Greensboro Science Center Opens Immersive Rainforest Adventure Maze This Spring

The Greensboro Science Center on Lawndale Drive added its most physical exhibit in years last week: Rainforest Adventure, a fully interactive traveling maze that invites visitors to climb, crawl, and swing their way through the layered canopy of a tropical rainforest. Crucially for families, the experience carries no surcharge; admission is folded into the center's standard general admission ticket or covered by an existing GSC membership.

GSC members got a one-day preview on March 31. The exhibit opened to the public on April 1 at 9 a.m., and the center runs daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 4301 Lawndale Drive.

The maze's physical design is its sharpest departure from conventional exhibit formats. Guests can swing like a spider monkey, ride a butterfly zip-line, and encounter facts about rainforest species, including a rodent that tips the scales at more than 100 pounds. Martha Regester, the center's Vice President of Education, highlighted the bird life guests should expect. "You're going to be learning a lot more about birds just as colorful as our flamingos, but from the tropics," Regester said. Discovery stations throughout the maze weave in lessons on food webs, plant adaptations, and the role tropical forests play in global climate stability.

For families using SNAP, EBT, or WIC benefits, the center offers a same-day, in-person discount that brings general admission down to $7 for adults and $6 for children. School groups of 10 or more pay a flat rate of $18 per person, while Guilford County Public Schools qualify for a further-reduced rate of $15 per student, making Rainforest Adventure a feasible weekday field trip for county classrooms. Educators can reach the center's team at learn@greensboroscience.org or 336-288-3769.

The exhibit also connects to a far larger rainforest project under construction on the same campus. Expedition Rainforest, a roughly $30 million biodome backed in part by a bond initiative Greensboro voters approved in 2022, is expected to welcome guests in September 2026. The five-story structure will permanently house sloths, toucans, and clouded leopards in a naturally lit immersive setting. The traveling maze offers Guilford County families and school groups a first look at that ecosystem while construction continues.

Families looking to extend the learning beyond their visit can connect with the GSC's ecoEXPLORE program, a partnership with the N.C. Arboretum that sends kids into their own backyards to document local wildlife as citizen scientists. Details on teacher resources, group visit logistics, and the exhibit's full run are available on the center's website.