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38 reviews for Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Gengis Khan
Got up early today (before 8) to get to Ghengis Khan before the hoards of Mongols. Got tix by ten and was in. I thought this was fascinating but the main omission from my point of view was nothing about the plants and animals that were so much a part of the culture's support system.
Since I went with someone who didn't have the attention span to read the fine print, the frequent short vidoes really helped her keep pace with me. It would not have satisfied a grad student but great for general public.
There was a lot of weaponry, including multiple swords (some on the wall exhibits), but there was also a good amount on religous beliefs (animism and Buddism, etc), laws, and "international relations". Lots of maps and timelines were helpful. There was also live performances of instrumental music (great), acrobats and others I did not see. Of course there was also the typical dress and household goods exhibits but unusually they had very cool original Buddhist religious texts (some on silver with gold) and also the remains of a 13th century woman.
I was also disappointed that there was a lot of info on the display but they didn't really have anything in the gift shop at that level--they had books written from the history point of view but not the nature point of view and not the archeology, which was primarily from the Mongolian Museum and from the big one in St. Petersburg, forget the name. Apparently the only book they knew of on the archeology was from the British museum and was 300 bucks, not a tourist reader.
All in all very interesting and piqued additional curiousity to learn. Was it a complete picture? Of course not. I have been to China and Angor Watt and my daughter studies in a related area so I had some interest already. It could have gone into a lot more depth but I am just not sure what the market for more would be. Plus, the fact that we both got through it at about the same pace showed it was well designed for the primary customers of the museum--families with kids.
As it was, it took us two hours and we pretty much read and/or saw it all. We then had two slices of pizza (what else?) and split a soda for under $8 which was nice considering the entry price for an adult is 20 bucks. Definitely worth it for a family with kids to get an annual membership. Even the food would have had a discount.
Review: Genghis Khan Exhibit
The exhibit includes a few outfits, a skeleton, some trinkets, casket, a sword (only ONE sword), musical instruments, other weaponry--and A LOT of text!
The exhibit tries to explain the history of Khan (not the Star Trek villain). Unfortunately, the story is disjointed like an old Chinese gymnast. I wanted to see more details of his conquests, but it makes Khan sound as gentle as Mother Teresa.
Khan had 4 sons (who continued the conquests) and a few daughters. No, Chaka Khan was not one of them. With that segue, I gotta break out into song:
Chaka, Chaka, Chaka, Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan, let me rock you . . . .
The exhibit is okay, but the Ramses (years ago) was much better.
I will always love this museum, and it always ends up the highlight of any trip to Denver.
This museum is on the cutting edge of interacitves and hands on learning opportunities. Information in current and relevant, and methods of teaching (*particularly younger kids) is unparallelled.
When I first chose to pursue museums as my chosen profession, this was one of the museums to have inspired that choice. Have loved every single visit, and look forward to many more in the future.
I wish there were 1/2 stars because this Museum deserves at 4.5.
The exhibits are wonderful and for the price you get to see quite a lot of things (minerals, dinosaur bones, etc.)
I have only one complaint and that is the amount of unsupervised, undiscipine children and their extremely lame parents. But that is no fault of DMNS.
I grew up with my photographic-memory father taking me around the country to different historical sites and exhibits, so the DNMS is definitely right up my alley. About every other year, when asked by my folks and/or friends where I'd like to be taken as a birthday outing, I pick DNMS! Yep, I'm a total geek, but it's what I'm into.
Now that I have kids, I'm even more in love with this place, and we're totally rockin' our family membership! It's really the only way for a parent to take full advantage of the venue - when you've got kids, you're dealing with sporadic appetites, diapers/bathroom trips, fluctuating nap times, and general possibility of breakdowns - all of which would make it truly suck if you've just coughed up a day's admission for everyone and then need to leave after just one hour.
It's an old place, and definitely in need of some TLC in areas, but it's a fun venue with great facts and exhibits about Colorado and beyond. Plus the IMAX experience is a great outing all on its own.
