![]() | |
Established | 1907 |
---|---|
Location | 120 W. Kellogg Boulevard, Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States |
Coordinates | 44°56′33″N93°5′55″W / 44.94250°N 93.09861°W |
Type | Science museum |
President | Alison Rempel Brown |
Website | https://www.smm.org |
The Science Museum of Minnesota is a museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota, focused on topics in technology, natural history, physical science, and mathematics education. Founded in 1907, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution has 385 employees [1] and is supported by volunteers. [2]
A group of businessmen led by Charles W. Ames established the museum in 1906 with the aim to promote intellectual and scientific growth in St. Paul. Initially known as the St. Paul Institute of Science and Letters, it was initially housed at the St. Paul Auditorium on Fourth Street. A brief merger with the St. Paul School of Fine Arts (now the Minnesota Museum of American Art) occurred in 1909. [3] [4]
In 1927, the museum relocated to Merriam Mansion on Capitol Hill, which had previously been Colonel John Merriam's residence. This location offered increased exhibit storage space. Due to the museum's continued growth, it moved to the St. Paul-Ramsey Arts and Sciences Center at 30 East Tenth Street in 1964. In 1978, the museum expanded into a new area on Wabasha Street between 10th and Exchange Streets via a skyway connection, allowing for additional exhibit space and the addition of an IMAX Dome (OMNIMAX) cinema. [3]
In the early 1990s, plans for a new facility, adjacent to the Mississippi River, were formed with architecture firm Ellerbe Becket. [5] With aid from public funding initiatives, the new museum broke ground on May 1, 1997, and opened on December 11, 1999. During the move, 1.75 million artifacts were transported. [6]
In the early 2000s, the museum hosted several exhibits, including BODY WORLDS ; Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs; Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination ; Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship; and The Science Behind Pixar. It also added several films to its production roster, including Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees; Tornado Alley; National Parks Adventure; and Ancient Caves, and it built its exhibit production portfolio with exhibits like Robots + Us; A Day in Pompeii; RACE: Are We So Different?; Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed; SPACE: An Out of Gravity Experience; and Sportsology. The museum continues to provide exhibit development, design, and production services for other museums. [7]
Offerings change frequently, but several exhibits are always on display:
The Mississippi riverfront facility has a convertible dome IMAX theater. With both a wall screen for IMAX films and other flat-screen presentations and a rotating dome for viewing IMAX dome presentations, it was the first convertible theater in the northern hemisphere. The counterweights for the system were so massive that they had to be put in place before the rest of the building. When it opened in 1999, the theater boasted "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.
In summer 2019, the Omnitheater briefly closed to convert to digital laser technology. In October 2019, it reopened as the world's third-largest digital laser IMAX dome theater.
The museum is a leading producer of giant screen films, including:
The theater was briefly closed in early 2014 to repair a leaky roof. [9]
Inside the museum's lobby is the National Park Service Visitor Center for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, which is free of charge. Mississippi River exhibits and National Park Rangers are available to help people learn about and experience the river. The visitor center is also equipped with resources to plan trips to any of the more than 390 national parks.[ citation needed ]
Center for Research and Collections
The Science Museum's Center for Research and Collections staff maintain a collection of over 1.7 million artifacts, objects, and specimens and conduct research in biology, paleontology, anthropology, water quality, and climate change. They also conduct outreach with museum visitors, school groups, fellow researchers, and the general public. The museum’s collections are held in a storage vault. Items include dinosaurs and other fossils, preserved animals and plants, and cultural artifacts from extinct and extant civilizations. Researchers visit the vault to take advantage of the collection, but it is not open to regular museum visitors except during special events.
St. Croix Watershed Research Station
The St. Croix Watershed Research Station, in Marine-on-St. Croix, Minnesota, is part of the Science Museum’s Center for Research and Collections. [10] It is the museum’s headquarters for a team of scientists who study water around the world.
The Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) is an informal learning environment for young people. [11]
IDEAL Center
The museum is also home to the IDEAL (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access and Leadership) Center, [12] which has transformed from a primary professional development resource for educators in the state to a center that offers leadership development training to school districts, universities, and informal education organizations throughout the country.
The museum hosts several special exhibitions a year, with past exhibitions having included:
The Science Museum of Minnesota is a member of the Association of Science-Technology Centers, the American Alliance of Museums, the Association of Children’s Museums, and the Giant Screen Cinema Association. It is a founding member of NISE Net and participates in NanoDays .
The museum has an extensive STEM learning division. In addition to its summer camp and field trip programs, museum educators also visit schools throughout the region. The museum has a consistent track record of serving students and teachers in all 87 Minnesota counties each year through field trips, classroom residencies, and large-group assemblies on topics from water to engineering. [13] Summer camps serve hundreds of students each year, addressing science, technology, nature, and art themes.
The Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is a science and technology museum in Portland, Oregon, United States. It contains three auditoriums, including a large-screen theatre, planetarium, and exhibition halls with a variety of hands-on permanent exhibits focused on natural sciences, industry, and technology. Transient exhibits span a wider range of disciplines.
Pacific Science Center is an independent, nonprofit science center in Seattle with a mission to ignite curiosity and fuel a passion for discovery, experimentation, and critical thinking. Pacific Science Center serves more than 1 million people each year at its campus adjacent to Seattle Center, at the Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center in Bellevue, Washington, and in communities and classrooms across the state of Washington.
