Chance's Corner: Texas Traveler - Ross Perot Museum

It's been awhile since I've been out and about in the great state of Texas (library duty calls!), but I managed to sneak out for the weekend and visit the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. Maybe you've seen it sitting amongst the iconic Dallas skyline. It's pretty much a work of modern art designed by world-renowned architect Thom Mayne.

 

 
Impressive, huh? That's just the outside! Inside the Perot Museum is a world of wonder. Stairs play music as you take each step, water molecules hanging overhead move as they detect your presence, and an entire wall lights up as you touch it. Those aren't even the main exhibits! Sorry for all the exclamation, but the Perot Museum is just a really exciting place.
 
The Perot Museum has 11 permanent exhibit halls. They are:
 

• The Moody Family Children's Museum
• This exhibit is reserved only for families with kids who are 5 years old or younger, and features a playground modeled after the Dallas skyline.

 

 

• Lamar Hunt Family Sports Hall
• You can test your reflexes, watch yourself move in slow motion or even race against a T-Rex in this exhibit dedicated to your body and motion.

 

• Discovering Life Hall
• Take a whiff of a Magnolia bloom, Texas mountain laurel, a skunk or coyote urine in this exhibit featuring the different type of animals that can be found in Texas.

Even the benches teach you something.

 

• Being Human Hall
• Check your pulse rate, look at your veins or find your hot and cold spots via a thermal scanner in this exhibit dedicated to your body.

 
 

• Texas Instruments Engineering and Innovation Hall
• Play with robots, use your brain waves to move ping pong balls, create music and much more in this exhibit featuring the ideas of tomorrow.

Wooden blocks mold to the shape of my body via a motion capture camera.

 

• The Rees-Jones Foundation Dynamic Earth Hall
• Here, you can experience the sensation of being caught in an earthquake or even stick your hand in the middle of a small tornado.

 

• Tom Hunt Energy Hall
• What other resources can we use to generate energy and gas? Solar? Wind? Hydro? Learn about it here!

 

• Lyda Hill Gems and Minerals Hall
• Gems and minerals sparkle and gleam in this exhibit, but the centerpiece is a HUGE purple geode.

 

• Expanding Universe Hall
• Travel through space!

 

• T. Boone Pickens Life Then and Now Hall
• Dinosaurs roam this hall. Watch out!

 

 
 

• Rose Hall of Birds
• Check out the different species of birds in Texas and create your very own species.

 

The reason I enjoyed the Perot Museum so much is because it's very interactive... very hand's on. You have so much fun that you almost forget that you're learning something. I hope you get to check it out for yourself one day!