I love this place because it makes me feel that giddy excitement of childhood discovery in every exhibit. I think my favorites are the Space Odyssey because it focuses on Mars quite a bit and I'm kind of a nerd for all space things (I've been to Space Camp, actually) and the crazy wild animal section because they have walruses. I'm also geeky about walruses - they're my main motivation for photobooth pictures.
Anyway, you can wile away hours in this place checking out dinosaurs, gems, bugs, taxidermied animals, and lots of historical stuff. Finish off your day with a visit to the planetarium or the IMAX movie theater. It's a day pretty much anyone can, and should at some point in their Denver living, enjoy.
DMNS has added a new permanent exhibition called Expedition Health. It's a new take on the human body exhibit where you get to analyze your own body. You can stick your arm in a machine to see your own blood vessels and analyze the way you walk. You can even take a look at what you may look like 30-40 years down the road with the aid of some digital imaging. Lots of fun.
1 drawback: littered with children. But I guess that's what it's there for.
FACT: I'm a nerd.
This being said, I loves me some museums! When I was little, it was called "The Natural History Museum". Then I moved to California for ten years, moved back to Colorado and discovered that they changed the name of my dear museum to make it sound more "uppity" and "with the times". Bastards.
We had only been back for a few days when we decided to try the museum again. My son is a dinosaur freak, so we thought he'd have a good time at the dino exhibit. We had a blast! There's truly something for every age and interest. We were there the entire day, and it didn't even feel like it. There's lots of hands-on exhibits for the kids, which is great (I swear, they almost broke the museum in California). They actually encourage the kids to get in the mix while in certain exhibits.
We went to lots of museums in Southern California and haven't found one that can hold a flame to my dear Museum of Natural History (yeah, I still call it that--get over it!). Sigh, I love Colorado!
Museums are fun and I always enjoy them. This one isn't particularly large, especially if you're going for purely the museum admission.
However the quality of the exhibits are all very solid. The dioramas remind me of those at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.
The high 3 story tall window that overlooks the park is magnificent when the weather is right.
The Dinosaur special exhibit is pretty solid and one of the neat things to check out is the Gem & Mineral exhibit. Lots of interesting shiny things to look at.
As much as I love this museum, I have to admit the Colorado Resident Free days leave a bit too be desired. Too many people. Too loud. Too many kids. Too many strollers.
Just too much.
The Space Odyssey is great for small children and even informative if you are illiterate on the topic of Mars.
They also have a smaller/ toddler children's area called the Discovery Zone and it's like bug spray to me - kids running around screaming and throwing bubble water on each other. I lasted about 6 minutes in this room.
Upstairs is a favorite with the animal exhibits, but my favorite FAVORITE exhibit is the gems and minerals. I could look at these stones all day long.
A good place to spend an afternoon.
I will always remember this place as The Natural History Museum, and thats what I always call even though the name has changed! I loved the Hall of Life as a kid, it was really awesome. I also love their planetary, and well, everything there is fun!
The Gem and Mineral collection was one of my other favorite things to see, I think it largely influenced me to become a geologist!
I have been bringing my daughters here since they could sit upright in a stroller and just today chaperoned a field trip for my oldest who is now 11. It is still the same great place to visit and some of the old exhibits are still there.
As we got into our groups we were directed where to put our lunches and off we went. They have a new exhibit all about weather, Nature Unleashed. It was really cool and informative and held the attention of the kids. This is vital to any museum and it really laid things out on their level. The way it explained Hurricane Katrina was amazing to see, giving you real world indications of just how intense this storm was, letters from school kids shorty after, paintings and belongings from people's home that were devastated. The kids really "got it" and we spent a good amount of time here.
We also visited the Space Odyssey and learned about all sorts of cool stuff from infrared photos, Mars and solar power. The volunteers are really terrific and one showed us right before are very eyes how the sun, solar panels and h2o can be converted into energy. This was really neat.
