Perot Museum of Nature and Science facts for kids

"Museum of Nature & Science" redirects here. For the Museum in Denver, see Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Quick facts for kids
Perot Museum of Nature and Science

Established	2006 (2006)
Location	Dallas, Texas, United States
Type	Science museum, natural history museum
Visitors	1,000,000+
Public transit access	DART/TRE: Victory station, M-Line: St Paul & McKinney

The Perot Museum of Nature and Science (often called the Perot Museum) is a cool place in Dallas, Texas. It's a natural history and science museum located in Victory Park. The museum was named after Margot and Ross Perot because their children gave a huge gift to help build it. Dr. Linda Abraham-Silver is currently in charge of the museum.

Museum History
- How the Museum Started
- Moving to a New Home
Victory Park Campus
Educational Outreach
See also

Museum History

Victory Park building in February 2013.

How the Museum Started

The Perot Museum has a long history! It began with three different museums. The Dallas Museum of Natural History opened in 1936. Later, the Dallas Health Museum started in 1946. It changed its name to the Dallas Health and Science Museum, then to the Science Place. In 1995, the Dallas Children's Museum was founded.

In 2006, these three museums joined together. They were all located at Fair Park in Dallas. The combined museum had an IMAX-style theater and a special lab for studying fossils.

An exterior view of the museum's main staircase

Moving to a New Home

On December 1, 2012, the museum moved to a brand new building. This amazing new home is in Victory Park. The museum was named after Margot and Ross Perot. Their children gave $50 million to help build it. This big gift meant the museum could be built without needing loans or public money. The museum reached its fundraising goal in 2011. This was more than a year before it even opened!

Victory Park Campus

A cast skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex in the Life Then and Now hall.

The Journey Through The Solar System exhibit in the Expanding Universe hall.

The museum building is huge! It's about 180,000-square-foot (17,000 m²) and stands about 14 stories tall. Five of its six floors are open to visitors. These floors have 11 permanent exhibit halls. There are also 6 learning labs for hands-on activities. The top floor is where the museum's offices are. About 6,000 people visited the museum on its first day!

Building Design

The museum building looks like a giant cube floating above a green base. It was designed by Thom Mayne. The roof is covered with special plants that don't need much water. This design was inspired by the Texas landscape. The green base has a 1-acre (0.40 ha) rolling roof. It's made of rocks and native grasses. This shows how living systems change over time.

The building also collects rainwater. Water from the roof and parking lot is saved. This water is used for 74% of the museum's non-drinking water. It also waters 100% of the plants.

A cool feature is the long escalator. It's 54 feet (16 m) long! It's inside a 150-foot (46 m) glass case. This case sticks out from the building. The museum also uses LED lights to save energy. It has solar power and uses natural sunlight. This helps the building be very energy efficient. The building has a high rating for being green and sustainable.

Permanent Exhibit Halls

The Perot Museum has many exciting permanent exhibits. Here's a look at some of them:

Exhibit Hall	Level	Feature Highlights
Moody Family Children's Museum	Lower Level	Climb a mini Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Explore a playground of tiny Dallas landmarks. Watch museum staff feed animals in terrariums. Take a pretend hike up the Trinity River. Visit a mini Dallas Farmers Market to learn about healthy food.
Sports	Lower Level	Race against a Dallas Cowboys player or a cheetah in a 55-foot (17 m) video exhibit. See X-rays of sports injuries. Learn about how your body moves through the air.
Discovering Life	2	See interactive displays of three Texas ecosystems. Experience the smells of the East Texas Piney Woods. Hear the sounds of the Chihuahuan Desert. Create your own virtual cartoon dragon in a game called the Genetic Lottery.
Being Human	2	Use motion capture to learn how your body moves. Try out a prosthetic hand. Record your own heartbeat. Toss a ping-pong ball with your mind! In the Bio Lab, you can extract DNA from wheat germ. You can also examine your own cheek cells.
Texas Instruments Engineering and Innovation	2	Make music in a sound studio. Build a robot to see how machines follow instructions. Design a model skyscraper that can survive an earthquake.
The Rees-Jones Foundation Dynamic Earth	3	Feel a simulated earthquake on a shake table. Watch videos of real Texas tornadoes and hurricanes. See a model of a tornado.
Lyda Hill Gems and Minerals	3	See the world's third largest gold nugget! It weighs over 50 pounds. Look at a 1.5-ton geode called the Grape Jelly geode.
Tom Hunt Energy	3	Take a virtual trip 9,000 feet (2,700 m) down a gas well. Learn about natural gas fracking in a motion theater. Discover the difference between onshore and offshore oil drilling. See a giant drill bit and a gas turbine engine.
T. Boone Pickens Life Then and Now	4	Explore how life on Earth has changed over 4 billion years. Learn about the Beringia land bridge. See a 35 feet (11 m) cast of an Alamosaurus skeleton. Also see a 35 feet (11 m) cast of a Malawisaurus.
Expanding Universe	4	Experience the Big Bang and how our Solar System was made. Watch amazing videos on high-definition screens.
Rose Hall of Birds	4 Mezzanine	Build your own bird! Choose its wings, songs, and feathers. Then put on 3D glasses and fly your bird!

