butterfly and a squirrel. The backgrounds represent several difference habitats where trees grow and animals live. Children can soar over a meandering stream or climb to the tree tops in a forest.

• Wood Works -- A construction area work station with many different pieces of wood in various sizes and shapes. Families can work together to build unique structures, bird houses or other buildings, fanciful or realistic.

Children and families will leave with a more defined understanding of the importance of trees and an elevated appreciation of trees and forests in their neighborhood and throughout the world. Most of all, the exhibit will be a dynamic springboard for visitors to take their experience outside. Leaving the exhibit, guests see the calls to action - Extend your adventure outside. Explore the wonder of trees.

Predators offers a hands-on insight into the lives of some of the most dangerous animals on the planet, both past and present. What do house cats and saber-toothed tigers have in common? Visitors can sharpen their wits through a variety of interactive activities that illustrate the similarities and differences between predators from around the globe and throughout history. Visitors learn how different predators are equipped to fulfill their specific roles in the natural world. Your audience can hone their senses and experience how each predator tracks, captures and kills their prey and how their environment influences their abilities. Visitors can dive in and see how a shark senses its prey under water and compare that with how a hawk hunts from the sky. Then, reverse roles and jump in the shark cage and see what it is like to be the prey of a 15 foot Great White Shark!

Predators examines a wide range of both contemporary and prehistoric animals. Visitors can learn about different predators from a huge orca to a tiny praying mantis. They can study a T-Rex skull and see how it stacks up against modern predators. And they can learn how wolves play charades, what masks and Bengal Tigers have in common and also why "playing possum" can be so important. Predators explores how popular culture has influenced our views of these animals. Everyone knows about JAWS but now visitors can learn about the various benefits that predators provide. These animals may be scary but they also play a key role in our world.

Experience the Museum of Discovery's Predators and find out why we are so fascinated by them - if you dare!

Venue Confirmed:

• October 2010 - January 2011: Bay Area Discovery Museum (Sausalito, CA)
  
• February - May 2011: Betty Brinn Children's Museum (Milwaukee, WI)
  
• February - April 2012: Virginia Living Museum (Newport News)
  
• June - September 2012: High Desert Museum (Bend, OR)
  
  

Venue Open:

• June - September 2011
  
• October 2011 - January 2012
  
• October 2012 - January 2013
  

Past Venue:

• June - October 2009: Discovery Science Center (Santa Ana, CA)
• October 2009 - January 2010: Discovery Center at Murfree Spring (Murfreesboro, TN)
• February - May 2010: Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (Jackson, MS)
• June - September 2010: Kohl Children's Museum of Greater Chicago (Glenview, IL

Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl: Home Sweet Home, a new hands-on exhibit for children ages 2 to 8, developed in collaboration with the US Forest Service, will premiere at the Betty Brinn Children's Museum in the summer of 2009 and will then embark on a national tour.

This new traveling exhibit, featuring two classic American icons, will inspire children and families to discover and care for the natural resources that sustain our world – our home sweet home. Smokey Bear, Woodsy Owl and their forest friends share important messages as they lead visitors into pretend woodland and urban settings that encourage families to spend time together outdoors and teach young children to be active explorers and stewards of the land. The exhibit’s hands-on activities and related programming underscore the importance of protecting forest ecosystems and highlight ways to reduce, reuse and recycle valuable resources.

exhibits@bbcmkids.org

www.bbcmkids.org/salesrentals/smokeybear