Connecting You to ENSAT’s New Exhibits

     For many months, you have heard about the proposed expansion of Sandy Creek Nature Center’s exhibit hall. We are nearing the building stage and we can now show you the floor plans and outline the exhibits to be installed within the next year.
     To start, we will break through the north and east walls of the exhibit area (where the gopher tortoise lives and where the recycling exhibit is located). From there, we will add over 4,000 square feet in exhibit area, expanded animal care rooms, work rooms, and future office space. Construction is expected to begin by January 2010. It will mean a messy area and smaller exhibit room for the next year, but it will be worth it in the end. Here is what is planned!

Going green!
     This will be a totally new area once the exhibit hall is complete. The Coastal and Wetland interactive areas will still be there, but they will be integrated into the new areas. Upon entering, visitors will see directly to their left the new Urban Interactive Learning Center (ILC). This area is anchored by a house façade that will have exhibits highlighting how people are connected to nature in the urban environment. Graphic panels will show visitors how to make their own homes more attractive to wildlife. A construction barrier contains exhibits about development with building materials that would help homeowners and businesses build in a sustainable manner and save energy.

More than just trees
     As visitors move further into the exhibit area, they will come to a large sculpted water oak which is the entrance to the Woodland ILC. The base of the tree is hollow and inside visitors will learn about the tree’s lifecycle. Specimens and models of animals that live in the piedmont woodland will be placed in the tree branches for visitors to find.
     Behind the water oak looms a large fallen tree along with its root ball still full of dirt and debris. This “nurse log” will house a snake enclosure. It will also feature exhibits about how deadwood provides homes for animals and how trees use the roots to hold on to soil and prevent erosion.
Wall murals will feature the many inhabitants of the piedmont woodland, as well as show how a forest can regenerate after it has been disturbed. There will also be small animal enclosures that will bring some of the woodlands inside for closer inspection.

Georgia agriculture
     From  the Woodlands ILC, visitors will move to the world of the farm. The Agriculture ILC connects visitors to nature by showing the importance of caring for the land that provides us with our food and fiber. The exhibit begins by exploring the wonders and importance of soil by taking you “underground.” Inside the soil cutaway, visitors can learn about the complex array of animals, fungi, and bacteria that support plants and make valuable nutrients more available.
     We then show how soil can be lost through water erosion. A barn structure will house exhibits that tell the story of Georgia’s farming history. One wall will be covered with farm implements. A video kiosk will tell about farming in Georgia from past practices to modern farming. Interactive devices will guide us through the story of how Georgia farm products make it from the field to the supermarket. Farm smells will engage visitor’s senses in a different way. A walk-in silo will complete the farm motif along with housing some fun interactives. A live beehive will explain the role bees play in pollinating Georgia’s crops. There will be graphic panels on modern soil conservation and crop rotation. The highlight of this section will be a grocery store checkout stand where visitors can scan items and learn about where our food comes from.

Reaching for the stars
     The “star” of the Sky Center will be a small planetarium where SCNC staff will do programs on the wonders of the night sky. Just outside the planetarium dome, a reading rail will house interactives where visitors can learn about clouds and weather. A flip door quiz will test the visitor’s knowledge about cloud types and what kind of weather they bring. Visitors will have a chance to make simulated lightning. The exhibits will also show visitors how to get ready for bad weather and what to pack in a home preparedness kit. The last section of the Sky Center exhibit will focus on air quality, how it’s measured, what affects it, and what visitors can do to pollute less. The Sky Center will also serve as a natural resources library and reading/meeting area. There will be shelving with books and a table with puzzles and games.

Additional features
     The entrance to the ENSAT building will also be redesigned to make it more engaging and informative. A video monitor/digital marquee will help visitors get oriented to the center, as well as tell them about any programming that day and upcoming classes that they might want to attend.  The actual entrance to the exhibit area will be redesigned to fit with the new areas. The front desk and gift shop area will also be restructured, along with the front walkway. Lastly, a new outdoor pavillion will be built on the edge of the meadow. We are working on two new outdoor learning areas: a managed forestry demonstration site located behind the overflow parking lot; and a new trail highlighting the life and practices of farming from when SCNC was a family farm. We’ll redesign the parking area, adding more spaces! We are also creating a new and improved outdoor gopher tortoise habitat.
     The transformation of ENSAT will surely be exciting. We know you’ll want to visit often to discover the natural connections between your family  and Georgia’s coastal, wetland, woodland, agriculture, and urban habitats!