The Fernbank Museum of Natural History is billing "Water: H2O = Life," its latest exhibit, as family-friendly. But this interactive experience, which touts the power of the life-sustaining liquid, gets an extra shot of family-fueled enthusiasm on Oct. 10.
That’s when its Water Family Celebration flows into view. This wave of interaction includes a host of activities, some of which aren’t found during the regular exhibit.
The centerpiece is, of course, the exhibit itself. Visitors take a gulp of "Water: H2O = Life" in the Special Exhibit Gallery. That’s where both kids and adults can have a hand at doing things such as building a dam and participating in a water quiz game.
For the Water Family Celebration, the museum’s Great Hall houses the special Weekend Wonders Water Lab. Fernbank educators dish out insightful water knowledge and oversee hands-on activities. Other action in the Great Hall includes One More Generation, an area that will be promoting the importance of keeping endangered species alive. It’s done through animal encounters, crafts and games.
Kids get schooled in water safety when meeting Swimmerman, the water-centric caped crusader and mascot of Swimmerman Swim School.
The B 98.5 FM Street Team is scheduled to organize some games of its own at the event. Expect the radio station to give away a few prizes, too.
A pair of water-related Imax films are currently screening in Fernbank’s Imax Theatre.
In “Mystery of the Nile,” the audience takes a virtual ride aboard a 14-foot raft and tags along with the first team to tackle the entire 3,260-mile journey of the Nile River from its source to the sea.
“Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk” follows Robert F. Kennedy Jr., anthropologist Wade Davis and their daughters on a white-water rafting expedition down the Colorado River. The Dave Matthews Band provides the soundtrack as viewers get a dose of water-logged excitement coupled with a message of conservation. The Imax films require a separate ticket.
Water Family Celebration. Noon-3 p.m. Oct. 10. $15; $14 students and seniors; $13 ages 3-12; ages 2 and younger free. Fernbank Museum of Natural History, 767 Clifton Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-929-6300, www.fernbankmuseum.org .
