By Marty Basch

Through the hands-on fun found in the Montshire Museum of Science, budding scientists and naturalists are  being educated in ecology, technology, and the natural and physical sciences. Bubbling tubes show the density of various liquids.  Make the wind blow, solve puzzles, touch a fossil, pedal an elevator up and down. Look up at a giant butterfly and learn numbers in different languages from the face of a clock.

The Norwich, Vt.  museum exudes an urban-quality experience though it is found on the bucolic banks on the Vermont side of the Connecticut River. The institution's origin was as the obsolete Dartmouth College museum of natural history. Before the modern, wide-open, facility opened in its present location in 1989, the museum was housed in a former Hanover, N.H. bowling alley across the river. The influence of both states are found at the Montshire. The name itself is a blend of "Vermont" and "New Hampshire," the last syllables of both words.

Bugging out

Live animals, insects, and fish inhabit the museum, and feeding time is not to be missed as fish, toads and frogs get hand-fed with tongs and forceps. Turtles, trout, bass and salmon are among the aquatic species on display on ground floor exhibits.

Insects come alive as well with a look at the queen, drones and workers inside a tight knit honeybee colony.  The workings of the leafcutter ants are part of a fascinating exhibit where the ants march on without the singing of Dave Matthews.

Watch as the busy insects crawl, haul and chew their way through clear tubes like morning commuters on the way to their cubicles in the proverbial office fish bowl.

Childlike discovery isn't limited to the indoors. Outside within sight of the river and adjacent woods is the Science Park which opened in 2002.  Bang out a note or two on the giant stone xylophone or be hypnotized by the wind wall as fluttering steels disks resemble waves on the water. In reality it's a visualization of air patterns.

Water world

In season the park is a whirlwind of fountains, bubbles, mist and adventure.  The 110 acre property has several miles of trails for year-round exploration, sprinkled with interpretive signs for learning while walking.

The Montshire doubles as the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge visitors' center. Be sure to visit the huge moose upstairs. Creepy crawlies are plentiful as display cases are teaming with butterflies, moths, beetles and dragonflies in the riverside museum that caters to the curious in all sorts of weather.

One Tank Away

Norwich, Vt. is

1. *190 miles from Norwich, Ct.
   

2. *136 miles from Sherbrooke, Quebec
   

3. *361 miles from Philadelphia