Museum of Science and Industry, Part 1

I woke up excited to go to class this morning because of something that I haven’t had the chance to do since elementary school--we were going on a field trip to a museum! It wasn’t just any museum, either; it was the Museum of Science and Industry, one of the largest science centers in the world. On top of actually being able to go to the museum without directly having to pay, we also got to have a session with a couple of the people who actually worked on some of the exhibits there, specifically “You, the Experience” and “Turn Back the Clock.” We were first lectured, then set loose to analyze the exhibits, after which we then returned to give our feedback and critical analyses.

A fetus.

We were first spoken to about the general concepts behind the exhibits and what we could expect from them for around 15 minutes. After the initial introduction, we were then given 45 minutes to explore the exhibits and come up with questions and consider anything that we might have concerns about. I chose to spend all of this time in the “You, the Experience” exhibit because I thought it was more relevant to me as an individual and also because the human body is just more interesting to me than the problems of the world. The development of physical life from its conception is the most consistent, yet fragile and unique, process that I’ve been exposed to. There was a room in the exhibit filled with fetuses at different stages of their development; these fetuses were taken from diagnosed miscarriages and placed in formaldehyde jars. Some of them were truly haunting; that part of the exhibit really made me think about the arduous process of pregnancy and development, all to lead to such an easily broken existence that could fade at any time. The rest of the exhibit took on a lighter tone; there were skeletons with everything but nerves stripped away, and there was a machine that shone a light on your skin that allowed you to see your veins. The room with the fetus jars was definitely the part of the exhibit that spoke the most to me; the perspective that it allowed me to see myself in was a powerful reminder of how lucky I am to have even been born successfully, considering the sheer number of steps that went on inside my mother’s stomach to transform a fertilized egg into a baby ready to live in the outside world.

The famed 40-foot tornado.

After we gave our reflections and asked questions, our day of class was finished and it was time to explore the rest of the museum. I went with Lucy and Alex first to the “Numbers in Nature” exhibit so that we could walk in the popular mirror maze, but it turns out that you have to buy a timed entrance card, so we went to the submarine after getting ours. On the way, we spent some time learning about natural disasters and making tornadoes in the ‘’Science Storms” exhibit. The submarine that’s in the museum is a U-505, which is a model that was used in the German Kriegsmarine when World War II was happening. The submarine itself was massive; even the torpedoes were at least 6 times bigger than I thought they would be (my previous misconception may have been way off, but the torpedoes were still huge). After we saw the submarine, we got to see some baby chicks hatching. There was actually a point where we got to see one of the chicks peck its way out of the egg. All of the newly-born chicks looked so dead and tired from pecking their way out of the egg, while the fresh chicks were all so playful and energetic. It was pretty cute to see the difference; however, some of the newly-borns looked dangerously close to giving up on life so soon after they were born.

A prism of the Science Storms exhibit.

Some of the healthier-looking chicks.

When we finished with the chicks, we finally got to explore the mirror maze. Basically, it’s just this walkway with several different turns that are filled with mirrors so that you have no real way of knowing where you’re going. Unfortunately, however, there were fingerprints all over some of the glass, which made the maze a lot easier and less cool. It was still a really disorienting experience, though.

Lucy, Alex, and I in the maze.

The mirror maze marked the end of my museum adventure for today (I think the rest of the cohort wants to go back this weekend and I was also pretty tired), and I walked back to campus with Alex and Jerry. It was raining earlier, but on the way back it was incredibly hot and muggy. Getting back to the air-conditioned dorms was a relief, and I took what I learned from yesterday’s lecture to use and took a nap so that I would remember what I learned from the museum. When I woke up, it was time for dinner, so I went down. I ran into Michelle and Olivia, so I ate with them even though I kind of felt like eating alone today. Afterwards, Olivia and I decided to make the cornbread mix that we bought at Target yesterday. The cornbread turned out really well, and we ate it in my room while we did homework. My Psych group turned in our Method section yesterday, so the only thing I had to do was read a couple of studies. The warm cornbread, cold air, and soft bedding was so pleasant while it lasted. I had a tiring if relatively uneventful day today, and it was good to end it on a relaxing note.

The cornbread we made.