Beat the weekend heat with 3 Triangle science museums

If this long, hot holiday weekend has you searching for something that gets just you or the whole family out of the house for a few hours, you don’t have to decide between keeping everyone entertained and learning something new.

Three science museums have you covered with approaches from remarkably different perspectives.

One showcases the natural history of North Carolina and the research happening today. Another encourages visitors to climb, build and explore alongside live animals. The third helped prepare astronauts for the Apollo program and continues to bring the universe a little closer to home.

Each offers enough to fill an afternoon, but you’ll likely leave with more questions than you arrived with, the best measure of any museum.

Open daily from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., including July 4, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS) in downtown Raleigh tells two stories at once. One is about the natural world, from dinosaurs and whales to snakes, insects and the ecosystems that make North Carolina unique. The other is about how science actually works.

Across the pedestrian bridge in the Nature Research Center, visitors can look into working laboratories and meet researchers studying everything from biodiversity to climate, and of course watch work progressing on the fossilized remains of dueling dinosaurs. Science is presented as an ongoing process rather than a collection of facts in a textbook.

Visitors are invited not just to watch science happening but get involved as well in the Spy Training 101 activity in the museums hands-on Investigate Lab. Participants will use Revolutionary War-era tools and cyphers developed by Thomas Jefferson to reveal and decode a message hidden in invisible ink.

There's more to see and do a block away on the State Capitol grounds from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 4 as NCMNS joins the NC Zoo and North Carolina Aquariums  for the Capitol 250: North Carolina Freedom Fest Freedom Fest

A few miles north of downtown Durham, the Museum of Life and Science is also open daily 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., including July 4. However, the museum's outdoor playgrounds and exhibits across its 84 acres probably won't be as popular as temperatures soar into the upper 90s.

A 20-foot waterfall that demonstrates how water changes rock over time, however, will be very popular. Visitors can experiment with dams and erosion, and their parents are encouraged to bring a change of clothes.

Back indoors in the air conditioning, exhibits on aerospace, insects and other wildlife across the Carolinas, plus math and inventions, will keep everyone engaged. Check the museum’s website for drop-in programs throughout the day.

Long before astronauts flew to the Moon, many of them spent time beneath the dome at Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill learning celestial navigation. That history is still part of every visit.

Today’s digital projection systems can transport audiences from the surface of Mars to the edge of the observable universe while explaining the science behind what they’re seeing.

The holiday weekend schedule includes five shows on Saturday and three on Sunday for visitors of different ages, with programs exploring the night sky, the solar system, dark mater and black holes. All planetarium show tickets include entry into Morehead’s interactive exhibits on UNC’s contributions to research in physics and astronomy as well as other science departments.

Look for an exhibit featuring biologist, UNC Chapel Hill alumna and NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. Morehead is closed on Friday but is open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.