Mokupāpapa Discovery Center — Attraction in Hawaii

I was a chaperone for my daughters 5th grade trip for a school from O'ahu and their first stop arriving to Hilo was this discovery center. Getting to the location was very easy and our group with seven vans were able to find free street parking. Once inside we were greeted by friendly staffers (I don't recall their names) who quickly gained the interest of the group of about 50 students and adults explaining the major and minor islands as well as the exhibits on the first floor. The group was taken upstairs and shown a brief video about the albatross and then were given a hands-on activity to separate the non-natural food from the natural foods the albatross chicks would ingest. What a great way for them to understand how to be careful about their trash and the impact they have upon our environment and the creatures they share the islands with. The clean center and cold AC was really nice to enjoy but the most important part of the whole experience was the educational learning. Definitely age appropriate and...

The remote northwestern islands of the Hawaiian archipelago possess an incredible variety of wildlife and are home to the largest fully protected conservation area in the United States.

And since most people will never be able to experience this region firsthand, in 2003 the Mokupāpapa Discovery Center was founded to foster public awareness and bring ocean conservation issues to light.

The center is in the historic Koehnen building, dating back more than a century, with Hawaiian hardwood floors and a beautiful koa staircase.

The exhibition includes lots of interpretive panels going into the region’s biodiversity, artwork inspired by Hawaiian culture and authentic ambient sound.

The showpiece is a 3,500-gallon saltwater aquarium displaying some of the species inhabiting the coral reefs in the...

Nice little free museum with a single, excellent large aquarium tank. There isn't much as far as hands on learning. Most of the displays are television sets playing looped recordings. Still, it's free and it has things worth learning. I liked that the displays were all in both Hawaiian and English. Staff wasn't friendly, and didn't say aloha upon entry or exit. Upstairs has a really cool Polynesian ship, but it was closed so the kids couldn't check it out. There was also a neat upcycled art display and a cool looking robotics area, but the robotics was only open Saturdays. If we had paid an entry fee, I would have been disappointed. Since it is free though, it's worth checking out and giving a small donation. Plan on spending about an hour here, unless you come when the robotics...