The Museum of Science (MoS) is a nature and science museum and indoor zoological establishment located in Science Park, a plot of land in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, spanning the Charles River. Along with over 700 interactive exhibits, the museum features a number of live and interactive presentations throughout the building each day, along with scheduled film showings at the Charles Hayden Planetarium and the Mugar Omni Theater. The Museum is a member of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). Additionally, the Museum of Science is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), being home to over 100 animals, many of which the museum gained after they were surrendered, confiscated, rescued or rehabilitated.
The Putnam Museum and Science Center, formerly Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, is a museum of history and natural science and a science center in Davenport, Iowa, United States. The museum was founded in 1867, and was one of the first museums west of the Mississippi River. It houses 160,000 historical artifacts and specimens and a giant screen theater. It is located at 1717 West 12th Street, at the corner of Division and West 12th Street on "museum hill," near Fejervary Park. It is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.
COSI, officially the Center of Science and Industry, is a science museum and research center in Columbus, Ohio. COSI was opened to the public on 29 March 1964 and remained there for 35 years. In 1999, COSI was moved to a 320,000-square-foot (30,000 m2) facility, designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki along a bend in the Scioto River in the Franklinton neighborhood. COSI features more than 300 interactive exhibits throughout themed exhibition areas.
The Fleet Science Center is a science museum and planetarium in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It is at the east end of the El Prado Drive walkway, next to the Bea Evenson Fountain and plaza in central Balboa Park.
Telus World of Science Edmonton (TWOSE) is a broad-based science centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, operated by the (non-profit) Edmonton Space & Science Foundation. The centre is located on the southwest corner of Coronation Park in the neighborhood of Woodcroft. The science centre houses 144,430 sq. ft. of public space and is the largest science centre in Western Canada. It is currently a member of both the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) and the Canadian Association of Science Centres (CASC).
The Great Lakes Science Center is a museum and educational facility in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Many of the exhibits document the features of the natural environment in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The facility includes signature (permanent) and traveling exhibits, meeting space, a cafe, and an IMAX Dome theater.
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and science museum in Denver, Colorado. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help museum visitors learn about the natural history of Colorado, Earth, and the universe. The 716,000-square-foot (66,519 m2) building houses more than one million objects in its collections including natural history and anthropological materials, as well as archival and library resources.
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the world's largest children's museum. It is located at 3000 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana in the United Northwest Area neighborhood of the city. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It is 472,900 square feet (43,933.85 m2) with five floors of exhibit halls and receives more than one million visitors annually. Its collection of over 130,000 artifacts and exhibit items is divided into two domains: Arts & Humanities and the Natural Sciences. Among the exhibits are simulated Cretaceous and Jurassic dinosaur habitats, a carousel, a steam locomotive, and the glass sculpture Fireworks of Glass Tower and Ceiling. The museum's focus is family learning; most exhibits are designed to be interactive, allowing children and families to actively participate.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science is a natural history museum located on the northern border of Hermann Park in Houston, Texas, United States. The museum was established in 1909 by the Houston Museum and Scientific Society, an organization whose goals were to provide a free institution for the people of Houston focusing on education and science. The museum complex consists of a central facility with four floors of natural science halls and exhibits, the Burke Baker Planetarium, the Cockrell Butterfly Center, and the Wortham Giant Screen Theatre. In 2022, the museum received 1,520,000 visitors, making it seventh on the List of most-visited museums in the United States, and was the third most-visited U.S. science museum. Much of the museum's popularity is attributed to its large number of special or guest exhibits.
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS) is a natural history museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. The museum is the oldest in the state, and the largest natural history museum in the Southeastern United States.
The Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC) is a museum in Rochester, New York, dedicated to community education in science, technology and local history. The museum also operates the Strasenburgh Planetarium, located next to the museum, and the Cumming Nature Center, a 900-acre (3.6 km2) nature preserve near Naples, New York. The museum resides at 657 East Ave. and has a collection of 1.2 million artifacts.
The Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center is a non-profit science center that promotes science learning through a variety of activities, including exhibits, Digital Dome movies, demonstrations, workshops and teacher professional development. Located in downtown Mobile, Alabama, Exploreum has several permanent galleries including Hands On Hall, the Wharf of Wonder, Curiosity Factory, and My BodyWorks - a health exhibit. The Exploreum also features interactive traveling exhibits, year-round with broad science content and supplementary, themed educational programming.
The Bell Museum, formerly known as the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History, is located at the University of Minnesota's Saint Paul campus. The museum's current location on the Saint Paul campus opened in 2018. The Minnesota wildlife dioramas showcase animal specimens from around the world. The museum also houses the digital Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Planetarium. The museum is part of the university's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. The museum's former location on University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus closed in January 2017.
The Orlando Science Center (OSC) is a private science museum located in Orlando, Florida. Its purposes are to provide experience-based opportunities for learning about science and technology and to promote public understanding of science.
The Museum of Science & History - Pink Palace in Memphis, Tennessee, serves as the Mid-South's major science and historical museum and features exhibits ranging from archeology to chemistry. Over 240,000 people visit the museum each year.
The Minnesota History Center is a museum and library that serves as the headquarters of the Minnesota Historical Society. It is near downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota.
The Museum of Idaho (MOI) is a history and science museum in downtown Idaho Falls, Idaho. The museum features exhibits, collections, and programs focused on the social and environmental history of Idaho and the Intermountain West, as well as prominent traveling exhibits on a variety of subjects. Its tagline is “bringing the world to Idaho, and Idaho to the world”.