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Museum Review: Museum of Geology Rapid City, SD

A small museum packed with paleontology and geology on a nerdy STEM-only campus. Considering I have worked here, I know a heck of a lot about this place. It opened shortly after the school did in the late 1800′s and has been where it sits today since the 1930′s. It is one level of a building, but does not include the collections which are housed at the Paleontology Research Laboratory behind it (you can go inside there too - not to see the collections- but there are displays such as life-size Brontothere dioramas donated from the Field Museum, a view into the prep lab, a map of the geological formations in South Dakota that you can walk on,  and a few window displays). 

Half of the Museum of Geology is Paleontology and goes in geologic order (when I gave the tours I would take groups on a trip backwards through time, starting with modern and working my way towards Cambrian faunas). It mainly focuses on animals from South Dakota. It has amazing dioramas about fossils from the Badlands, so I suggest stopping here either before or after going to the Badlands to prepare yourself or appreciate the national park even more. The main displays were put up in the 1940′s so the way the skeleton is held, how the animal would hold itself is completely wrong. The elasmosaur (plesiosaur) has a swan neck, and Edmontosaurus (hadrosaur) is standing upright on its hind legs. I personally think that this adds to the childhood magic may of us grew up with BUT read the signs or ask employees about the corrected information.

Some highlights include nimravid cats, a brontothere, mosasaur gut contents, the aforementioned skeletons, and bison species in geologic order. There is also a cool painting with a neat story: there is a battle scene between nimravid cats that is based on a real fossil, so we know the scene happened! A nimravid is biting another nimravid’s skull. In the museum, tucked away in the back corner by the kids area is a cat tree of life. Look for the skull with 2 holes in its head. There were proteins from the attackers teeth in there (so we know it was attacked by a member of its species) and the bone in the holes was starting to repair itself so the cat lived at least a little bit to tell the tale (but probably not wrong).

The museum has one of the largest mineral collections on display in the United States and is broken down into groups. The displays are being redone (I got to help write the displays and put them up!) so half of them are modern and half were put up in the 1970′s so pardon their non-matchiness. If you look you’ll see some minerals in clear boxes; this is to protect you from radiation or asbestos (I personally find that interesting)! You can learn all about the formation of the Black Hills as well as the mines in the area. There is also a fluorescent room that’s always a hit. 

The Museum of Geology has a giftshop (the stock changes all the time and throughout the year, so sometimes it’s amazing and other times it might be lacking). It does have a large collection of minerals for sale. There is a kids area, with a dinosaur show/documentary on, and benches to relax upon. The museum is free but you can donate, since all proceeds (donations and gift shop items) go towards the museum and paying its staff. You can call ahead a few days to request a tour that is also free but donations are really appreciated.

It’s a nice little museum that has a pretty darn good collection of stuff. If you’re visiting the Badlands or Mount Rushmore, this is a great place to visit!

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Oral Exams

As part of pretty much any graduate program, there is an oral exam component. Many master’s degree granting schools don’t necessarily have them, but PhD programs certainly do. The content/ topics asked about on the exam differ from school to school, so find out how your oral exam is structured. Here is my account of oral exams:

They suck. It’s not that they are extremely hard it’s all the time, effort, and brain power that goes into studying for it. My exam was naturally during my busiest semester, so I had to put my multitasking skills to the test. This meant cramming study time in within writing my thesis, class time, my RA, and any other assignments. It is important to take a break from studying, however. Draining your brain won’t help you remember things any better. Constant studying also adds to your stress, which when waiting to doomsday (aka the oral exam), doesn't help your psyche.

To study, I asked friends who had already taken it what types of questions were on it so I could think about how I would go about answering the question rather than looking at answers. Check to be sure that your program doesn’t have just one test or else this would be cheating. My oral exam was based on content from all of the classes I had taken from my master’s program and was tailored to each student. I then wrote out notes of things I could not rattle off easily (why waste energy studying things I already know?). I then made flashcards divided into various categories (i.e. paleobiology, phylogenetics, quantitative paleontology, collections management). The flashcards proved to be my best study technique.

