Museum of Science and Industry: Something for the Whole Family

Recently during spring break, my nephew asked to visit the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago. I hadn't been to the museum for years! I was probably around his age of 8 the last time I'd visited myself. Upon entering the museum, the line to just to purchase tickets was wrapped around four times! With the new Body Worlds 2 exhibit, many people were eager to visit. Although we stood in the line for about 40 minutes, it moved pretty quickly. A membership would've come in handy at that time, since the line for members was very short. Once we had our tickets it was off to see some exhibits!

Taking a look at the Museum of Science and Industry's online website at www.msichicago.org, you can see the many exhibits this museum has. There are even online exhibits to look at such as All Aboard the Silver Streak (Pioneer Zephyr), The Coal Mine, Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle, The Farm, Genetics: Decoding Life, The Great Train Story, Networld, Toymaker 3000: An Invention in Automation, and the U-505 Submarine exhibit. All of these exhibits are online so you can check them out from the comfort of your home.

One of the most popular exhibits currently going on at the Museum of Science and Industry is the Body Worlds 2: The Anatomical Exhibition of Human Bodies. This exhibit offers visitors a chance to see and understand your own physiology and health and learn more of what it means to be human. There are more than 20 new whole body plastinates and 200 human specimens that have been preserved through the plastination process, which is a technique that replaces bodily fluids and fat with plastics. In this exhibit, visitors are about to observe the body's locomotive, digestive, nervous and vascular systems, as well as compare healthy and diseased organs. You'll be able to see how bodies respond to movement and physical changes and also learn about the long-term impact of disease, the effects tobacco has on the body, and how important it is to lead a healthy lifestyle. The bodies in this exhibit are all in different positions and engaging in various everyday activities ranging from sitting to yoga poses to kicking a soccer ball. You are also able to look at the body's different systems and see how they work.

Another fun exhibit that many of the children seemed to enjoy was The Chick Hatchery. You are able to view baby chicks that have recently hatched as well as those who are in the process of hatching under a heated light. The Robots Like Us exhibit and the Walk-Through Heart were also a lot of fun for the kids. The Robots exhibit displayed robots from the 1940s-1960s as well as upgraded robots for the present day. In the Walk-Through Heart you are able to see the inner workings of the heart as you literally walk right through it.

An exhibit many adults, including myself found really interesting was the Prenatal Development exhibit. The exhibit showed forty real specimens from the earliest to stages of prenatal development to full term. All of the specimens shown didn't survive due to natural causes or accidents during the pregnancies. It was very informative, showing what happened at each stage. The sex of the baby was clearly visible at 11 weeks! Seeing the various stages of development and the features becoming more defined offered a very unique look at the journey we make from fertilization to full term baby.

With the many more exhibits at the Museum of Science and Industry, I'm sure there is something there for the whole family to enjoy. And if you get hungry, there are vending machines, a café, and a food court on the main floor of the museum which includes and area to sit and eat. So if you live in Chicago or plan on visiting the Chicago area, be sure to stop by this awesome museum and bring the whole family. Check the website for new exhibits which open during various times of the year. This is one of the finer museums Chicago has to offer and it was a very enjoyable trip for my family. And if you want to avoid the long lines that I faced, you can purchase your tickets online.