The wildlife exhibit was packed full of all sorts of interesting facts and is always a big hit with the kids.The gemstones had them oohing and aahing and deciding which gems they would like for themselves. They also had a couple of mummies but we didn't want any of those!
We had a really fun time as we always do. The place is 100 years old and definitely making strides in meeting the times. I was raised in Chicago and they have FANTASTIC museums there. The museum here is not exactly like what I remember growing up but I know I am giving my kids a wonderful experience each time we go. Be warned however if you have any aversion to small people, some too big to be behaving the way they did...this place is NOT for you. It is a mad house at times and in my opinion the ADULTS who visit really need to keep a better handle on their children, an exhibit is NOT a babysitter. I also feel strongly that they need to plan their field trip groups more carefully. I had elementary age kids and the amount of unruly HUGE middle schoolers who didn't have ANY supervision was not only distracting but dangerous. One of them running up and down in the Wildlife Hall knocked one of my kids flat and it was all I could do to not blacken someones eye. This would have been wrong so I did my best to cool off. This could easily be solved by better scheduling.
All in all we had great fun and when one of the the volunteers looked down at my group of 5 eleven yr.old girls and said, " As long as we have our imaginations we can do ANYTHING!" I honestly felt my heart grow three times bigger. Good work!
This place is phenomenal. Tons of great exhibits, well kept and on a sunny, rainy or snowy day this place would keep you occupied for an entire fortnight if they would let you stay there. Plus the great traveling exhibits (Body Worlds, Titanic) give you another reason to keep coming back here.
Once again, this place is a great deal for military persons. Show your ID and you're getting in gratis. That's FREE, y'all. Save your $$ for the IMAX movie or costs for traveling exhibits.
For SV and I that means visiting on a whim and catching an IMAX movie and just enjoying the walking around without being in a mall surrounded by legions of other mall-walkers.
My favorite part of the permanent collection is the Prehistoric Journey; it rivals the exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC and is a blast to go through just to see the enormous skeletons and dioramas.
It can get busy but it's definitely worth your while. Try a weekday (not during school vacations) or early on the weekends. For a full on weekend event, have a nice breakfast/brunch at any delicious place on Colfax, walk around the museum for a spell and top it off with a lazy walk/people watching extravaganza in City Park... Nice weather is optional.
I want to go again and again. The Titanic exhibit and movie about the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina was pleasant. It was especially consuming to see such a crowd of locals supporting the museum!
The fact that this fascinating museum is the largest of its ilk in the Rocky Mountain region is reason enough to spend several hours here, but exploring the elaborate labyrinth of ancient fossils, Egyptian mummies, and dinosaur skeletons is all the more reason to stay and hone in on your history - which is far more interesting than any textbook.
Aspiring astronauts seek orbit in the museum's Space Odyssey exhibit, a universe-spanning landscape that traverses through the planets, stars and mysteries of the Milky Way via Martian exhibits, space mission updates, swirling dust devils, twinkling stars and an interactive, hands-on "space" room where kids can garb themselves in astronaut trappings.
The museum's IMAX Theater, located in the recently renovated Charles Gates Planetarium, presents surround-sound nature, science, travel, and adventure films on a 41/2-story-tall screen.
This is my #1 Denver Museum. Whether you are checking out the special exhibits or the permanent ones, it's hard not to experience the same childlike wonder Tiffany C. describes in her review. The only science museum I've been to that's better than this one is the Field Museum in Chicago and it's probably not fair to compare the two. The IMAX movie can be enjoyable, but depending on the film, whip lash or neck strain might be an issue. Make sure you've had a light but sustaining lunch before you hit the museum as you could easily spend hours roaming, walking and exploring all the wondrous exhibits.
My fiance and I were checking out spots to have a wedding reception and we decided to check out the museum. We both LOVE museums so we spent most of the day enjoying the free visit. The hall of life was always one of my favorite exhibits, but many of the interactive exhibits weren't working. Next we found ourselves in the wildlife exhibit filled with diorama's which at first was very cool. There were lots of wolves, moose, manatee's, etc... My gentleman suitor and I began debating whether or not the exhibit was real. I asked a museum guide to settle our argument and he said they were all "taxidermy and yes they were once live, breathing wild animals". I asked where the museum procures said animals. He replied "Sometimes, we go and shoot 'em".
