Current Exhibits
Really Big Gallery

Programs

Resources

Virginia
Standards of
Learning
(S.O.L.s)

Reservations

Transition Area (31)
Visitor passes through an extended walkway creating the illusion that they are in the process of growing from human size to earth size.

Tree of Life (32)
Visitors interact with a large graphic/artifact/video panel to understand how living things we know today evolved from ancient ancestors. Questions answered are what happened to the trilobites? Why are there so many species of insects? What were the first living things? Is a person related to a hagfish? How did birds evolve?
S.O.L.s: LS.11,  LS.13,  LS.14,  BIO.7,  BIO.8,  BIO.9

James River Ecosystem (33)
Visitors can observe fishes living in different physiographic regions of the James River from montane to coastal plain habitats.
S.O.Ls:  K.1,  K.6,  1.5,  1.8,  2.5,  3.6,  4.8,  6.8,  6.9,  LS.4,  LS.7,  LS.9,  LS.12, BIO.5,  BIO.7,  BIO.8,  BIO.9

Bioethics - Population (34)
Questions about ethical issues relating to the relationship between humans and the environment and related issues are posed to visitors who respond with their own ethical viewpoints and compare their viewpoints with those of other museum visitors.
S.O.L.s: 5.7,  6.2,  6.11,  LS.4,  LS.8,  LS.11,  LS.12,  BIO.5,  BIO.8,  BIO.9

Eat or Be Eaten (35)
Visitors reel in a giant 3-D fish (representing a top predator species in the James River).  The fish opens up to reveal the chain of species in this entire food chain, like nested dolls from the giant fish to the detritus that enters the river
S.O.L.s:  K.6,  1.5,  2.5,  3.5,  3.6,  3.10,  3.11,  4.5,  4.8,  6.8,  6.9,  LS.4,  LS.6,  LS.7,  LS.8,  LS.9,  LS.12,  BIO.9, 

Evolution (36)
Visitors encounter a rotatable tree trunk set behind a case of black and white moths.  When white moths align with the dark sections of trunk, they are eaten and removed from the system leaving darker ones to live and reproduce.  A graph shows visually how the moth population changed historically over time.
S.O.L.s:  K.9,  1.8,  2.5,  2.7,  3.1,  3.4,  3.10,  4.1,  4.5,  LS.8,  LS.9,  LS.10,  LS.11,  LS.12,  LS.13,  LS.14,  BIO.2,  BIO.6,  BIO.8,  BIO.9

Friends Or Foes? (37)
Visitors turn two large wheels to match up two different species.  A short video comes on describing the type of onteraction and relationship between the two species.
S.O.L.s:  K.6,  1.5,  2.5, 3.5,  3.6,  3.10,  4.5,  LS.7,  LS.8,  LS.9,  BIO.9

Biosphere (38)
Visitors view graphics demonstrating the peach model and comparing it with the earth and the biosphere.  Giant graphic shows an image of the biosphere and smaller graphics show which species live in different biomes and parts of the biosphere.
S.O.L.s: 

 Mass Extinction (39)
Visitors move a pointer along a time scale while a large graphic panel behind the track illuminates with graphic/video information on background extinctions and major mass extinctions that have occurred throughout the history of life on earth.
S.O.L.s:  5.7,  6.11,  LS.11,  LS.12,  LS.14,  BIO.2,  BIO.7,  BIO.8,  BIO.9

Go With the Flow (40)
Visitors complete the components of water, nitrogen, and carbon cycles on earth my selecting the flow of graphic panels.
S.O.L.s: 3.10,  3.11,  4.5,  4.8,  5.7,  6.3,  6.9,  6.11,  LS.7,  LS.11,  LS.12,  BIO.8,  BIO.9

Biodiversity in Danger (41)
Visitors view a globe of the earth and select a point to discover the biodiversity for a particular area, and then view a video of a researcher discussing the problems associated with declines of species diversity in that area.
S.O.L.s:  3.6,  3.10, 4.5,  5.7,  6.11,  LS.11,  LS.12,  LS.14,  BIO.5,  BIO.8,  BIO.9

Earth Watcher (42)
A visitor selects daily, monthly, seasonal or annual cycles of different biological, chemical, and physical cycles and patterns (e.g. weather, carbon dioxide, photosynthesis, storms, migration, etc.) and views them on large video screens. Both global and local patterns, such as those occurring in Chesapeake Bay, can be viewed.
S.O.L.s:  3.9,  3.10,  3.11,  4.6,  5.7,  6.8,  6.9,  6.11,  LS.6,  LS.7,  LS.11,  LS.12,  BIO.8,  BIO.9