On the day of, you’re going to be nervous and they expect that. I was totally calm leading up to the day before my exam. In fact, I worried that I wasn’t worrying. Truly was the calm before the storm. When the test begins you stumble from nervousness, but your stress collapses and you just don’t care anymore at a certain point and just answer the dang questions. It’s almost a surreal experience. They may throw questions in to stump you, just to see how you can reason through something you may not know. I talked outlaid until I had a full grasp on my answer but you can always write things out before giving your final answer. Also, don’t go overboard. Follow parsimony: the easiest path is usually right. I had studied so much I would dive into the complicated when all I really needed was the basic answer.

In all, it was horrifying but I passed. I cried afterward not from happiness or sadness but just from the sweet release from the stress that tormented me for 2 days. Tears are just stress leaving the body! They did find a topic I was shakey on that I would need if I “wanted to be an expert” on a certain aspect of my thesis. So I had to write a chapter on it for my thesis. At first, I felt bad about myself for gaining an assignment on something I didn’t know that was related to my thesis, but since I didn’t know I had to know that (i.e. I was looking at a really localized level but I needed a way broader view for comparison) it was a benefit in the long run (your advisors aren’t out to screw you over they want to help). If your advisor is out to screw you over, think about getting a new one!

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Going out in the Field

Part of paleontology is going out and actually looking for or excavating fossils. Field trips can often be costly but it’s worth it. Schools may offer a scholarship or payback for traveling to the field. Finding a field opportunity is also an issue for the future paleontologist. 

The first pricey part of going into the field is your field stuff. A tent, sleeping bag, day pack, lots of water containers, a wide brimmed hat, good field boots, clothing that will cover your skin from the hot sun, toiletries, and sunscreen are the bare minimum. I have created my own tool kit from seeing what works in the field. My kit includes chisels, safety glasses, my rock hammer, dental picks, brushes, putty knives, brunt compass, a caliper, and tweezers. Most of the field hosts have the other things you may need like the heavy machinery (saws, jack hammers), shovels, glue, baggies, plaster, etc. I always bring a camera because you’ll never what you’ll see or want to remember. I bring a sleeping pad for below my sleeping bag and a pillow so that my back and neck don’t totally hurt after a day of working. And you want to put all of this into your daypack and a duffle bag (much easier to carry than a suitcase). 

Of course every field excursion is different so you’ll need whatever the conditions require. For example, before I die, I want to study dinosaurs in Antarctica and synapsids in South Africa. I guarantee you, I’ll need very different  things than what I have now for those trips. 

Besides the experience you gain in technique and finding your eye for fossils, field experiences are just fun. Meeting new people, playing cards against humanity around the campfire, eating under the Milky Way are amazing experiences that I look forward to every time I go out. 

Here is my field history and how I got them and how I paid:

1. Applied to externship program through my undergraduate university: I was placed with the Natural History Museum of Utah for spring break in the Indian Creek area of Bears Ears National Monument/Canyonlands. The externship essentially paid my flight and volunteer/food fees.

2. Field Camp: not paleontology but all geology undergrad universities require field camp (mine was in Montana, Wyoming, Yellowstone, and the other national parks in that area). I applied for 2 scholarships (National Association of Geoscience Teachers and American Institute of Professional Geologists) and received them.

3. Volunteer for Natural History Museum of Utah: did this for fun and experience at the famous Dystrophaeus Site. Paid out of pocket.

4. Contact I made from my NHMU invited me through a grad school colleague to join them at Bears Ears National Monument (Near Valley of the Gods): paid out of pocket though there weren’t volunteer fees (basically just the flight).

5. Paleontology Field Camp: required for my graduate program (Dickinson, North Dakota, Little Badlands), paid tuition through a private loan.

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Dressing Feminine at Conferences

Throughout my college career, I have learned women are often taken less seriously than men partially due to their clothing. Men have a standard formal way of dressing at conferences, but women have much more clothing choices, so what is our standard?

I once heard that to be taken seriously women should have their hair in a bun and wear a pantsuit like a man (and I have literally seen this at conferences). 

What I took away from that: great! I’m going to break the stereotype of the pantsuit being the standard for being taken seriously by dressing feminine at every conference I will ever go to. Why?

I should be taken seriously based on my brain and what I present, not on how I dress or how manly I look. Now I’m not saying wear baggy pants and a sweaty t-shirt to conferences, still be professional, it is your career on the line here. I see no problem with a skirt and blouse or a dress to look professional, if you are a girly (like myself) paleontologist.