Are you f%^*g kidding me! This was a strange but familiar welcome back to Colorado. Needless to say, taxidermy and romance don't mix well for me.
Also, I am not sure I ever mentally recovered from the Body Worlds exhibit, especially as you leave they ask you to donate your body (when you die) for the "exhibit".
In the end, the museum is cool, creepy and not very socially conscious.
If you pull up to the parking lot and see a lot of school buses, turn around and go elsewhere. That place is a mad house when every school decides to take a field trip. The worse of it is that they allow older than 5 year olds to go in the 3-5 kids room.
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3/17/2009
So Im a nanny and I go here merely for the Discovery zone for kids. The place is cool and finding it… Read more »
Comment from Tara H. of
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
5/6/2009
April and May are the two busiest months of the year for…
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I don't remember coming to the Denver Museum of Natural History (as I knew it) as a small child, but I must have. I think it's in the state constitution that all schoolchildren must at one point or another set foot inside the wonderfully echoing halls of this stellar museum.
I do remember coming as a junior high student, wandering the hall of gemstones, marveling at the cool Russian rock-sculpture figures, giggling at dioramas of animals in the nature halls.
I remember coming here as a high school student to see the amazing Egyptian and Aztec exhibits. The docents valiantly attempting to stuff as much knowledge into our brains as boys, SATs and peer pressure would allow.
I especially remember becoming a volunteer here - an experience I have yet to replicate elsewhere. Being a docent for a traveling whale exhibit - talk about stuffing knowledge into heads! Working with the education collection of artifacts and animals. It was all wonderful - and such an amazing experience.
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science (as it's now known) has one of the strongest, most comprehensive and well-run volunteer programs of any museum in the U.S. That program make my memories of this place that much more rich and special. If you have some time, and a love of passing on knowledge, please join their volunteer corps. It is worth every minute.
If you are going to the museum:
-Park in the underground parking lot (the 2nd level not the 1st as you will mostly likely find parking here even on a busy weekend)
-Avoid free SCFD days; It's usually annoying with the crowds
-Weekdays are the best; Weekends are the worst (obvious)
-Take the west elevators to the 4th floor and enjoy one of Denver's most photographed locations
-Skip the overpriced gift shop
-Buy a beer in the cafe and enjoy some good people watching
Smile, cause you're on camera.........................
I'm a little artsy, and unfortunately, that means I'm a little flighty. And my flightiness has recently developed into a love for dinosaurs. Love Dinosaurs. Love, love, love, love, love them. I think it's the coolest thing in the whole entire world to walk into a room and have the full-scale bones painting the scenes in my head. They go something like this.
Pterodactyl: Yahhhk! Yahhhk! (Dino translator: I'm going to kill, you you artsy runt of a girl.)
Me: You're dead.
Pterodactyl: Yahhhk! Yahhhk! Let's test that theory -- did you just see the Brontosaurus go after your friend?
Me: No. Cause you're dead.
Pterodactyl: Am I?
Me: Yes. You are dead. You are dead! (Girl seems to think she sees a bone shift and she begins to wonder.)
And then I think about how Dinosaurs would have always won against the humans. Always. And all of that activity BLOWS my overactive pea-brain. They have an awesome dinosaur room that I tend to spend far more time in than is probably normal, but you can see why.
If you see a quiet girl in loud clothing (I like orange) having what seems like a conversation with the bones, flee the room. Or watch if that's your thing. Or go to the planetarium. (I always fall asleep though I always have good intentions that 'this time' I'll stay awake.)
I was five days away from my national board exam and absolutely thrilled to check out the Body Worlds exhibit here last year. A skeleton with six toes, a real liver and heart to pick up and hold, and the yards of intestines were pretty memorable.
