For many people, life and science are subjects they are exposed to only peripherally while flipping past the Discovery Channel on TV. They're far too busy with their jobs at Bahco Tools and with raising kids to do a lot of learning or research. However, when vacation time comes around, you're free to do anything you want. If you're going to be in the Durham, North Carolina area, consider visiting the Museum of Life and Science. It's the perfect balance of education and fun and a great place to go with or without the kids.
The museum was once known as the North Carolina Children's Museum, and most of the exhibits are hands on. This makes it more engrossing not just for kids but for adults too. There are plenty of people who like to work with their hands in jobs such as industrial insulation installation who retain information much more readily if they experience it rather than just read it off a card. The Museum of Life and Science was designed with such people in mind.
The museum has exhibits both indoors and outdoors. Indoors you'll find one of the museum's most popular exhibits: the Aerospace exhibit. It features real modules and items used in the space program loaned to the museum from the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Instead of wandering around the robotic packaging you can actually sit inside where real Apollo astronauts sat! Other indoor exhibits include the butterfly house, insectarium, and displays on sound, North Carolina wildlife, and weather.
If it's a nice day you can venture outside after your perusal of the indoor exhibits and hike the dinosaur trail to enhance your personal fitness. Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum has the bones, but the Dinosaur Trail has life size models of what scientists imagine dinosaurs looked like. There's also a 6 acre park that allows you to connect with the local biosphere, a farmyard, a play park, model railroad that you can ride on, and a sailboat that you can really learn to steer.
If the Museum of Life and Science sounds like a good cure for seasonal affective disorder, Hamilton residents can fly or drive to Durham for a visit. The museum is open 10-5 Monday to Saturday and noon to 5 on Sunday. Admission is $12.50 for adults and $9.50 for kids and free for infants and toddlers.
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