Another issue is the standard of wearing high heels. “Please wear a pantsuit and a bun to look more manly BUT you have to wear high heels since that is the professional women’s shoe!” Total nonsense. Wear the shoes that look nice and won’t kill your feet. 

Now I have a huge shoe collection, and do occasionally wear heels. However, I chose to wear them day 1 of my first SVP and my feet hated me for it. I changed into flats and then converse because I had blisters on my feet from walking around so much. So I say wear the heel if you want to, but if your worried about killing your feet, put a spare pair of shoes in your bag.

The interesting part comes in for dressing professional when you are a vibrant quirky person. You don’t want to look like THAT crazy dinosaur person (you know which one). You still want to wear dinosaurs or your fossil of choice? Do it! But be classy, less is more. Being subtle can be key.

My go-to’s for subtle yet classy dinosaurs (or other fossils but those are much harder to find) are: button down shirts with dinosaur print (often in the men’s sections of course) paired with a blazer, dinosaur patterned skirts with plain blouses, a statement dinosaur necklace with no other dinosaurs on your body, and pins and earrings for your subtle nod to paleontology. The booths at SVP sometimes have vendors that sell jewelry of all types of paleontology themes.

Long story short, you’re never going to find me not feminine at a conference. Let’s break that pantsuit stereotype, ladies! And if you love the pantsuit and bun, you do you! Whatever makes you comfortable and feel professional is what you should wear. 

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Museum Review: Drumheller/Royal Terrell Museum of Paleontology

Another one of my favorite museums takes you to Canada! An hour outside of Calgary, it lays within the Alberta Badlands. I got to go here during SVP’s 2017 annual meeting, and I skipped a day of talks just to go out there. It was well worth the trip and the SVP hooky!

This museum walks you through time with displays that literally surround you. I was most impressed with the Burgess Shale and marine reptile immersive displays. I went when that now infamous, really complete, gorgeous Notosaur was fresh on display (I wasn’t aware it was there so that was a real treat). The museum explained evolution and geologic processes very well and highlighted what paleontologists do/ how fossils are found. They have a lab that you can look into if they are working on anything (for a paleontologist though, I just wanted to see how they set up their lab). A weird little section is their botany greenhouse where there are animals (small ones such as frogs) and abundant plants have their own little tropical oasis in the Badlands of Canada. Their displays are of fossils or of beautiful reconstructions (especially for the devonian to permian amphibians and non-mammalian synapsids), it was almost overwhelming. For a dinosaur girl like me, I was amazed at the amount of actual dinosaur fossils on display. 

For those of you who like mammals, they mounted their mammalian fossils beautifully in life positions. A highlight is the saber-toothed cat leaping onto a mammoth, all bones (maybe casted, I do not know).

 Their gift shop is decent and they have a good cafe. I’m not positive they knew what they had done, but seeing lime green jello after seeing all of the dinosaur gave me some major Jurassic Park vibes (just suck it up and watch the movie and you’ll understand if you don’t know the reference). 

The price wasn’t too outlandish but even if it was it was well worth it. A must see! In Drumheller, I also went to the Star Trek museum, and while I think that was a little pricey for what it was, there were tons of neat props (got to sit on a Star Trek set used in the movies and hold a phaser used on the show). It’s not just Star Trek, so check it out if you want to kill some time!

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Pet: Pink Toe Tarantula (Avicularia)

*Picture above is my Pink Toe! Still waiting to know whether he/she is a Charlotte or an Aragog

I’ve chosen to do a care guide for my tarantula since it is one of the animals that has some very wrong information out there regarding care. 

Natural environment: Arboreal (lives in the trees). South America. Rainforest. Pet trade industry origins from Guyana. Eats a variety of insects

Fun fact: websites note that Avicularia avicularia was described by Linnaeus in 1758.

What other guides have wrong: the humidity level! A ton of guides post that it needs to be kept in very high humidity, 85-90%. There are several reasons why this is a bad thing. Mold can grow quickly and your tarantula can get sick. In nature, these guys are up in the trees where there is a breeze, making it less humid.

