Greensboro Science Center in North Carolina, US is about to undergo a massive US$25m (€18.6m, £15m) expansion, renovating its indoor museum and doubling the size of its outdoor zoo.

The centre, which houses the museum, planetarium, zoo and aquarium, welcomed more than 430,000 visitors through its doors last year, with predictions of tipping half a million by the end of 2014.

Renovations on the museum will start in 2015, modernising parts of the museum last worked on in the 1970s. The first of three areas – Prehistoric Passages: Realm of Dragons – will feature dinosaurs in an area that will be app-friendly, with visitors able to use their smartphones and tablets to look at elements of the exhibition come to life. For example, a visitor might point their device at a dinosaur egg and see a video of the egg hatching and baby dinosaur coming to life. The area will also house live komodo dragons, while robotic dragonflies will be hovering overhead.

The second area – Wunderworld: Denizens of the Dark – will be a biological and geological exhibit allowing visitors to explore subterranean areas, featuring scorpions, snakes and subterranean creatures.

A third area, designed for youth scientists and known as SciPlayBay, will feature interactive characters talking to the children, a submarine climbing structure and a kite-flying simulator.

The museum renovations will happen over a two-year period at a cost of US$6m (€4.5m, £3.6m).

The Discovery Zoo will double in size – from 12 to 24 acres – costing an estimated US$10m (€7.5m, £6m). A new section – Rainbow River Gorge – will highlight the sights, sounds, colours and survival of various endangered species, with new animals including okapi, a small giraffe found in the Congo, snow leopards, pygmy hippos and cassowary birds. The Nile crocodile and tigers already in the zoo will be moved to the new area, too.

Construction will be funded by a combination of private donors and a US$20m (€14.9m, £11.9m) bond passed by a vote in 2009.