Science Museum's Hands-on Exhibits

Science Museum's Hands-on Exhibits

The Fort Worth Museum

of Science and History

Science Museum's Hands-on

Exhibits Let Visitors See Dinos,

Reach for the Stars

by Kelly Melhart

From the Editor: The following article

appeared in the June 22, 1997, edition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. It

gives families one more idea about things to do in the Dallas/Fort Worth area

before or after the convention this summer. The article is reprinted by courtesy

of the Fort Worth Star Telegram

At the edge of the Cultural District

a dinosaur has taken up residence at 1501 Montgomery Street, an Acrocanthosaurus

to be exact, a meat-eating dinosaur cousin to the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The fourteen-foot-tall,

40-foot-long dinosaur is part of the DinoDig exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum

of Science and History, one of eight permanent exhibits. The outdoor discovery

area allows children and adults to get their hands dirty while they dig for

imitation dinosaur bones.

Missy Matthews, marketing coordinator

for the museum, said all the exhibits are interactive and aid the learning

process. "Studies have shown that that's the way people learn," she

said. "When they can discover things for themselves, it is a much more

meaningful experience than reading a label."

Other hands-on exhibits include KIDSPACE;

Hands on Science;

History of Medicine; Your Body; IBM Calculators

and Computers;

Rocks and Fossils; and People and Their

Possessions, which includes the demonstration and discovery area, Hands on

History. The museum combines the mysteries of the past with the technologies

of the future to create a learning environment for children and adults, Matthews

said.

"We are science and history,"

she said. "We are an educational institution, and so our overall criterion

that the films and exhibits have to meet is to educate. "

The museum is also home to a 390-seat

Omni Theater, the Museum School, the Noble Planetarium, the Museum Store, and

the Courtyard Cafe.

The Omni shows educational films in a

state-of-the-art theater that houses an eighty-foot domed screen and a seventy-two-speaker

sound system. The science and nature films are shown for a limited time, but

the short footage that gives a stomach-dropping helicopter's-eye view of Fort

Worth precedes every show.

The Museum School on the lower level

of the museum offers instruction for children from preschool through the sixth

grade. Kit Goolsby, the museum's director of education, said the fifty-six-year-old

school has such a reputation that parents stand in line every fall and spring

to register their children in the unusual program.

"It is truly unique because it is

based on the collections in the museum," she said. "The hands-on

introduction to natural science, physical science, and history isn't possible

anywhere else where you don't have the collections to support the curriculum."

The museum is open seven days a week.

Admission to the exhibits is $5 for adults and $4 for children ages three to

twelve and seniors. An exhibit pass is good throughout the month in which it

is purchased. The exhibit pass does not include admission to the Omni or the

planetarium, but discounts are offered for admission to all three.

The Omni Theater is also open seven days

a week, and admission is $6 for adults and $3 for children and seniors. The

Noble Planetarium offers shows Wednesday through Sunday. Cost is $3. Museum

parking is free and is located in the Cultural District parking area on the

west side of the Will Rogers Memorial Center.