Take a peek inside Orkin Discovery Zone before it opens at Fernbank Museum

“I think we really wanted this to be kind of a revolution in bringing the guest into the experience, and making it more guest-centered,” Sarah Arnold Martino, Fernbank’s director of education, said.

Orkin Discovery Zone is the second part of the renovation to be unveiled, following last year’s “Our Place in the Cosmos” redesign in the Star Gallery. The Discovery Zone took over and expanded one of the museum’s temporary exhibit spaces, part of which was previously inaccessible to the public.

The museum decided to turn the space into a permanent exhibit, something hands-on and exploratory. Martino said they knocked down a wall to make the space feel larger and brighter thanks to two floor-to-ceiling windows, complete with binoculars looking out into the WildWoods forest.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

The planning for this new exhibit has been underway for several years, Martino said, but it took about six weeks to actually transform the room that’s split into three sections based on the Fernbank Museum’s content pillars of science, nature and human culture.

The renovations will “bring Fernbank into the modern age,” Martino said.

Several exhibits are outdated, she said, such as “A Walk Through Time in Georgia,” which hasn’t been fully renovated since the 1990s. It will be transformed into the “Changing Earth” exhibit next year.

The museum is also trying to become more accessible — both physically, by adding a second elevator, and through its content.

That means accommodating the many different ways people learn through games, tactile experiences, sound and reading, and making the text more engaging for a variety of ages.

“We wanted to age this up a bit. You know, the kids are going to find fun stuff in every exhibit that we have. So we wanted to make sure that we were hitting content on a higher level, as well,” Martino said.

The exhibit’s three sections

The first highlights the science of nature with features on biomimicry, which shows how human engineering is inspired by nature. It’s dotted with larger-than-life sculptures of leaf-cutter ants, bees and a giant termite mound.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

There are flip cards that demonstrate the differences in eye structure between various fish and animals, plus diagrams that compare them to how humans see and take in light. Next to that, there’s a noise box that plays animal sounds — from the low, menacing growl of an alligator to the deep, echoing call of a blue whale.

There are three live animals throughout the exhibit, including a Mexican redknee tarantula, a frog terrarium and Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

The second section in the exhibit includes highlights on human culture with displays and drawers of garments and tools built by humans that use materials from nature.

The third section focuses on classification and how scientists in every discipline must find ways to classify what they study. There is a Guess Who game that goes along with it, plus boxes of rocks to demonstrate the way minerals are classified.

Another set of drawers in this area displays convergent evolution, animals that have independently evolved with the same features to survive similar habitats, like how bats and birds developed wings, or how scorpions and snakes both have venom.

A final room highlights conservation by displaying several pieces of art made with recycled materials. The bright exhibit features clusters of jellyfish hanging from the ceiling and a large elephant on one wall.

“A lot of these new exhibits we’re creating are adhering to a slightly older audience, and so it’s not just bringing in families and kids, it’s also retaining them so that they can continue to learn as they grow,” Jena Allison, Fernbank’s communications manager, said.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

The Orkin Discovery Zone debuts May 2 with a grand opening celebration called Bug Fest. Hosted throughout the museum, the insect-themed day will feature academic and community partners showcasing their expertise, live animals and the career paths that involve entomology.

If you go

Bug Fest. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, May 2. $23.95-$25.95 per person. 767 Clifton Road, Atlanta. 404-929-6300, fernbankmuseum.org/events/calendar-of-events/2026/05/02-bug-fest.