As for the rest of the museum, I highly recommend a visit to the top floor with a beautiful view overlooking the downtown area. The dinosaur area was rather interesting and the design of the building from inside is pretty cool.
Not a month goes by that I do not visit this museum. Aside from the excellent traveling exhibits that come to Denver, there are a number of amazing permanent exhibits that are worth seeing time and again. Among my favorites are : 1) Egyptian Mummies, 2) Prehistoric Journey (who doesn't like dinosaurs?), 3) a brand new Planetarium (including a wonderful hands-on space program called Space Odyssey) 4) an IMAX theater, and 5) a huge Gem and Mineral collection featuring the Alma King - an absolutely stunning piece of Rhodochrosite- not to mention an entire cave of gypsum crystals and stalactites carefully reproduced from a mine in Mexico.
In addition to the exhibits, the Museum hosts regular lectures on the latest in space exploration, often linking to press conferences held by NASA. Also, no visit to the museum can be considered complete without a visit to the Leprino Family Atrium on the second floor. The views of downtown Denver and the mountains will take your breath away.
If you have a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world then this museum is a great place to be. Whether you are 9 or 99, there will always be something here to interest and delight.
******This review is for the Titanic exhibit and Ghosts of the Abyss movie only*****
FANTABULOUS!!!!
The movie, produced and directed by the famous James Cameron, was outstanding! I would go back to the Imax to see this again! It kept you on the edge of your seat, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the beautiful sights undersea and the wonderful findings they came upon for the first time ever. Bill Paxton starred and made it a bit of a comedy, and was certainly lucky to be a part of this wonderful film for all ages.
The exhibit starts with a 'boarding pass' with names of real passengers of the ship and then through the exhibit you go, seeing real odds and ends such as hats , perfume bottles, wallets, and more. An "iceberg" you can touch is great fun and at the end, you can see if you survived the crash or not. This is a must see exhibit!
I love to go to museums and learn about different aspects of the world, about ourselves, and more about the region I'm in.
DMNS felt a little bit too much like a dressed up Taxidermy gallery. Go over to the Wildlife Exchange and you can see the same thing if not more without everything being behind glass and minus the nose smears and film of who know what that seems to have a permanent fixture at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
The planetarium was a cross between a run down movie theater and a old middle school auditorium. Exhibits were poorly lit to where you hadtobethisclose to really see any detail or beauty in the presentation.
Yes yes Titanic was great.. people waited in line and some came in costume and character of (though I wonder if they based their new identities with actual sources or the Leo&Kate movie of the late 1990's) Body World was cool too but these are traveling exhibits and not permanent fixtures of this museum.
I've been to a couple of other Science museums, and this one is my least favorite. I can say this for fact since I've been here three times. And it really is dirty... I was there 4 days ago and now I'm sick.... I pin it on the trail of germs left behind by the rug rats. Not their fault but the janitorial efforts of this establishment.
Great for the kids, adults probably not so much. I mostly go for the visiting exhibits. Very large, seems old as in, they haven't really kept up with the times and they have room full of fake stuffed animals depicting different 'natural' scenes. Their mineral exhibit is pretty neat. I try and see a film while I'm there, because I get tired of looking at the not so exciting other things they have there.
I loved this place when I was a kid. Yeah, that's right I was one of those kids: the type that would want to go here for his birthday instead of Chuck E. Cheeses I would love the drive up from the Springs, the mornings and the smell of coffee, so that we could get there right when it opened. I remember the dinosaur statues, like most kids, and was especially fascinated with the ancient Egypt exhibits and the ecological exhibits.
These days however the museum has lost some of its charm. The exhibits I remember as a kid are still there, in all of its 1980s and 1990s glory. The museum is just much much smaller than you remember it being back in the day.
Even so, I still love the place and probably always will.