What I do: I keep a bowl of water on the bottom of the tank (some places say to put it up in the trees so they can reach it but my tarantula locates the bowl where I have it just fine). I also keep the bottom substrate moist but not sopping wet. I use a spray bottle (not a mister) each night to shoot water on the sides of the tank and to spritz the leaves and his web so that he has extra water (I do not hit the tarantula). They will actually drink the droplets from the web. Some keepers only do that technique of wetting the web. Currently my stats are 55% humidity near the top of the tank and 82º (temperature should be around 78-82º during the day and drop a little at night), and I haven't sprayed in the tank today yet. Basic physics also fluctuates the humidity between day and night so don’t expect the humidity to not change. This all also depends on where you live and how dry or humid your house is, so do some research within your own home to determine how you can get a humid enough environment for your tarantula.

For heat, I have a purple night time bulb in a metal/ceramic lamp hanging 6 inches above the top of my tank. I had a light blue daylight bulb but he/she didn’t like the light. To make it more natural, I got fake leaves and partially covered the top screened lid to make it look like canopy cover. I did the same to the sides of the tank. The tarantula seems to like feeling hidden and so he/she ventures out more with all the “cover” I have provided.

My tank is more tall than it is wide since it’s an arboreal species. It has a vented top lid, opens from the side, and has a vent below the door. It needs air flow so the vents are key. I have several logs and fake plants. The substrate is coconut fiber. 

I feed him/her about every 3 days depending on the size of the cricket (the bigger the cricket the longer I wait). I keep crickets in a critter carrier but some people raise their own (I just haven't had luck at raising crickets). They can eat a variety of insects (i.e. roaches) but I prefer the cricket route since the place I am currently living is more in the middle of nowhere than what I’m used to. Once I move to a larger city, i may have the opportunity to widen his food choices. I choose to grab a cricket with long metal tongs and drop the cricket in front of him/her or plop it into his/her web. Once in a while he/she will take food directly from the tongs, but be careful, these guys are fast! He/she jumped on the tongs once and it scared me how fast it was (don’t worry I didn’t physically get scared for his/her sake).

I have not handled him/her yet since he/she is still somewhat young and again very fast. This species is docile but a bit reckless so they’ve been known to jump out of their handler’s hands. Since I’m not prepared for that I have not attempted, but one day I will. You shouldn’t handle your tarantula too much anyway since they are fragile and they can get stressed.

I keep referring to my pink toe as he/she since I really don’t know the sex. Females get bigger and live longer than males, so I’m hoping it’s a female. You can tell by looking for a small flap on the inside of their shed molt. When my tarantula shed, he/she kept it in his/her web for a couple weeks instead of pushing it out or by molting on a ground web like most tarantulas do, so by the time mine let me have the molt it was pretty mangled and dry (even soaking did not help). I’ll add a sexing section once I get a molt I can actually see. Mine makes a tunnel web on the side of the tank when getting ready for a molt and tears the web down when finished but other’s pink toes have web hammocks that they keep all the time. Up to your spider but definitely expect a web during molt time.

This species is messy! Mine expels his/her waste right on the door. It is white and looks like bird poop. If they do their business while upside down the fecal matter may wind up in their mouth, as per a frantic text I received from my husband thinking it was vomiting, a week after getting him/her. After a frightening google search of nematodes (your tarantula will die from nematodes and they can be acquired by crickets on occasion), a forum had pictures and talked about them accidentally chewing their feces. If something yellow and liquid is coming out of their mouth take them to a vet ASAP! If it looks like bird poop and theres white streaks on the glass, your tarantula probably is having regret from doing business upside down like mine was so don’t worry!

The Arachnoboard forums are excellent for questions but are slow to nonexistent for helping you sex your tarantula. 

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So You’re a Bit on the Girly Side? Play in the Dirt Anyway!

I love fashion. I dress nice to go to school. I don’t wear sweats to school unless I’m sick. I do my hair and makeup every day (sometimes I go au naturale). I have probably 50 pairs of shoes to match each outfit. I wear dresses and skirts almost more than I do pants.

I’ve been told I don’t look like a paleontologist and that I won’t make it in this field full of men. I’ve been told I would be taken more seriously in pants than in a skirt. And you know what? 

Who the hell cares what I look like? How I look has no affect on how I think and perform in my field. Who says girly girls can’t play in the dirt?

When I go out in the field, I wear my boots that have walked me across sands and mountains with scuff marks from tripping and climbing. I wear my flannel and plaid tops to protect me from the sun. I have field pants. I have a wide brimmed hat. A bandana or buff on my neck. My hair hasn’t been washed in days and my face has broken out in acne. Do I look like a paleontologist now?

