Museums and Collections offering Virtual Tours, 360 Degree Views, and Learning Tools

(My daughter posing before a life-sized mural of peccaries and an Amebelodon with young, at the Gray Fossil Site Museum, aka the East Tennessee State and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum and Discovery Center at the Gray Fossil Site. Picture taken somewhere around 2015.)

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HI, all!! Writermouse here!! I went down the rabbit hole over the last week and decided after a few days to begin 'mostly' local and work my way outwards. I live in East Tennessee, a location rich in cave systems and zoos but not particularly interesting as far as Natural History museums go. We have one tiny museum nearby, The McClung Museum on the University of Tennessee College campus, but it doesn't have anything appropriate for this blog post up on its website. I toss it a mention here because it is a NICE little museum, and worthy of a visit if you're local.

There are lots of interesting places in our locality, but unfortunately most of them aren't offering virtual tours or live feeds, or even have photo galleries that could be shown to home-bound kids. I was actually surprised and a little disappointed at the lack of local color in my particular area of fascination. So, after a mere week of digging and digging, I present to you the bits and bobs I've found that I feel are worthy and useful to those of us home-bodies with juvenile tyrants we need to entertain and educate, sometimes in that order. Enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Virtual Tours/Live Feeds

https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Washington, DC (I toss this out here because it was the only virtual tour I actually found so far)

https://www.ripleyaquariums.com/gatlinburg/ Ripley's Aquariums, Specifically Ripley's of the Smokies, has links to three live feeds (penguins in Gatlinburg and Myrtle Beach Ripleys, Sharks in Canada's Ripley's, also offers lots of online educational material)

https://www.tnaqua.org/aquarium-at-home/ Tennessee Aquarium, Chattanooga, TN (offers 3 live feeds, as well as printable materials, a Youtube channel, a really sweet Facebook page, and a streaming list of some of their Imax movies!)

https://www.georgiaaquarium.org/ Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, GA (offers 9 webcams and multiple educational resources, as well as easily-found videos and pictures elsewhere online. Highly recommend)

Keeper Videos/Blogs (I have found NO 360 degree views as of yet)

https://www.brightszoo.com/ Brights Zoo, Limestone, TN

https://www.nashvillezoo.org/ Nashville Zoo at Grassmere, Nashville, TN

Photo Gallery

https://www.forbiddencavern.com/ Forbidden Cavern, Sevierville, TN

https://www.rubyfalls.com/ Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, TN

https://www.museumofappalachia.org/ Museum of Appalachia, Clinton, TN (offers an excellent photo gallery to allow you to preview the collections/exhibits)

Learning tools/resources

https://www.ijams.org/ijams-e-learning Ijams Nature Center, Knoxville, TN offers videos and posts

https://www.zooknoxville.org/ Zoo Knoxville, Knoxville, TN

https://www.rfadventures.com/ Rainforest Adventures Discovery Zoo, Sevierville, TN

https://www.redbuttegarden.org/ Red Butte Garden, Salt Lake City, Utah (I know Utah is not local, but my husband's family is from Salt Lake City and he's gotten to visit here – lucky sod – and he spammed my phone for an hour with over 200 pictures – so I KNOW this one's worth it)

https://nhmu.utah.edu/ Natural History Museum of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (Dinosaurs, dinosaurs, dinosaurs!!!)

https://tuckaleecheecaverns.com/ Tuckaleechee Caverns, Townsend TN (more of an honorable mention because researching HERE leads you to information on the seismic network used to detect nuclear testing – Tuckaleechee Caverns holds one of the most sensitive seismic networks in the world)

https://thelostsea.com/ Lost Sea Adventures, Sweetwater, TN (Also more of an honorary mention, as it IS the largest underground lake in America, and it has a fascinating history. But they DO offer homeschooling field trips and there IS a video on their website, as well as a bit of background history to get you started.)

I Suggest Following on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

https://littleponderosazoo.com/ Little Ponderosa Zoo and Rescue, Clinton, TN

https://deerfarmzoo.com/ Smoky Mountain Deer Farm and Exotic Petting Zoo and Deer Farm Riding Stables, Sevierville, TN

https://briarwoodsafari.org/ Briarwood Ranch Safari, Bybee, TN

http://www.tigerhaven.org/index.asp Tiger Haven, Roane County, TN

http://www.parrotmountainandgardens.com/# Parrot Mountain and Gardens, Pigeon Forge, TN

Mammoth Cave, Mammoth Cave National Park, KY (No link available because there are many links!! But none of them offer what I was looking for for this article, but Mammoth Cave is SUCH a big deal I thought it deserved an honorable mention! Also lots of videos online showing walkthroughs and education, just none through a central webpage). Might be a future article in here for me...

Dunbar Cave State Park also gets an honorable mention because I want people to realize that there are caves HERE with heiroglyphics in them, not just in South America or our Southwest. Seriously, check out Dunbar Cave – there are some cool pictures!

Gray Fossil Site in Gray, TN also gets an honorable mention here because I've been there, adore it, and really enjoyed it. The museum is nicely done, the fossil site is right outside, the collection and processing rooms are visible through a huge window, and the scientists are often to be seen wandering the hallways looking like what they are – overwhelmed and fascinated college students and paleontologists (who often look like they've rolled in dirt or stuck their finger in a light socket). They are my people and I love them.

If you're local to the East TN/Asheville, NC area, Gray is worth a short day trip. Seriously. And if you can make friends with enough of them, show enough interest in paleontology, you can sometimes – seriously, just sometimes because security – cadge a tour of the Bone Room at East Tennessee State University. I had the opportunity to go see the Bone Room and I wasn't able to take advantage of it and I regret it every single day. Seriously. GO SEE GREY!!

There it is, folks! Have fun entertaining (cough I mean educating) your little tyrants for another few days!!! I hope they (and you!) enjoy it as much as I did doing the research!! Writermouse OUT!