Houston Museum of Natural Science to offer new energy exhibit
HOUSTON (FOX 26) - You'll soon have one more exhibit to visit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and it's all about energy.
The Wiess Energy Hall 3.0, as it's being called, costs an estimated $40 million over three years to develop.
Three stories make up the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
"If anything, it was an attic and I mean that in the literal sense that it was the top floor, filled with junk," says Paul Bernhard, the director of content for Wiess Energy Hall.
But a fourth floor, come Monday, Nov. 20, won't just be for museum staff. The brand new Wiess Energy Hall 3.0 is about to open.
"Everything you've ever wanted to know about energy and more," says Bernhard.
Cue an exhibit, nearly the size of a football field that highlights energy in a way never seen before, so says HMNS president Joel Bartsch.
"So we went around the world and looked at all the other energy exhibitions and energy museums of the world," adds Bartsch. "It is literally, by far, the best in the world."
The popular Geovator is still there and the exhibit really is bigger on the inside.
Energy is a part of human life and, like everything, has become even more advanced. To help showcase it, a 2500 square foot 3D model of Houston and the surrounding terrain, known as Energy City, has been created.
"The city takes you from a day to night cycle so you see how the city changes and how the use of energy changes as you go from day to night," describes Bernhard.
Plus the laser light display will depict different energy sources from nuclear to solar to wind.
"It's a challenge in the energy capital of the world to really blow peoples' socks off with an exhibit about energy so it's got to be bigger than life and of course it has to be scientifically accurate," says Bartsch.
No matter your learning preference of watching, reading, touching, even riding the hope is that this renovated fourth story helps tell the energy story.
"There's tons of stuff to see and do and there's a lot of 'gee, golly, wow' moments and that's how we capture their attention and then we can teach them something," says Bartsch.
The Wiess Energy Hall 3.0 opens to the public on Nov. 20, but if you're a member of the museum, then you can view it starting on Friday, Nov. 16.