Explore your natural world! What better way to learn about science and collecting than to have kids get out in their own backyards? They can bring in what they find and tell us what they’ve been able to learn about it for “points” at Nature’s Trading Post. When they’ve saved up enough points, they can pick out a special scientific something to take home with them. Kids have their choice of everything from magnifying glasses to rocks and minerals, from fossils to an owl pellet!
Nature’s Trading Post is now open in the Duke Energy Children’s Museum!
Complete a scavenger hunt, earn points, and trade them in for sharks teeth, spear points and more as you explore the world around you.
Trading Guidelines
Some of the items we accept for trade:
- Living natural objects: from plants (leaves, seeds, pressed plants, wood) and from animals (shells, cocoons, spider webs, teeth, antlers, snake-skin, turtle shells, clean bones, exoskeletons of insects).
- Non-living natural objects: rocks, fossils and sand.
What we can't accept for trade:
- Any item regulated by U.S, Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Act, CITIES* or other local, state, national or international laws and agreements (no eggs, feathers or bird nests).
- No taxidermy or "stuffed" animals.
- No living or dead (killed, hunted or found) animals.
- No items found at archaeological sites.
- Nothing that is icky, smelly or meaty.
How do I earn points?
The key to earning points through trading is the quality of information you can tell us about your object. Some key questions that we will ask you about your object include:
- What is your object?
- Where did you find your object?
- If you have remnants of an animal, what kind of animal? What did it eat? Where was its habitat?
- What else can you tell us about your object?
Points earned from scavenger hunts can be traded when visiting Nature's Trading Post on a separate visit other than a school visit.