FCMoD Blog

Upcoming events for the month of December: Click on the links provided for detailed information

• (OFFSITE) December 8, 2025 – Join us offsite at the Cultural Enrichment Center for Youth Open Mic Night from 5:30 PM to 8 PM! For You By You is an Open Mic Night for emerging artists 22 and under. FCMoD invites participants to practice their songs, meet new band mates, and get involved in the local music scene with professional head shots and industry resources provided by FocoMA. Entry is free and instruments are provided. Find your voice, Find your people, and Find your stage.
• December 9, 2025 – Tuesday Night Live: Digital Earth: Energy in our Daily Lives
  (6:30 PM to 8 PM) Our friends Dr. KaChun Yu and Bob Raynolds from Denver Museum of Nature and Science will talk about the production & transmission of energy to our communities. This is a pay-what-you-can event and space is limited. Get your tickets today!
• December 9 is also Colorado Gives Day – your support allows us to continue to serve as a community hub that reflects the vibrancy of Northern Colorado. Donate today to support our mission! 💕
• December 17, 2025 – Members, get ready! We’re revving up to Frosted FCMoD: Member Winter Party 2025! Join us on this special date to celebrate you, our members, with after hours fun at the museum. More details coming soon!
• December 22, 2025 – Need something to do with visiting family? The museum will be open from 9 AM to 5 PM this Monday for Winter Break! If our parking lot is full over Winter Break, Downtown parking structures are free every Saturday from Nov. 29 – Jan. 3 (and always free on Sundays)!
• December 24 & 25, 2025 – The museum will be closed for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We will re-open on Friday for our regular business hours.
• December 27, 2025 – Please note there will be no Meet the Animals this Saturday.
• December 29, 2025 – We will once again be open this Monday from 9 AM to 5 PM!
• January 1, 2026 – The museum will be closed for New Year’s Day, but we’ll be back to normal hours on Friday.
• January 5, 2026 – School Day Out Camps feature a full day of STEAM-based activities with a professional team to lead the way and a fun environment to learn and discover.  We will explore a theme of the day which includes topics such as music, animals, science, history, and much, much more all while making friends and having fun!

Our Black-footed Ferret Feedings happen the first and third Saturday of every month starting at 9:30 am. At 10am on the second and fourth Saturday every month you can Meet the Animals in our live animal exhibits. As always, we’ve got Dome Shows six days a week in the Otterbox Digital Dome Theater all month long.

• Event dates and times are subject to change, please check our museum calendar for the most up-to-date information.

Check out our upcoming events for the month of November! Click on the links provided for detailed information:

• October 14 – November 16, 2025 – In celebration of Dia de Muertos, FCMoD is honored to welcome back mini alters, created and shared by members of the community, in honor of those who are no longer physically with us. This exhibit is on view during our regular business hours.
• November 1, 2025 – From 11 AM to 1 PM the Northern Colorado Astronomical Society (NCAS) will be on-site with their solar telescopes to provide a safe way to observe our galaxy’s sun!
• November 10, 2025 –Youth Open Mic Night from 5 PM to 8 PM For You By You is an Open Mic Night for emerging artists 22 and under. FCMoD invites participants to practice their songs, meet new band mates, and get involved in the local music scene with professional head shots and industry resources provided by FocoMA. Entry is free and instruments are provided. Find your voice, Find your people, and Find your stage!
• November 19, 2025 – The Musician Town Hall (5:30 PM – 8 PM) provides a venue for music leaders from across the Front Range to talk about what’s happening in their music scenes. Make connections with musicians, enjoy free dinner, and let’s hear about ways to make the greater music scene stronger for all. This is a free event, but please sign up by clicking the link above.
• November 21, 2025 – This Monthly Member Night from 5 PM to 8PM, we will be collecting food and clothing donations in partnership with Homeward Alliance. Please see the list of acceptable items in the Monthly Member Night link above. Free entry for members (*general public who bring one donation item per person can gain free entry for this event).
• November 22, 2025 – Join us for a live local music performance in the Woodward Special Exhibition Gallery, featuring Zimbabwean musician, singer, and songwriter Blessing “Bled” Chimanga. Tickets are $22 pre-sale, $25 week of the event. Doors will open at 6:30 PM and the performance will start at 7:00 PM.
• November 24, 2025 – Bring your friends! Bring your family! The museum will be open from 9 AM to 5 PM this Monday for Thanksgiving Break! *Please note: Dome shows will be unavailable on November 24 and November 25 due to scheduled maintenance. Thank you for your understanding.
• November 27, 2025 – The museum will be closed for Thanksgiving. We will re-open on Friday for our regular business hours.

Our Black-footed Ferret Feedings happen the first and third Saturday of every month starting at 9:30 am. At 10am on the second and fourth Saturday every month you can Meet the Animals in our live animal exhibits. As always, we’ve got Dome Shows six days a week in the Otterbox Digital Dome Theater all month long.

• Event dates and times are subject to change, please check our museum calendar for the most up-to-date information.

