Sneak Peak at the Frost Science Museum

South Florida Finds attended a Hard Hat tour with the president of the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Science Museum in Museum Park, Miami this weekend.  We were able to walk thru the construction site and find out about all the thrilling plans for the new museum.  At last South Florida will have a world-class science explorium that will  delight people of all ages.  You will definitely need to plan a full day to indulge your curious mind once it opens.   Tech fans will find many of the latest gizmos and doohickeys to keep them enthralled.  Nature lovers will enjoy the open air spaces and gorgeous views of the bay and downtown Miami from there.

If you drive past the site, on the waterfront just north of the American Airlines arena, you will immediately notice a giant sphere.  This will be the planetarium. Unlike any other, it will have several high tech projectors capable of a wide range of presentations and an offset dome situated so that spectators do not have to move in order to see the entire surface. It will be perfect for traditional star shows, 3D movies, and the beloved  laser shows popular at the old museum.

Visitors will be amazed by the on-site aquarium.  The major tank has already started to take form.  It is a huge cone with three viewing levels (top, middle and from below!) which will showcase fish of the Gulf Stream. This is an engineering masterpiece of continually poured concrete and custom acrylic.  It will intake water from Biscayne Bay, treat it as necessary, and make it easy for veterinarians to examine the inhabitants and introduce newcomers. Two smaller multilevel tanks will display mangrove lagoon and coral reef environments with crawl spaces especially sized for kids’ viewing. Wall tanks and video displays will also be featured in the aquarium. Guests will be able to interact with two video walls where you might just find schools of fish chasing you! A special area for kids aged 3-5 will allow them to discover the properties of water through play.

In other parts of the museum, visitors will enjoy many permanent and changing exhibits, most of them interactive.  The ‘Feathers to Space’ hall is a huge room which will take visitors from the dinosaurs all the way to space exploration Star Trek-style.  Another neat area will be the “Me “Lab’ where you can create a virtual companion and study how the body reacts to sounds, food and exercise. Many rooms will have adaptive uses: exhibit space, meeting rooms, dining facilities.  It is hoped that facility rentals will provide enough income to keep admission costs affordable to families.

Stay tuned here for the latest news on opening plans!