Nature on Display

The exhibit in the museum that really immersed me into the history of the Earth was the Hall of Florida Fossils. It was so neat seeing all of bones of the animals that are extinct now. Although I never got to see them while they were alive on earth, the fossils and pictures truly brought them to life and let me understand the history of the earth a little better. Seeing the ginormous fossil of the giant ground sloth simply amazed me. When I think of sloths I think of the creatures I can easily hold in my hand; however this extinct animal was 3 times my height and I couldn't believe it. It was fossils like these that made the fossil exhibit my favorite. It really jotted my curiosity and let my imagination run wild about how these magnificent animals lived thousands of years ago.

Nature and Ethics

The exhibit which helped me "love, respect, and admire the land", as Leopold would say, was the butterfly exhibit. It was here where I could truly view myself as apart of the "biotic community" because nature was everywhere. The butterflies were not disturbed by me at all, and seemed as though they were just living with me. I felt happy and sensed serenity in the butterfly exhibit because everything was so peaceful. The sound of the waterfalls and leaves blowing in the wind made me wish I could feel like this everywhere I went. This part of the museum really made me start thinking about how us humans take advantage of the environment and treat nature like we own it. I now see how this is ethically wrong and we need to work harder to preserve lands and create safe areas for animals and insects, such as this butterfly exhibit.

Nature and the Human Spirit

One exhibit in the museum that really let me spiritually connect with animals was the underwater estuary exhibit. The animals were blown up to 100 times their size so it made it seem like I was truly living with them. This amazed me because this exhibit let me understand how these creatures see the world compared to humans. It let me step out of my ordinary life and into a world where I could see things differently. It made me grow curious as to what the ocean world was like beyond just the estuary, I want to see what it's like in the deep ocean. This exhibit help me understand the animals of the ocean better because I saw what they saw.