Dallas Museum of Nature and Science

I have to preface this review with the disclaimer that the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas is moving to a new, bigger facility within two years, which means therefore that not much new investment is going into the current building. This does not mean though that the museum is rundown, but it could in other circumstances be a candidate for quite some refurbishment.

Dallas Museum of Science and Nature

The Museum actually encompasses the Science Centre, Natural History Museum and Children's Museum - being over 6 years' old and childless meant that I couldn't go into that part. The main lobby though is quite impressive, with the planets and their distances in mosaic on the floor and the IMAX projector in the far wall behind glass. There is a planetarium there, but we didn't visit, I'm afraid - as a planetarium worker I've seen Wonders of the Universe and Cosmic Safari far too many times. There were night sky shows too, but my companions had already seen one in Arlington.

The main travelling exhibition was an excellent feature all about water and it's scarcity in fresh form. It gave facts and statistics in clear terminology that related it back to visitors' experiences, had a good amount of interactivity, especially when it came to providing both single player and multiplayer games and quizzes. It put its case clearly and intelligently, and I left it more knowledgeable about water and - most importantly - what I can do to help at home.

Elsewhere one of the popular exhibits with the children is the dino dig - a large sandpit with dinosaur 'remains' buried underneath, but crucially lots of information on how real archaeologists go about putting together a team and preserving what they find. This I noticed in the water exhibition too - signage which told you what you were looking for, what to do and how it works. This simple extra bit of information is crucial, I believe, to a good customer experience.

The DNA exhibition was also excellent, using technology well to get the ideas behind everything across. The Networks exhibition was the exact same one I saw in Ottawa's Museum of Science and Technology, which surprised me slightly, and the human body area was fascinating with simple demonstrations of how much your skin weighs and so on.

The older exhibits looked slightly the worse for wear, and there was some serious glass-case syndrome going on, but this is understandable with the somewhat imminent move to the new facility. The Natural History part of the museum (housed currently in a separate building) still did its job, with a nice polycarbonate cave structure to demonstrate the habitats of bats and other such creatures.

Overall the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science is very good, and an interesting diversion for people of all ages. There is an IMAX and planetarium, and it's relatively inexpensive to go inside. Worth a trip if you're in the area.