But no one thinks about how I coordinate my bandana to my shirt. Or that I put in stud earrings that match the bandanna. Or that i have dry shampoo, bobby pins, and a variety of hair accessories so it don’t totally look like a rats nest on my head. I bring scented deodorant, light body sprays (use depending on the level of insects), and baby wipes so that I can at least have the delusion of feeling clean. I used fabric markers to make designs on my backpack to make it more me. I take field selfies when we’re waiting for plaster to dry or whenever we’re not working because that’s what I do and how else do you document your dig? So despite being covered in dirt, I’m still girly, but because I’m not in a dress, it’s acceptable to think I’m a good paleontologist. 

But ironically enough, the people I go on digs with are not the people trying to break my girliness, so who is actually judging? Where are the people telling me I can’t be a paleontologist? Right! A lot of them don’t even dig themselves. So I don’t even listen to them in the first place. It honestly just makes me strive to prove them wrong more. 

Just because I’m girly doesn’t mean I’m not a good paleontologist. 

You should still dress appropriately for the field for health and safety reasons but if you don’t dress like that on a day to day basis while at home or school or work, so what? 

I strive to break the stereotype of “being too girly to be a paleontologist.” Anyone can be a paleontologist if they have the heart, mind, and soul for it. I wear dresses and skirts to the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meetings and while I work at the museum. My brain isn’t my skirt. Who cares what you look like? Cause I sure don’t. 

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While Still A Measly Undergrad

While you are still at the bottom of the scholarly pile, you need to think about your future. As a paleontologist, experience is key to getting where you want to go. But paleontology is such a big field! What do you want to do within it? Don’t  know? Then volunteer and intern!

Everyone has some idea of what they want to do or what animal they think is cool but narrowing down to specific topics and career paths is much more useful when interviewing for a graduate position than “I don’t know” or “I like dinosaurs.” It allows you to match to a school or advisor and makes you stand out amongst applicants.

One of the best pieces of advice I received is: Don’t be a dinosaur person. At first i was offended as it would be a dream for me to work on dinosaurs, how could I not be a dinosaur person? Keep your dino dreams! BUT expand your horizons, learn new skills, think about areas of research and not the animal you like. I’ve done internships, volunteer opportunities, and field expeditions on: dinosaurs, K-T boundary birds, synapsids, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, Cenozoic, Mesozoic, and Paleozoic time periods. And you know what? I have more possible projects for continuing my education since I enjoy taphonomy, evolutionary morphology, histology, basic collections maintenance, and using computer data (I, one of those people who doesn’t get computers and computers don't get them, did CT scan 3D reconstructions of bird vasculature and it was amazing and interesting what direction paleontology is heading). I found out I’m really good at undercutting a pedestal to jacket a fossil but, because of my small stature, I won’t be a good person to pull out really cool large bones. 

And I found out most of this before I started graduate school. 

So get your butts out there and find out what you’re good at and what area you want to study. Don’t be a one trick pony. Don’t say I really want to study and dig up parasaurolophus (like 4 year old Julie probably said). Go with the flow. I had a professor tell me that “we haven’t had a geology major apply for the externship program like ever” so I said “sure why not” and several months later I was in Utah on my first paleontology dig and I still go out with the same people to look for fossils (thanks Dr. Ishman for hooking me up with a great institution!). 

In the words of Miss Frizzle: Take Chances, Make Mistakes, Get Messy!

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Museum Review: Field Museum of Natural History Chicago

I may be biased in this review (which is also why it is my first post) as this museum is near and dear to my heart. When I was growing up it seemed like we went to the Field Museum every other weekend (with Brookfield Zoo on the other alternating weekends. My now husband’s/ then boyfriend’s proms were held there. I’ve also done several internships there. AND my husband proposed to me on their front steps. In short I love it. But why? 

*Pictured below is me at my senior prom, 2012

The Field Museum is broken up into certain areas of study (Geology, Zoology, Botany, and Anthropology). Their major exhibits follow suit. The Evolving Planet is what it sounds like: is takes you through from Earth’s beginning until today and what animals were around during each time period. Very well done, it follows a single path, so it’s not a wandering-type exhibit. Since I am biased for the paleontology exhibit, here are my favorite displays:

1.The Cambrian room, where a realistic, animated video of the weirdest creatures that you can imagine that once scuttled about the ocean floor plays with a soothing musical score, showcases a variety of trilobites.

