INVESTIGATION STATION INC

Investigation Station is a completely volunteer run, non-profit which receives no funding from an umbrella organization, that brings free, leisure education opportunities to the residents and visitors of Pasco to experience on their own schedules. We work with local businesses and leaders to create our home-grown exhibits, doing things Pasco-style.
Started in 2005, this traveling children’s museum is currently a mobile museum without a building. It has 501(c)(3) status from the IRS and is considered a nonprofit charity. There are 6 board members that help run the organization and about a dozen at-large volunteers that staff exhibits and help with museum events around Pasco. The museum’s vision is to create, with the support of the community at large, a positive, educational experience for children and adults to learn from interactive exhibits as well as from one another. Investigation Station participated annually in the Great American Teach-In at Northwest Elementary School from 2007 to 2018 with its senses exhibit. The museum also participated in the Pasco County Employee Recognition Ceremony in December of 2008, March for Parks 2009, and Earth Days 2010 - 2017, Celebrate Youth Events 2017 - 2020. In 2019, the museum board decided to devote all of its resources to creating permanent interactive exhibits, accessible throughout the county.
To establish a permanent presence in the county, the goal is to create outdoor exhibits that do not require staffing.
Investigation Station's most significant contribution to Pasco County is From the Sun to Pluto, our one-mile scaled model of the solar system in Starkey Wilderness Park. It provides a mind and body experience, taking visitors along the bicycle path, from the sun, to each of the planets and the sub-planet Pluto. It demonstrates where the earth is in our solar system and how far apart the solar bodies are from the sun and one another. Beautiful artwork from a local artist, fun facts from NASA and interactive formulas stimulate the mind. The exhibit is free, convenient and completely created using Pasco County talent. Visitors of all ages have expressed their appreciation and admiration of this unique exhibit.
The STEM exhibit Kidstruction, a large variety of building blocks, construction ideas, wrecking ball and catapult, is a traveling exhibit among the branches of the Pasco County Library System.
Our current project, being built in a lower socio-economic part of the county, is an educational splash pad that features the steps in the water cycle. This exhibit will allow children to remain active outdoors even during the hottest months of the year, without risk of drowning and at no cost to the families, while seeing locally created artwork created to reflect the water cycle in the Florida's natural beauty. The museum board members are finishing up the construction of the Water Cycle Splash Pad at the Veterans Memorial Park this summer.
Our next project is a geologic/pre-historic timeline exhibit with the City of New Port Richey.