Synopsis: Science CAN happen in your own backyard. This gallery explores the environmental factors that make Florida unique on Earth, with the goal of encouraging guests to see that lessons learned in Florida are applicable anywhere. The lessons start in an ordinary backyard where the skills of observation and critical thinking are just as applicable as anywhere else.

Size: 9,000 square feet

Icon: Giant 3-D walk-through "Welcome to Florida" postcard.

Location: Second floor

Number of hands-on components: 78

Highlights:

• A giant 4' x 4' x 20' high Tower of Trash graphically illustrates the topic of solid waste disposal issues.
• A picnic table set for five members of a food web.
• A garden shed and Ames room shrinks guests down to 10 x -2 to experience what it is like to be a bug. The "bugs" exit through a crack in the planks at the back of the shed.
• Study drawers and a Palmetto bug insectarium allow guests to get up close and personal with the insect world.
• A comprehensive photomural of the Florida peninsula, taken 190 miles above the Caribbean Sea by the Space Shuttle, gives guests a sense of where they are.
• A 27-foot long walk upon geological map shows environmental geological formations.
• An interactive game attached to a solar-powered van allows guests to practice making choices about modes of transportation and see the consequences of their choices.
• A crawl-through simulation of a gopher tortoise habitat give children a sense of what it is like to be a gopher tortoise.
• The most obvious elements of the Florida exhibition are a 40-foot inflatable whale, diving down into the first floor lobby, and a skin diver floating overhead.
  

Major donors:

The Tampa Tribune
ERM-South, Inc.
Rubber Applications, Inc.
Florida Phosphate Mining: ARR-MAZ
Blockbuster Entertainment Corp.
Paragon Cable