Temporary Exhibit Halls

The museum also hosts special exhibits that change over time. These are often located in the Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall.

Exhibit Hall	Level	Exhibit Name	Date	Description
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	Building the Building	December 1, 2012– May 12, 2013	This exhibit showed how the museum building and its exhibits were created. It included interviews with the people who designed and built it.
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	Recycle Reef	June 17, 2013– August 25, 2013	Visitors helped build this exhibit using recycled materials. They turned trash into creative art. The whole exhibit was recycled afterwards.
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	Animal Inside Out	September 22, 2013– February 23, 2014
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	Build It! Garage	June 21, 2014– August 17, 2014
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	World's Largest Dinosaur	April 6, 2014– September 1, 2014
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	2theXtreme: MathAlive!	September 27, 2014– January 1, 2015
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes	February 14, 2015– May 10, 2015
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	Build It! Nature	June 19, 2015– August 6, 2015
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	Amazing Animals: Built to Survive	June 13, 2015– September 7, 2015
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	Creatures of Light: Nature's Bioluminescence	October 31, 2015– February 21, 2016
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	Eye of the Collector	April 16, 2016– September 5, 2016	This exhibit showed collections of historical and fashionable items. It displayed what 10 different people had collected over their lives.
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	Birds of Paradise	October 8, 2016– January 8, 2017	This exhibit featured videos, photos, and artifacts. It showed all 39 known species of birds-of-paradise.
Lyda Hill Gems and Minerals	3rd Floor	Giant Gems of the Smithsonian	September 9, 2016– January 17, 2017	This exhibit offered a close look at the amazing National Gem Collection. These gems are usually at the National Museum of Natural History.
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed	February 11, 2017– September 4, 2017	Guests could explore a cave and dig up an ancient burial site. They learned about Maya culture through hands-on activities.
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	Ultimate Dinosaurs
Lyda Hill Gems and Minerals	3rd Floor	Mineral Art of China
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	The Art of the Brick
Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall	Lower Level	The Science of Guinness World Records	March 6, 2021– September 6, 2021

The Hoglund Foundation Theater: A National Geographic Experience

The museum has a cool theater with 297 seats. It shows movies in 2D, 3D, and 4K digital quality. The theater plays many different films. These include educational features and documentaries.

Educational Outreach

The Perot Museum helps teachers and students learn. They create a Teacher's Guide. This guide helps North Texas educators. It lists programs for kids from pre-K to 12th grade. These programs cover earth science, space, life science, and engineering. They help students meet Texas learning goals.

The museum offers four main ways to learn:

Field trips to the museum.
Programs at schools (in classrooms or after school).
Community events with the museum's TECH Truck.
The Whynauts, a virtual video series.

Field Trips

Students can visit the museum for field trips. They can explore the 11 permanent exhibit halls. They can also watch educational films in the theater. Special classroom programs are also available. These programs are held in the museum's learning labs.

Onsite Programming at Schools

Museum teachers can visit schools. They offer 26 different programs. These can be taught in classrooms. They can also be presented to large groups in auditoriums. Some programs are even offered for after-school clubs.

Community Engagement

The TECH Truck brings science fun to different places. It visits community centers, libraries, and parks. It gives hands-on science experiences to everyone.

The Whynauts

The Whynauts is an online video series. It brings the museum's wonders to your classroom. It's interactive and available in two languages. It focuses on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education.