Oregon Museum of Science and Industry facts for kids
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| Established | 1944 |
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| Location | Portland, Oregon, United States |
| Type | private: science, industry |
| Visitors | 778,457 (2002) |
| Public transit access | TriMet MAX Orange Line and bus routes FX2, 9, 17, and 19; Portland Streetcar Loop Service |
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (often called OMSI, pronounced OM-zee) is a cool science and technology museum located in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. It has three big rooms for shows, including a huge movie theater and a planetarium where you can explore space. The museum also has many hands-on exhibits that teach you about natural sciences, industry, and technology. They also bring in special exhibits from all over the world!
Contents
History of OMSI
The idea for OMSI started way back in 1903. A man named Colonel L. L. Hawkins began showing off interesting old objects in the hallways of Portland City Hall. By 1936, his collection had grown to about 12,000 items! But then, the collection had to move out and was stored in different places around the city.
On November 5, 1944, a group called the Oregon Museum Foundation was created. Their goal was to build a museum for history, science, and industry in Oregon. They first showed their collection of natural history items at the Portland Hotel. To get people excited and raise money, they held small exhibits in different spots around town. In 1949, a house was given to the museum, and within a year, the first public planetarium in the Pacific Northwest opened there. It was inside a dome right on the front lawn!
By 1955, about 25,000 people visited OMSI each year. The museum needed more space, so volunteers built a new location at Washington Park. This new, hands-on museum opened to the public on August 3, 1958. It also had a planetarium. The museum was right next to the Portland Zoo (now the Oregon Zoo), and they even shared a parking lot until 1992. The planetarium at Washington Park was first a small, temporary dome. But in 1967, it was replaced by a larger, 142-seat planetarium inside a unique 12-sided building.
Moving to a New Home in 1992
By the mid-1980s, about 600,000 people visited the museum each year, even though it was only built for 100,000 visitors! It was clear they needed a much bigger space. In 1986, OMSI announced it would move to a new spot on the east side of the Willamette River. Portland General Electric donated land that included an old power plant building called Station L. Money for the new building came from a big fundraising effort. In 1992, OMSI opened its doors at this new, much larger location, where it still is today. The old building at Washington Park later became the Portland Children's Museum. The new OMSI building used parts of the old power plant and added a huge 330-seat OMNIMAX theater. It also has a 200-seat planetarium with advanced technology.
OMSI in the 21st Century
In 2004, the Turbine Hall was closed for a few months for updates. They moved some exhibits around and added a new "Inventors Ballroom." They also added a small stage for demonstrations and a bridge to connect different exhibit areas.
Around 2006, the museum started planning to make the building even bigger. They hoped to double the museum's size, but in 2010, they decided to wait because of a tough economy. In 2023, the city of Portland approved plans for a new science learning, arts, and culture hub in the Central Eastside.
In September 2013, the OMNIMAX dome theater closed. It was changed into a regular flat-screen movie theater, but it still has a super-large screen, about four stories tall! It reopened in December 2013 and is now called the Empirical Theater. During a tough time for many places, the museum received some help to keep going.
Exhibits and Fun Attractions
OMSI has five different special exhibit halls, a planetarium, and even a real submarine you can explore!
USS Blueback Submarine
OMSI bought the USS Blueback (SS-581) submarine in February 1994. This amazing submarine was even in the 1990 movie The Hunt for Red October! It was then brought to its current spot next to the museum. It opened for visitors on May 15, 1994. You can take guided tours of the submarine and even have sleepovers there! Outside the museum, near the Eastbank Esplanade, you can see the submarine's propeller, which is a special memorial.
Featured Exhibit Hall
The Featured Exhibit Hall is where OMSI shows off temporary exhibits. These can be created by OMSI itself or brought in from other museums around the world. Some cool past exhibits have included "Grossology," "A T-rex named Sue," and "CSI, The Experience." In 2007, the "Body Worlds 3" exhibit was so popular that 300,000 people came to see it, making it OMSI's most visited traveling exhibit ever! In 2015, OMSI also hosted "GUITAR: The Instrument That Rocked The World."
Turbine Hall
The Turbine Hall gets its name from a huge old steam turbine that was used when the building was a power plant. This hall has exhibits about engineering, physics, chemistry, and space travel. It has two floors: the main floor with big exhibits and a mezzanine with smaller ones.
The Innovation Station has hands-on exhibits about technology and inventions. There are also special labs for physics, chemistry, technology, and laser holography connected to the Turbine Hall.
The Chemistry Lab was the first hands-on wet chemistry laboratory in the country! It has six stations where you can learn about how chemicals interact by doing experiments. The themes change weekly and might include the chemistry of toys, how matter works, or even crime scene chemistry. They also do daily chemical reaction demonstrations.
In the Physics Lab, you can find a Van de Graaff generator (which makes static electricity!), motion detectors, electrical circuits, and even learn Morse code. There are also magnets, computers that show basic physics, and musical instruments.
The Laser/Holography Lab is open for about an hour each day and shows you how to make a hologram.
