Dream Drives: Garden State Discovery Museum
CHERRY HILL, NJ (CBS) -- A place that tells tales of Jurassic Jersey: The Garden State Discovery Museum in Cherry Hill.
The museum is all about two things: New Jersey, and new experiences, explained museum director Kelly Lyons.
The first exhibit she showed us was the new Down the Shore exhibit about ocean life. The focus is on "cognitive behavioral fun," she said.
With a little soap, you've got a kid-friendly science experiment in the Bubble Magic exhibit.
The Kid Fit fitness play area is the latest expansion of the Garden State Discovery Museum. "This is really using those gross motor skills, getting the kids moving [with] obstacle courses," Lyons said.
Everywhere at the Garden State Discovery Museum, you will see dinosaurs, and for good reason. The first dinosaur bones discovered in North America were found in Jersey, only eight miles from the museum. A rock pit is ready for kids to dig and find their own dinosaur fossils, or they can climb a dinosaur skeleton made of wood. "It's a replica of a 40-foot long female T. rex," Lyons said.
You can see also meet descendants of the real thing, like a bearded dragon. Kids can meet it, too. "If they're here and the keepers are feeding animals, they'll take them out and they'll let the kids touch them with two fingers," Lyons said.
There are many other animals. Meisha met turtles, a rabbit, and Rosie, the rose-haired tarantula. The animal collection is only getting bigger with the addition of a new zoo area that opened in March.
The Garden State Discovery Museum is at 2040 Springdale Road, Suite 100, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003.
