Science Museum of Minnesota
Encyclopedia
The Science Museum of Minnesota is an American museum
focused on topics in technology
, natural history
, physical science
and mathematics
education. Founded in 1907 and located in Saint Paul
, Minnesota
, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution is staffed by over 500 employees and over 1,600 volunteers. The museum's mission statement, "Turn on the science: realizing the potential of policy makers, educators, and individuals to achieve full civic and economic participation in the world", reflects its intention to foster science citizenship for all its publics.
There are a number of exhibits that are always in the museum, including:
theater, with both a wall screen for IMAX
films and other flat presentations, and a rotatable dome
for viewing Omnitheater films, the first such convertible theater in the Northern Hemisphere. The domed screen can be rotated around the theater to reveal the IMAX screen. The counterweight
s for the system were so massive that they had to be put in place before the rest of the building. The theaters boasts "the largest permanently installed electronic cinema projector in the world," an advanced computer system to coordinate the theater's facilities, and a complex sound system to accommodate both viewing formats, according to the website.
The museum has been a leading producer of Omnitheater films, with ten to its credit so far:
Powers of Nature (2000)
Kinetosaurs (2000)
When the Dinosaurs Were Gone (2000)
Sue the T-Rex (2000)
Scream Machines (2001)
Grossology (2001)
Mysteries of Catalhoyuk (2001)
Sharks: Fact and Fantasy (2001)
Playing with Time (2002)
Magic: The Science of Illusion (2002)
Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga (2002)
Circus! (2003)
Glow (2003)
CSI: Crime Scene Insects (2003)
Robots and Us (2004)
of Life and Land (2004)
Chinasaurs (2004)
Animal Grossology (2005)
Invention at Play (2005)
Cabaret Mechanical Theater (2005)
Strange Matter (2006)
Body Worlds (2006)
Race: Are We So Different? (2007)
Wild Music (2007)
A Day in Pompeii (2007)
Deadly Medicine (2008)
Animation (2008)
Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination (2008)
CSI: The Experience (2008)
Goose Bumps! The Science of Fear (2009)
Water (2009)
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition(2009)
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Words that Changed the World (2010)
Geometry Playground (2010)
Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs (2011)
Visitor Center for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
. Mississippi River exhibits and National Park Rangers are available to help people learn about and experience the Mississippi River. The visitor center is also equipped with resources to help plan trips to any of the more than 390 National Parks. Entrance into the Mississippi River Visitor Center is always free.
s, ethnologists, and archivist
s. Researchers visit the vault to take advantage of the unique collection, but it is not open to regular museum visitors.
(the Java Lab) is located outside the Omnitheater's entrance in the museum lobby. The Elements Cafe offers a full menu, including grill and deli options, pizza, and specialty foods. Chomp, located outside the Dinosaurs and Fossils gallery, serves many cafeteria-style foods. The Elements Cafe and the Java Lab are both open to the public without purchasing museum admission.
s. Visitors wear clear polarized glasses to view short films with a vivid 3D effect. The museum has also produced films for this medium, beginning with Mars 3D, which features images from the Mars Rovers. The theater closed in 2007 as the new format did not catch on in other markets.
which is located approximately 30 miles (48.3 km) offsite in Washington County
. The center provides natural history education opportunities for all ages on over 600 acres (2.4 km²) of lakes, bogs, woodlands and grasslands.
. The new building is larger and better equipped to handle the demands of large group visits and includes bigger facilities for the education division and exhibit galleries.
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
focused on topics in technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, physical science
Physical science
Physical science is an encompassing term for the branches of natural science and science that study non-living systems, in contrast to the life sciences...
and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
education. Founded in 1907 and located in Saint Paul
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution is staffed by over 500 employees and over 1,600 volunteers. The museum's mission statement, "Turn on the science: realizing the potential of policy makers, educators, and individuals to achieve full civic and economic participation in the world", reflects its intention to foster science citizenship for all its publics.
Permanent Exhibits
- The Dinosaurs and Fossils Gallery showcases several real and replicated dinosaurDinosaurDinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
skeletonSkeletonThe skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
s, as well as many complete and preserved animals. Some highlights include a TriceratopsTriceratopsTriceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Paleogene...
, DiplodocusDiplodocusDiplodocus , or )is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a Neo-Latin term derived from Greek "double" and "beam", in reference to its double-beamed chevron bones...
, AllosaurusAllosaurusAllosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard". It is derived from the Greek /allos and /sauros...
, StegosaurusStegosaurusStegosaurus is a genus of armored stegosaurid dinosaur. They lived during the Late Jurassic period , some 155 to 150 million years ago in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well...
, and CamptosaurusCamptosaurusCamptosaurus is a genus of plant-eating, beaked ornithischian dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic period of western North America. The name means 'flexible lizard', ....
. - The Human Body Gallery shows visitors the various tissueBiological tissueTissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. A tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function. These are called tissues because of their identical functioning...
s, organOrgan (anatomy)In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function. Usually there is a main tissue and sporadic tissues . The main tissue is the one that is unique for the specific organ. For example, main tissue in the heart is the myocardium, while sporadic are...
s, and systems (such as blood or digestion) that make up the human body. Visitors can extract DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
and perform other science experiments in the Cell Lab. - The Experiment Gallery allows visitors to explore concepts in physics, math, and physical and earth science with interactive displays.
- The Collections Gallery gives visitors a glimpse of what's stored in the museum's Collections Vault. It includes many preserved specimens and cultural artifacts, as well as the Collectors' Corner. Traders (primarily children) bring in natural artifacts they have found to trade them for points or another artifact. (More information is in the Collectors' Corner section of the museum's website.) The Collections Gallery also holds the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, which the museum acquired in 2002 when its original owner Bob McCoy retired and donated the collection.
- The Mississippi River Gallery takes advantage of the Museum's proximity to the river, and a National Park, to educate visitors about its natural resources. Visitors can learn about the environment and animals of the river.
- The Big Back Yard is an outdoor exhibit that contains information and interactive displays on earth science. A mini golf course lets visitors explore erosionErosionErosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
, pollutionPollutionPollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
, and water movement up close. The Science House is a zero emissionZero emissionZero emission refers to an engine, motor, or other energy source, that emits no waste products that pollutes the environment or disrupts the climate.-Zero emission engines:...
building aimed at educating visitors about renewable energyRenewable energyRenewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
and energy conservation. - Science Buzz is an exhibit where you can dig deeper into science headlines. It is constantly changing and has a presence in each gallery of the museum.
The Omnitheater
The new building has a dual-screen IMAX/OmnimaxIMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
theater, with both a wall screen for IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
films and other flat presentations, and a rotatable dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
for viewing Omnitheater films, the first such convertible theater in the Northern Hemisphere. The domed screen can be rotated around the theater to reveal the IMAX screen. The counterweight
Counterweight
A counterweight is an equivalent counterbalancing weight that balances a load.-Uses:A counterweight is often used in traction lifts , cranes and funfair rides...
s for the system were so massive that they had to be put in place before the rest of the building. The theaters boasts "the largest permanently installed electronic cinema projector in the world," an advanced computer system to coordinate the theater's facilities, and a complex sound system to accommodate both viewing formats, according to the website.
The museum has been a leading producer of Omnitheater films, with ten to its credit so far:
- Genesis (1978)
- Living Planet (1979)
- The Great Barrier Reef (1981)
- Darwin on the Galapagos (1983)
- Seasons (1987)
- Ring of Fire (1991)
- Tropical Rainforest (1992)
- Search for the Great Sharks (1995)
- The Greatest Places (1998)
- Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees (2002)
- "Mummies: Secrets of the Pharoahs" (2011)
- "AmazonAmazon BasinThe Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...
" (2011)
Special Exhibitions
The museum hosts 3-4 special exhibitions a year. Past exhibitions have included:Powers of Nature (2000)
Kinetosaurs (2000)
When the Dinosaurs Were Gone (2000)
Sue the T-Rex (2000)
Scream Machines (2001)
Grossology (2001)
Mysteries of Catalhoyuk (2001)
Sharks: Fact and Fantasy (2001)
Playing with Time (2002)
Magic: The Science of Illusion (2002)
Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga (2002)
Circus! (2003)
Glow (2003)
CSI: Crime Scene Insects (2003)
Robots and Us (2004)
of Life and Land (2004)
Chinasaurs (2004)
Animal Grossology (2005)
Invention at Play (2005)
Cabaret Mechanical Theater (2005)
Strange Matter (2006)
Body Worlds (2006)
Race: Are We So Different? (2007)
Wild Music (2007)
A Day in Pompeii (2007)
Deadly Medicine (2008)
Animation (2008)
Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination (2008)
CSI: The Experience (2008)
Goose Bumps! The Science of Fear (2009)
Water (2009)
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition(2009)
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Words that Changed the World (2010)
Geometry Playground (2010)
Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs (2011)
Mississippi River Visitor Center
Inside the lobby of the Science Museum is the National Park ServiceNational Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
Visitor Center for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area protects a and corridor along the Mississippi River from the cities of Dayton and Ramsey, Minnesota to just downstream of Hastings, Minnesota. This includes the stretch of Mississippi River which flows through Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota...