4 out of 5
If you're one who hates kids, then I would advise you to not even think about coming here. This place is always full of kids and their parents no matter what the weather may be outside. And being here last week during the free viewing of the Dinosaurs IMAX show was not a good idea, but I was meeting fellow classmates here for the Native American exhibit. DMNS rocks and you're always sure to learn something, no matter how much you think you may already know, ya smartass. You can spend a good part of a day, if not an entire day here. Grab a burger from the T-Rex Cafe or something lighter from the snack bar. Check out an IMAX film too if you get a chance.
Nothing can beat the Field Museum in Chicago. That being said, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science is nothing to shake a calcified stick at.
I'm just going to let my dorkiness hang out all over the place. I love the Space Odyssey. Love it. The first time we went to the museum, the intentions were to visit the Body Worlds exhibit, but the line meant no instant gratification, hence we skipped it. And while I heard that Body Worlds was insanely cool, I really don't feel like my experience at the museum suffered. The hands-on stuff at the Space Odyssey and the gemstones were my favorite parts.
The Egyptian mummies were nice, but eh, you seen one mummy, you seen 'em all. The stories they included were interesting; I'll give them that.
More recently, I got the opportunity to check out the Titanic exhibit. It was fascinating! The recreations of the cabins were really interesting, and it was great how they drew you in by giving you a boarding pass of an actual passenger. It really helped to connect with the experience. I was fortunate that we went on a free day for the museum, because it meant the exhibit we visited was half off. Frankly, I don't think I would have dropped $20 in good conscience for the time spent looking at Titanic artifacts and rubbing my hand on an enormous chunk of ice. Yes, there was a lot of stuff, but $20? I must be a cheapskate.
The fun-ness of this place was slightly negated by the quantity of children running around, but I went on a free day so I should really just stop complaining. The dinosaur exhibit is, and will always be, awesome. Also saw the mummies. My views are kinda skewed when it comes to science museums since I used to frequent the National History Museum in NYC, which is outrageously cool, but this is still a great place to go for an afternoon.
I love this museum. The dinosaur exhibit is a classic and not to be missed if you've never seen it. Overall, I would skip the nature dioramas unless that is your thing, and head for the hall of life, or the rock section.
The space area by the new planetarium is a blast if you manage to get past the security and play around (my company had a Christmas party here so it was open to us). The new planetarium is the most comfortable I've been in but the shows always feel like they are created for 4 year-olds.
The IMAX is always fun and they have multiple movies playing and rotate out often enough to keep it interesting. The special exhibit always a treat and makes me glad I live in Denver instead of a smaller city. I'm sure you'll find yourself here often if you live in town, and if you're just visiting, be sure to check it out.
My family was in Denver this summer for a competition my daughter participated in (vaulting: thing gymnastics on horseback). During some downtime between events, we spent several hours at this museum. I found the exhibits dealing with human cultures lacking, but really enjoyed the space exhibit. In fact, we happened to be there on the day that the shuttle docked with the space station - and we watched whole chunks of it live on an entire wall dedicated to broadcasting it. We watched the docking for about an hour, then our family split up to see other parts of the museum - we met back at the space wall, and amazingly all met up just in time to watch the door get opened and the shuttle crew step onto the space station for the first time! I got pictures of astronauts taking pictures of the camera - and the smiles on the faces of the crew brought tears to my eyes.
During the middle time, my daughter and I did the dinosaur exhibit - which was truly wonderful - my favourite had to be the fossilized skeleton with the fossilized bones of his last meal in his tummy. I think my memories of the Natural History museum in Ottawa when I was a kid made me sort of giddy-happy to see dinosaur stuff again. San Jose is sadly lacking in the natural-history-museum catagory. :(
The food in the cafeteria was pricey and not great - but not the worst cafeteria food I've had either. The gift shop had everything from little science experiments, to high-end science stuff - with local jewelry and arts thrown in for good measure. My brother (a high school science teacher) did find a couple of books he'd been looking for too, so that was neat.
