Denver Museum of Nature and Science
As a family, science and art museums are kind of our thing, so of course when my friend Jessica suggested we visit the Denver Museum of Nature and Science while we were visiting her a few weeks ago, we were all in. We even landed the visit on Jonas’s birthday.
Even better, because we’re members of Union Station here in Kansas City, we got in free. If you like science museums too, check out the Association of Science-Technological Centers Travel Passport program. There are 300 museums on the list, and if you are a member of your local museum, you might be able to get into others for free or at a discount if you are traveling! Pretty cool.
The Denver Museum of Nature and Science was awesome. We spent at least four hours there, and didn’t even get through all of the exhibits!
Jonas’s favorite was the space exhibit, which featured so many interactive learning displays. He loved the pretend play space made to look like the inside of a spaceship the most, and Eliza loved the “astronauts” answering questions about what the surface of Mars is like.
Eliza’s favorite part was the Egyptian exhibit. The exhibit was small compared to some of the others we’ve been to, but there are always awesome new things to learn and see, including the difference between the mummification rituals of the nobles and the commoners. (Though initially in ancient Egypt, only the royalty were mummified. Fun fact.)
The museum had the most amazing and vast collection of minerals and gems I’ve ever seen. This is the very tippy top of the iceberg.
We also spent some time watching a kids’ presentation on bees and playing in the kids discovery area. It’s so nice to have a place where kids can climb and be loud and touch things, which was a much needed intermission for Jonas after the less interactive minerals exhibit. The discovery area was fairly small, but their water tables were a sight to see, with huge arcs of water going from table to table and cyclones and floating wonders galore. There were other cool things too, like a dino dig space, but those water tables are always a huge hit.
My favorite part was the evolution and dinosaur exhibit, which we had to rush through a bit because Jonas was getting antsy at this point. We did a quick run-through of the temporary whale exhibit too!
The kids absolutely loved the museum and learned a lot, but there’s way to much to get through with a newly turned 4 year old in a day. I’d love to go back and catch the exhibits we missed and take a little more time to read more of the placards (which is tricky when you have a teeny escape artist with you).
Do you know of a cool science museum we should put on our someday travel itinerary? What sorts of places do you always try to visit when you’re on vacation?