. Mississippi River exhibits and National Park Rangers are available to help people learn about and experience the Mississippi River. The visitor center is also equipped with resources to help plan trips to any of the more than 390 National Parks. Entrance into the Mississippi River Visitor Center is always free.
The Collections Vault
The museum houses a collection of over 1.7 million artifacts and objects in its vault, ranging from dinosaur and other animal remains and fossils, preserved animals and plants, and cultural artifacts from extinct and extant civilizations. The collections division maintains a staff of scientists and researchers including paleontologists, archaeologists, ecologists, biologistBiologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
s, ethnologists, and archivist
Archivist
An archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...
s. Researchers visit the vault to take advantage of the unique collection, but it is not open to regular museum visitors.
Education
The museum also has an extensive education division. In addition to many on-site youth and family classes, day camps and summer camps, museum programs are also hosted at various schools throughout the region. Day classes and summer camps often involve science, technology, nature, and art themes. Overnight camp-ins let large groups sleep on the exhibit floor and have time to explore the galleries and view an Omnifilm as a group. The museum is also one of the leading professional development resources for teachers in the state.Restaurants
Three locations in the museum offer food. A coffee shop shop that sells Caribou CoffeeCaribou Coffee
Caribou Coffee Company is a specialty coffee and espresso retailer, the second largest in the United States after Starbucks. Caribou sells coffee, tea, and bakery goods in 415 company-owned coffeehouses in 16 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 126 franchise locations worldwide.-...
(the Java Lab) is located outside the Omnitheater's entrance in the museum lobby. The Elements Cafe offers a full menu, including grill and deli options, pizza, and specialty foods. Chomp, located outside the Dinosaurs and Fossils gallery, serves many cafeteria-style foods. The Elements Cafe and the Java Lab are both open to the public without purchasing museum admission.
3-D Cinema
In addition to the Omnitheater, the museum has a cinema for showing digitally-projected 3-D film3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
s. Visitors wear clear polarized glasses to view short films with a vivid 3D effect. The museum has also produced films for this medium, beginning with Mars 3D, which features images from the Mars Rovers. The theater closed in 2007 as the new format did not catch on in other markets.
Lee and Rose Warner Nature Center
The museum is associated with the Lee and Rose Warner Nature CenterLee and Rose Warner Nature Center
The Lee and Rose Warner Nature Center is an outdoor education facility with a focus on natural history. It is located in northern Washington County about northeast of St. Paul, Minnesota. Warner was the first private nature center in the state of Minnesota...
which is located approximately 30 miles (48.3 km) offsite in Washington County
Washington County, Minnesota
Washington County is a county established in 1849 in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of 2010, the population was 238,136. Its county seat is Stillwater.-History:...
. The center provides natural history education opportunities for all ages on over 600 acres (2.4 km²) of lakes, bogs, woodlands and grasslands.
Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center
The Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (YSC) is an informal learning environment for young people ages 11-18 at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The mission of the KAYSC is to, "empower youth to change our world through science." Although there are some volunteers in the KAYSC who are too young for jobs, most of the teens in the KAYSC are actual museum employees, engaging in activities ranging from staffing the Cell Lab on the museum floor to engaging in community activism around urban agriculture and climate change. The teens are guided and mentored in science, technology, work, and life skills by the adult staff.Location
Until 1999, the museum was located on Wabasha Street in downtown Saint Paul, but in that year the museum moved to a new complex built into a bluff overlooking the Mississippi RiverMississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. The new building is larger and better equipped to handle the demands of large group visits and includes bigger facilities for the education division and exhibit galleries.