Science Museum of Minnesota
Fossils, human biology, weather, engineering, Mississippi River ecology, and a giant-screen theater turn scientific claims into things visitors can test and compare.
Artwork inspired by Cameron Booth
The museum works best when a fossil, a hands-on mechanism, and the river outside are treated as parts of one inquiry. Dinosaur skeletons reveal evidence through bone; experiment stations expose variables; the Mississippi galleries show that science also means observing a living system shaped by people.
Omnitheater films and traveling exhibitions can dominate the schedule, but neither is required for a strong visit. Reserve a film only when its subject adds something you want, then give children time to repeat experiments instead of using the building as a race between buttons.
- Setting
- Mississippi River bluff
- Theater
- Omnitheater
- Approach
- Hands-on investigation
Quick guide
- First question
- Test how each exhibit turns evidence into explanation
- Outdoor connection
- Compare the museum displays with the Mississippi bluff
Move from evidence to experiment to landscape
- Start with
- Use the Triceratops and fossil halls to separate reconstructed evidence from informed scientific interpretation.
- Look closely at
- Repeat one Experiment Gallery activity with a changed variable instead of pressing every control once.
- Connect the story
- Connect river exhibits to the working Mississippi visible below the museum’s bluff-side windows.
- Plan around
- Reserve an Omnitheater show or special exhibition first, then build the open-gallery visit around that time.
Good to know
Omnitheater and special-exhibition entry can be timed and may not be included in the least expensive museum ticket.
Notice these
- Triceratops and fossil halls
- Experiment Gallery
- Mississippi River Gallery