The Museum of Nature & Science consists of several buildings all located in Fair Park, Dallas. In its “Nature Building” are housed more than 200,000 items in its collections comprised of artifacts, eco-facts, entomology, vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, malacology, ichthyology, herpetology, ornithology, and mammal specimens. The collections cover approximately 1.7 billion years of Earth’s history and are illustrated through exhibitions focused on geology, earth sciences, biodiversity, a fossil prep lab and a live animal room. In the Science Building are more than 200 permanent hands-on exhibits on physics, astronomy, health, robotics, nature, and special young children’s venues. Over one-million dollars in notable additional exhibit/gallery launches were recently completed. This includes NetWorks digital communications, The Dental Gallery, and The Little Urban Farm. This facility is also home to special exhibitions, galleries, an auditorium, the early childhood galleries. The third building is the Planetarium, the only public one in the City, a new Digistar 3 System has been installed, offering a continual roster of programs about astronomy and space exploration.
Our Collections.
- Birds. The second largest scientific collection of birds in Texas.
- Entomology. Insects from Northeast Texas and the Big Bend.
- Live Animals. From spiders to mammals, the Museum houses many types of live animals.
- Malacology. Land and freshwater gastropods of the Southwestern United States.
- Mammals. Over 3,000 mammal specimens can be found at the Museum.
- Mudge Library. One of the most important and valuable illustrated bird libraries in the United States.
- Rocks and Minerals. Several thousand specimens of rocks and minerals.
Educational Goals and Standards. Our educational programs, films and planetarium shows are designed to support Texas teachers and schools by providing programs unavailable in the typical classroom.
The Science School at the Museum of Nature & Science offers:
- Unique setting inside The Museum of Nature & Science
- Dual-language Immersion Program (Spanish/English)
- Science & nature based hands-on curriculum
- Mixed ages classrooms with low teacher/student ratios
- After-school Spanish enrichment classes
For Kids & Families. Your and your child’s experience of the Children’s Museum at MNS can be enhanced by participating in some of the wonderful, guided programming. In the new Children’s Museum, MNS has created the perfect atmosphere where families may learn and explore together – safe, spontaneous, individualized, self-paced, non-linear and exploratory spaces to help children understand themselves and trust in their own choices as they are free to touch, explore and dream.
