Science is Cool

While I'm waiting on The Boy's surgery, I thought I'd write a quick post about what I was doing the day The Devastating Injury happened: Touring the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

 

Courtesy of a colleague, I was given a preview pass to tour the museum prior to its grand opening.

 

Rather than going in-depth about the museum, I thought I'd take you on a brief walk-through to show you some of the cool aspects and displays.

The sculpture in the lobby is a representation of water molecules. Cool looking, yes, but even cooler when you walk underneath and the molecules begin swinging to follow your path.

The escalator that juts out from the side of the building takes you from the lobby to the fourth floor. You not only have glimpses of Dallas (both downtown and uptown), but see a representation of the Texas landscape on the outdoor garden deck. Facts and figures about the museum's physical structure are etched into the windows.

Our first major "WOW" experience happened when we walked into the Life Then and Now Hall. Look at those fossils!!! Several of them were discovered by amateur palentologists.

 

In the Hall of Birds, we put on 3-D glasses and flew like an eagle. This was majorly cool.

In the Dynamic Earth Hall, we examined the properties of water (ice-water-steam) in a very elegant compact display.

And we also saw a tornado in action - we could even touch it.

Plus we were able to pretend we were weather forecasters. Fun stuff.

The next huge "WOW" experience was walking into the Gems and Minerals Hall. The minerals were displayed like expensive jewels. A giant "grape jelly geode" looks like a massive boulder until you spin a wheel, cracking the geode open to display an unbelievable purple crystal interior.

The Discovering Life Hall featured animal and plant life, focused primarily on Texas flora and fauna.

The Being Human Hall is highly interactive. I worked a robotic hand using my arm muscles and tested my heartrate.

I also looked at the veins in my hands. Cool! (The Boy thought this was gross.)

There were a million other things to do. Really.

I had to breeze through the Engineering and Innovation Hall, glanced in the Children's Museum and didn't get to spend anytime in the Sports Hall (regretfully - I hear I could have virtually raced a dinosaur and a Dallas Cowboy.)

The Museum is an incredibly cool experience for children and grown-ups alike. Just don't try to do it all in a few hours - or even in one day. In my opinion, you should buy an annual pass and go multiple times, concentrating on one exhibit hall per visit.

Well done, Dallas. Very, very well done.