North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences: Major Accomplishments for 2005
Awards
- The N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences was the most visited museum in the state and was named the number one field trip attraction in the state by North Carolina Fieldtrips magazine for the second year in a row.
- The N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences' open-air classroom at Prairie Ridge Ecostation in Raleigh, designed by architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, received a 2005 EDGE Award from Triangle Business Journal. The annual EDGE Awards, presented in seven different categories, "recognize excellence in the design, general contracting, engineering and landscape contracting industries," according to the weekly journal. The open-air classroom was selected as a "project that best exemplifies environmental sensitivity."
- Dr. Betsy Bennett, director of the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, was awarded a 2005 Opening Doors award from the Business and Professional Women's (BPW) groups of Raleigh and the Triangle. The award is given annually by BPW to three outstanding professional women in the Triangle who have excelled in their areas of endeavor and have made strides to open doors for women in their workplace.
News
- Gov. Mike Easley signed into law Senate Bill 692, clearing the way for the Green Square Project, an innovative public-private partnership that will significantly expand the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh. The legislation allows the state to sell most of a Raleigh city block to the State Employees Credit Union for $1. As part of the $100 million project, the credit union would finance and develop a four-story research center for the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, offices for about 615 employees of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources and new credit union offices for more than 300 workers.
- Dr. Mary Schweitzer, Museum associate curator of vertebrate paleontology, created international news with her discovery (and subsequent publication in Science magazine) of preserved soft tissue within a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex. Her story was recently named No. 6 in a list of the 100 Top Science Stories of 2005 by Discover magazine.
- Museum director of public programs Jesse Perry, in partnership with the NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services and the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at NC State, helped protect a 300-acre tract of rare-plant habitat in Granville County. The new Picture Creek Barrens Nature Preserve will be used for educational programs run by museum staff, as well as for research on rare plant species and forest management activities.
Other
- The Museum hosted three traveling exhibits in 2005: "Treasures Unearthed: North Carolina's Spectacular Gems and Minerals;" "CSI: Crime Scene Insects;" and "Discovering Chimpanzees: The Remarkable World of Jane Goodall."
- Prairie Ridge Ecostation for Wildlife and Learning celebrated its one-year anniversary. In the past year, the Museum's 38-acre outdoor environmental education campus hosted a variety of summer camps, teacher development workshops and public tours, and served as a site for numerous wildlife conservation activities including migratory bird banding and monarch larva monitoring. The state energy office awarded $70,000 to the site for the addition of windmills and photovoltaic cells that will demonstrate renewable energy sources.
- Through the Educators of Excellence Program, Museum educators took North Carolina teachers to Yellowstone, Ecuador, Belize and the ocean floor off the coast of North Carolina (as part of a deep-sea research mission funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).
- The Museum premiered its first HDTV series, "Exploring North Carolina," which has met with great success and has been funded for the second year through a $250,000 grant from the state.
- The Museum partnered with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission in sponsoring the inaugural Wildlife in North Carolina Photo Competition and will exhibit the winning images beginning January 2006.
- The Museum received a $200,000 grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and a $169,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for its Outreach North Carolina program, which serves low-resource communities in several eastern NC counties.
- The Museum welcomed a record 25,000 visitors in one day to BugFest 2005 and hosted five NASA scientists for Astronomy Days 2005.
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, in downtown Raleigh, documents and interprets the natural history of the state of North Carolina through exhibits, research, collections, publications, and educational programming. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sun., noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Visit the Museum on the web at www.naturalsciences.org. The Museum is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr., Secretary.
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