2.The carboniferous forest and Mazon Creek room. Imagine a forest with a giant (non-scary) centipede and that’s what you get with this room. Gorgeous. The Illinois state fossil, the Tully Monster, is housed at the end of it. Just google it; it really is the weirdest choice of a state fossil, but hey when you live in a state of mostly crinoids and shelled creatures, it’s pretty interesting.

3. The  synapsid and “amphibian” room. This room gets you to the roots of where mammals and reptiles diverged. It has a soft spot in my heart since I helped rehouse Dimetrodon fossils in their collections. Yes, Dimetrodon is a relative of mammals not dinosaurs as many toys and movies want you to believe. The amphibian tree of life gets all wishy washy as you go earlier in time hence the quotes.

4. Its largest room is of course the dinosaur room. SUE the famous T-rex lives at the museum and is currently being rehoused into a room next to the main dinosaur display (she used to be on the main floor of the museum but now a Titanosaur has taken her place). The main favorites are all here: Stegosaurus, several Ceratopsians and Sauropods, a few Theropods, and Parasaurolophus. A childhood favorite is making the noise of a Parasaurolophus with their air compression chamber. There are animated videos and buttons that pronounce dinosaur names. *Pictured below is me being a raptor (this isn’t a raptor however) wrangler circa the first Jurassic World Movie

5. I’m less of a mammal-person than anything but their evolution of horses display as well as the evolution of hominids is informative for those interested in “seeing evolution.” There is also an impressive giant sloth display, and an ice age display (can’t have a paleontology exhibit without a mammoth!). Don’t forget to play with the very-dated tar display showing how larger animals had a much tougher time getting out of tar by allowing you to pull up on bars submerged in tar. Many memories with that display.

There is also a large collection of minerals on display as well as the Hall of Gems, Hall of Jade, and a meteorite display showcased in true museum fashion behind cases with small labels and informative signs. Their botany collection is often overlooked but it’s worth to go check out as I’ve learned so many new things about plants I already know about as well as about plants I may never see. It’s a pretty big display of plants that people tend to walk by but I definitely advocate a walk through. The Egypt exhibit is excellent. You have the choice of walking through a ruin (with real hieroglyphics!) where you walk down a winding staircase to the lower level, where there are countless animal and human mummies, as well as artifacts. Theres a display on how they used to gather water that used to allow kids of all ages to try their bucket system with water but I guess there must have been messes as now it’s just something to look at (it’s less fun to look at as it is to dunk the bully system into the water). But look for fish in the reeds display as they are real. The Nature Walk is an amazing collection of taxidermy animals. Theodore Roosevelt hunted some of these animals for conservation purposes! The halls are a mix of animals that live in the same environment and by type of animal (i.e. birds, cats). You could spend hours just in there alone. The real lions of Tsavo are here! An old but goody is the Underground Adventure exhibit where you “shrink” to bug size and walk amongst huge, animatronic arthropods. There isn’t much to read about but it’s still fun. There are also displays of Ancient Americas, Pacific Islands, China, Africa, and conservation that offer insight into a variety of cultures and showcases the work of the scientists at the museum. The Field Museum has many traveling and in-house-made exhibits that are always worth the extra mummy. Currently, an exhibit on Dinosaurs from Antarctica (featuring someone from the museum with whom I have interned/ volunteered on research projects) is a pay-to-see exhibit and it is well done with showing how field expeditions in Antarctica go, displaying full size fossil skeletons and reconstructions, and exhibiting other work besides paleontology being performed at labs at the bottom of the world. Gift shops (plural) are great but the large main one is outside of the museum ticket counters and sometimes something you want is at a different gift shop back in the museum so it’s not exactly a one-stop-shop; see something you want? just get it then.

On a side note, Members Nights and Dozing with the Dinos are AMAZING. You get to see labs, behind the scenes collections, and what’s up and coming for members nights, and there are programs and of course camping out besides your favorite displays for Dozing with the Dinos. For you, liquor-lovers out there, they do special nighttime events with their own and local brews.

The Field Museum also participated in the March for Science and Science Expo in 2017 and held a science day in 2017 (they even gave us matching shirts so that we could walk as a unit *see below photo). Excellent museum? Check. Huge collection? Check. Advocates for the sciences? A Million Checks.

A little expensive but worth everything. Expect to spend several hours enjoying it.