Montshire Museum of Science
Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox museum The Montshire Museum of Science is a hands-on science museum located in Norwich, Vermont, United States.
History
The name "Montshire" is a portmanteau of "Vermont" and "New Hampshire".<ref name="Hist"/> It was cofounded in 1974 by Dr. Robert Chaffee, former Museum Director of the Dartmouth College Museum.
When the college museum closed, Chaffee and Walter Paine devised a community museum and education center, incorporating it as the Montshire. In 1976, Dartmouth College donated the collection of biological and geological collections to the new museum.<ref name="Hist"/><ref name="zebra">Template:Cite journal</ref>
The Montshire Museum was first located in a former bowling alley building in 1976 in Hanover, New Hampshire, and was later moved across the Connecticut River to a purpose-built building in Norwich in 1989.<ref name="Hist">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> <ref name="waltermire">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Description
The museum, including the building and nature trails, is located on over Template:Convert of land.<ref name="TrailF">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It has over 150 exhibits relating to the natural and physical sciences, ecology, and technology.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Its live animal exhibits include a hive of honeybees that is connected to the outdoors, a colony of leafcutter ants, and aquariums that feature life in local waters.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Outside the museum building, there is a Template:Convert Science Park including a scale model of the Solar System (Pluto is located Template:Convert away),<ref name="TrailF"/> and interactive exhibits on water, light, sound, and motion. Among the sound exhibits there are "whisper dishes" (parabolic dishes Template:Convert apart) and a musical fence built by Paul Matisse, grandson of painter Henri Matisse.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Each year, the museum holds an annual igloo build.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>