The Museum of Science offered a number of exhibits that correlate with the material that has been covered in class, such as different types of energy and efficiency.  The exhibits that we visited included Catching the Wind, Energized, and Investigate.  The exhibits offered valuable information and often had hands on activities, which made the exhibits more interesting.

The first exhibit that we visited was called Energized.  This exhibit focused on the United States’ energy consumption and sources of renewable energy.  Visitors are informed of the negative side effects of our current primary sources of energy, such as oil, gas, and coal, while providing extensive information and how our population can be more energy efficient.  The exhibit stressed the fact our reserves of oil, gas, and coal are limited; and that energy from sunlight, wind, water, and other self-replenishing resources can and should be utilized in order to generate cleaner energy that would have fewer negative side effects on the environment.  Many interactive activities were integrated into the exhibit allowing visitors to learn hands-on.

The Catching the Wind exhibit was a sub-exhibit of Energized and covered the topic of wind energy and wind turbines.  The exhibit primarily included information about how wind turbines generate electricity, what types of factors have to be considered when putting up a turbine, and what tradeoffs are made when using cleaner energy.  This exhibit gave visitors an insight on the growing popularity of wind energy and how it is appearing more frequently in our communities.  One interesting thing that I learned from this exhibit was that the Museum of Science actually has five types of small, residential turbines on the roof of the building to help improve the energy efficiency of the building.  The museum also had equipment that allowed visitors to see how much energy their wind turbines were generating.

The last exhibit was called Investigate.  This exhibit included a variety of self-conducting experiments and information about the importance of recycling.  The exhibit was set up like a house where each room had different activities.  The kitchen had experiments regarding buoyancy; the bathroom taught you how a toilet works; the garage had a self conducting experiment with pressure, and lastly the front yard explored recycling and taught visitors what different materials could be recycled and reused as, which was the most interesting part of the exhibit.  It was interesting to learn that aluminum cans can be recycled into window frames, rain gutters, and new cans.  Another interesting fact was that milk bottles and other high-density polyethylene (HDPE #2) plastics can be recycled into plastic decking and outdoor furniture.

Overall, the trip to the Museum of Science was a positive experience.  The last time I had visited the museum I was probably in elementary school so it was interesting to go back many years later.  The exhibits were very informative offering insightful and interesting material that could be understood by people of all ages.