We have a few great events for the month of August! Click the links below for specific dates and times. Here’s a quick round up:

• August 26, 2025 – Tuesday Night Live: Bring Nature to the City and be a Habitat Hero! While the Nature All Around Us exhibit is almost done,  you can continue to bring and keep nature all around you and your community and be a hero for wildlife habitat right here in Fort Collins! Come learn how to support birds, pollinators, and other wildlife in your own yard, patio, and community spaces with the City of Fort Collins Nature in the City program and the Audubon Rockies’ Habitat Hero program. Doors open at 5:30 pm. 
• August 29, 2025 – Party Like it’s 1999 in the Dome Theater with showings at 6:30 and 8:00 pm. Meet fellow fans, participate in a fun craft, dress up for our photo booth, and listen to your favorite Prince tracks in full surround sound paired with mind-melting overhead projections. Snacks for purchase, cash bar and mocktails available too!
• August 31, 2025 – This is the last day to come see Nature All Around Us!

Our Black-footed Ferret Feedings happen the first and third Saturday of every month starting at 9:30 am. At 10am on the second and fourth Saturday every month you can Meet the Animals in our live animal exhibits. As always, we’ve got Dome Shows six days a week in the Otterbox Digital Dome Theater all month long.

It’s a great time to come visit the museum!

• Event dates and times are subject to change, please check our museum calendar for the most up-to-date information.

Calling all photographers!

FCMoD is hosting a nature photography contest and 15 people will win a free Membership! The Nature Photographers All Around Us Photo Contest celebrates the rich biodiversity of our area and the camera skills of our community. This friendly competition encourages you to get out in nature and take pics with whatever camera/phone you have at hand. In keeping with the themes of our special exhibition, Nature All Around Us, we’ll have five submission categories (Yards & Gardens, Urban Forests, Parks & Open Spaces, Rivers & Streams, Main Street) and three age brackets (youth 12 years and under, teens aged 13-19 and adult 20+).

The top submission in each category/bracket will win a free year-long Membership to the museum! That’s 15 Memberships up for grabs!

Submissions process is open now through July 20th!

Learn more and submit photos HERE.

We’ve got many great opportunities to come engage at FCMoD this month. Click the links below for specific dates and times. Here’s a quick round up:

• June 19^th, 2025 – Museum Closed
• June 20^th, 2025 – Member Appreciation Party! At FCMoD, we are always very grateful for our members, so please join us for a night of nature-themed fun to thank you for your support. We invite you and your loved ones to enjoy snacks (limited on a first-come, first-serve basis), drinks, and tons of family-friendly activities. We can’t wait to celebrate with you!
• June 25^th, 2025 – Bike to Work Day – City of Fort Collins Stop by the museum on your ride to work to grab a little treat and enter to win some great prizes.
• June 27^th, 2025 – Tickets are still available for the Pink Pony Party featuring the music of Chappell Roan with showings at 6:30 and 8:00 pm. Meet fellow fans, dress up for our photobooth, and listen to your favorite Chappell Roan tracks in full surround sound paired with mind-melting overhead projections in the Otterbox Digital Dome.

Our Black-footed Ferret Feedings happen the first and third Saturday of every month starting at 9:30 am. At 10am on the second and fourth Saturday every month you can Meet the Animals in our live animal exhibits. Every Saturday at 1pm you can stop by for “Tonight’s Sky” a live presenter Planetarium Show exploring what planets and constellations we’ll see in our region this month. And as always, we’ve got Dome Shows six days a week in the Otterbox Digital Dome Theater all month long.

It’s a great time to come visit the museum!

• Event dates and times are subject to change, please check our museum calendar for the most up-to-date information.

 Digital Earth:  Colorado’s Groundwater: Our Hidden treasure

         Fort Collins Museum of Discovery Tuesday 24 June 2025

Join us on for Colorado’s Groundwater: Our Hidden Treasure, another mesmerizing Tuesday Night Live event on June 24^th when we present Colorado’s Groundwater: Our Hidden Treasure. KaChun Yu and Bob Raynolds of the Denver Museum of Science & Nature will reveal Colorado’s best kept water secret – groundwater! Yu and Raynolds will introduce us to Colorado’s Ogallala and Araphoe aquifers – finite resources that are rapidly diminishing. Using immersive imagery, we will discuss where this is heading and how these resources can be managed more sustainably.

The Ogallala aquifer irrigates corn used as feedstock for cattle, pigs and ethanol plants. In the 1930’s farmers hoped rain would follow the plow, but their square fields dried up and blew away with the wind. Discovery of the Ogallala, coupled with center pivot and centrifugal pump technology, allowed green crop circles to appear. Falling water levels, coupled with diminished flows and obligations to downstream states are forcing abandonment of these center pivot wells. The farming culture and economy is on the cusp of a transition to non-irrigated, no-till farming. This will involve high tech precision ag and farm consolidation. The circular fields are reverting to squares. Our program features space and ground-based imagery of these patterns.

South of Denver, the 2000 feet deep Arapahoe aquifer occurs in a buried alluvial fan that fed into the Denver Basin 68 million years. Water pumped from this aquifer allowed the rapid growth of communities like Parker and Castle Rock.  Water levels fell precipitously (up to 30 feet per year) until the aquifer transitioned from confined to unconfined conditions.

Continued fall and dwindling production rates will increase pumping costs. Alternative sources of water will need to be found. High tech water recycling coupled with conservation and regional cooperation are already showing the way.

This talk features 3D modeling of the aquifer and discussions of geologic settings in Bolivia that furthered our understanding of the subsurface geology and geometry of this important aquifer.

This event is Pay What You Can. Please register HERE.

See you at the Museum!