We didn't see the whole museum in the time we had (about 3 hours) but we did see a fair amount of it and definitely could have spent more time watching the space station docking (that said, I have NO idea what they normally show on that wall when historic space events are not happening!)
My kids both loved the Body Works exhibit and were disappointed that we ran out of time to see it all before we had to leave, but we were all unanimous that t
I was lucky enough to get one of the tickets for Body Worlds last summer on the two days before the end of the exhibit where they let people in at all hours of the night with special tickets giving you the time you're allowed to come in. I went at 4:30 AM, and the creepy-yet-educational vibe was so awesome- I loved all the bodies in athletic poses, especially the soccer man who was in all the advertisements. The pregnant woman and fetus scared me, though- thank goodness they were roped off in a separate area and had warnings so I was prepared to see that.
Body Worlds is gone now, but the Denver Museum of Nature and Science is still a fantastic learning zone with the power to attract nationally touring exhibits and the huge hype they carry. Denver children, parents, or curious grownups are lucky to have a national caliber museum like this right here in town- the permanent exhibits are fab, the planetarium is fun, IMAX is always amazing, and boy do I love dinosaurs.
Do you love dinosaurs?
I love dinosaurs. I love them so much. I had this great dream one time where I found the Loch Ness Monster and it was a plesiosaur that had lived since the original time of the dinosaurs. If you have children, it is your patriotic duty to take them here and nurture their love of dinosaurs- no kid should grow up not liking dinosaurs.
Denver Museum of Nature & Science is fun and educational. It makes me feel like a kid again. The theater here also shows some really great films. Even so, I think grown individuals ought to be considered responsible enough to handle chewing gum. What if it had been Nicorette?!
I went here on a field trip once and sort of liked it and then I went back years later and still sort of liked it.
Well done science!
The Titanic Artifact Exhibition is a don't miss event going on at the Museum of Nature and Science through January 6, 2008. Every year this museum has a huge seasonal exhibition that will blow your mind. My friend, JJ, scoffed at the $25 dollar tickets but found out that it was well worth her money. I suggest you go on the off hours because this exhibition is wildly popular and remember that there is timed ticketing.
The Ghosts of the Abyss, featured on the Imax screen is a nice pairing to give you some context for your tour. The movie chronicles the complex high technology deep-dives scientists from around the world engaged in to discover the depths of this majestic ship, never before viewed by the modern day eye. The film was awe inspiring, well shot, with even a touch of humor. The Imax screen was the ideal venue to present the grandiosity of this ghostly disaster.
The exhibition was nothing short of remarkable and on caliber with last years Body Worlds. I always recommend the audio tour to get the full history and effect. The boarding passes were a delightful addition transforming visitors into actual travelers by outlining a brief history of their passenger's life. I was astounded by the reconstruction of entire interiors of the ship. The exhibition wound through corridors of the fist, second, and third class cabins and eventually lead into a full dinning room, decked out and displaying to drastic differences between the class settings. This tactile experience altered this grandiose voyage into a genuine personal experience. I even caught a couple of ghostly glimpses of Molly Brown strolling around in her full regalia. So much history crushed by the immense pressure and depths of nearly a century in the Abyss made for an eerie and thrilling museum discovery.
This is one kick-ass museum. Best natural history museum I've ever seen (haven't seen the one in Chicago yet, though). Try to have everybody in your party bring their cell phones, because one of you is going to be fascinated by the Gem and Mineral collection, another will walk with the dinosaurs, someone else is going to be operating the Mars lander, and you all will have to eventually find each other in the maze and say "You guys have GOT to see this!!" If it's hot, have the kids put their swimsuits on under their clothes so they can enjoy the random fountain out back.
The Natural History Museum is a blur of fanciful species, stone staircases, and dinosaurs. I will always remember the huge brontosaurus skeleton that greeted me on school trips as a child. The evolution of man exhibit is divine! Overall, a great place to learn and have fun. The hours may just drift by as you peruse exotic fish and exceptional geographical findings. Something else Denva has done well! Don't forget to check out the Planetarium and IMAX.