The Vernier Technology Lab helps you explore how technology affects our lives. You can try out different interactive exhibits about robots, computers, security tech, and even communication technology. You can also use computers with educational software.
Life Sciences Hall
The Life Sciences Hall is on the second floor and has exhibits all about biology. You can learn about the biology of aging with the "Amazing Feats of Aging" exhibit. One fun part is the Age Machine, a computer program that can take your picture and then "age" it to show you what you might look like when you're older! This hall also has the Life Science Laboratory and the Earth Science Hall.
The Life Sciences Laboratory is home to many live animals like rats, walking sticks, chameleons, and Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Volunteers and staff lead fun activities like owl pellet dissections and show you the differences between male and female skulls.
Earth Science Hall
The Earth Science Hall is also on the second floor and focuses on geology and Earth science. It has two special labs. In the Watershed Laboratory, you can build a physical model of a river and see how erosion works. You can also learn about the life cycle of salmon and look at tiny organisms from local waterways using a special microscope. In the Paleontology Laboratory, you can watch staff and volunteers carefully digging up fossils, like dinosaur bones!
Science Playground
The Science Playground is a special area on the second floor designed for families with young children, from babies up to six years old. It's a safe and enclosed space where kids can explore freely. The goal is to help children learn about science through play. It has a stimulating area for infants, a giant sandbox, a water play area, a reading nook, and physical science exhibits. Experts in early childhood education are always there to help. There's also a Parent Resource Corner with helpful information for parents.
The Animal Secrets exhibit lets children and parents discover the hidden homes and lives of forest animals. You can crawl through the roots of a "discovery tree," look for animals in a cave, play in a pretend woodland stream, and even pretend to be a naturalist for a day! This exhibit has text in both English and Spanish.
The Discovery Laboratory offers different experiments and activities that change often, like exploring "Flubber" or painting with ice cubes. They also have "Discovery Drawers" with themes that encourage parents to teach their kids about the contents.
Planetarium
Every day, the Harry C. Kendall Planetarium (which used to be called the M. J. Murdock Sky Theater) hosts shows about astronomy using computers and amazing laser light shows. It's a great place to learn about stars and planets!
Best Buy Teen Tech Center
On February 1, 2020, the Best Buy Teen Tech Center opened at OMSI. This is a free place for teens to hang out after school. It's a partnership between Best Buy and The Clubhouse Network. Teens can explore their ideas, learn new skills, and express themselves using technology. You can try out programming, filmmaking, music production, and graphic design here.
Theory Eatery
Theory Eatery, or just Theory, is a restaurant that opened at OMSI on January 30, 2013. It serves American cuisine and has a large dining area right next to the Willamette River. From the restaurant, you can see great views of the Tilikum Crossing, Marquam Bridge, and the downtown Portland skyline. Theory is part of the museum and sometimes hosts exhibits and science demonstrations. In 2013, the restaurant was redesigned and got a cool new mural showing photographed ingredients arranged with science formulas in the background.
Auditoriums and Events
OMSI has a huge movie theater (which replaced the OMNIMAX theater in 2013) and a large auditorium with a stage. This auditorium is used for annual events like science fairs. Some science fairs held here include OHSU's Brain Awareness, Safety Safari, and the Reptile and Amphibian Show. The auditorium is also used for private events.
Educational Outreach Programs
OMSI runs the biggest science museum outreach program in the country! This means they bring science learning outside the museum walls. They offer presentations in schools and run summer science camps for kids. They also have outdoor school programs for school groups on the Oregon Coast and at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Many schools from all over the region come to OMSI for field trips. OMSI also hosts educational "star parties" in the Portland area, like at L.L. "Stub" Stewart State Park, to teach the public about astronomy during events like the solstice and meteor showers.
OMSI also has a program called Science Communication Fellowships for people who work in STEM fields. These professionals learn how to better share their scientific work with others. They create their own hands-on demonstrations and then share them with museum visitors in the "Meet a Scientist" program.
How OMSI is Funded and Supported
OMSI is a non-profit organization. This means it doesn't make money for owners, but uses all its money to support its mission. It gets money from ticket sales, member contributions, donations from people and companies, government grants, and fundraising events. The biggest fundraising event each year is the OMSI Gala, a fancy party in May where people gather to support science education.
While OMSI has many full-time and part-time employees, a lot of the museum relies on volunteers. Volunteers do many important jobs, like greeting visitors, helping customers, and doing exhibit demonstrations. These volunteers include high school and college students, as well as other community members. After volunteering for 50 hours, they get a free one-year museum membership!
The Teen Science Alliance is OMSI's youth volunteer program, running in both summer and during the school year. Teens in this program attend weekly classes to improve their communication and customer service skills. They then practice these skills by doing demonstrations on the museum floor. They also create their own original science demonstration to show to the public at the end of each session.
See also
- California Museum of Science and Industry, Los Angeles
- Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)
- Museum of Science & Industry (Tampa), Florida
- Portland Winter Light Festival
