Greensboro Science Center

Greensboro Science Center

A while back, we took a Staycation and were looking for things to do close to home. One place we found was the Greensboro Science Center, which is about 31 miles from our house. Years ago, when I first moved to North Carolina with my children, we lived in Greensboro and my youngest son volunteered at the Science Center in the snake department.

I remember one story he told me; when he came into the Center one day to volunteer, they told him about something that had happened the night before, one of the snakes had gotten out of his enclosure and went into another and ate that snake! What made this interesting is that the snake that got out was named, “Peanut Butter” and the snake he ate was named, “Jelly”! That’s the kind of story you can’t make up!

History of the Science Center

The Greensboro Science Center opened in 1957 as the Greensboro Junior Museum.  They soon changed their name to The Natural Science Center.  In 1970, they announced their first expansion which included; an expanded zoo, a planetarium, and botanical gardens.  This was completed by 1978.  In 1985, the Science Center was officially accredited by the American Alliance of Museums(AAM)

In 2007 came another expansion which included; the Animal Discovery Zoo, revitalization of the Farm and petting zoo.  They were accredited by the Associaion of Zoos and Aquariums(AZA) which made them only one of 14 Science Centers in the country accredited by AAM and AZA!

• In 2013, the Aquarium(the Carolina SciQuarium) opened. 
• In 2015, Skywild Opens, a treetop adventure course. 
• In 2017 the Aquarium was expanded. 
• The Rotary club of Greensboro Carousel opened in 2020. 
• Revolution Ridge zoo expansion opened inn 2021. 
• The Cole family Monarch Conservation house and butterfly garden opened in 2022.

Aquarium

The Aquarium was my favorite area, mainly because of the Penguins! We were just in time to see them be hand-fed. They were so funny! They were very particular about the food they wanted to eat. Some of them would eat certain fish and reject other fish. Just like we might do! Each Penguin was wearing a band that had their names on it. I could have watched them all day!

 

Some other exhibits within the Aquarium were; Otters, Jellyfish, Octopus, Shark Reef, and Stingrays.

There was a large tank in the center of the room with different creatures, including stingrays. People were allowed to stand around the edge and touch a stingray as it swam by.

We saw other inside exhibits which were all pretty cool! Here is a prehistoric-looking Tortoise, I think he might be a snapping turtle.

We headed out to the Zoo but it was getting quite hot outside so we didn’t spend much time there. I did enjoy seeing the different primates that they have.

 

Here is some additional information; Greensboro Science Center I can’t wait to go back to see more! I think we will start with the Zoo next time!

---

I’d love to hear about your “stay-cation”, have you ever had one? What did you do? Where did you go?

Please leave me a comment and remember to share this post on your social media pages!