Sue T. Rex: Be the Dinosaur

Update: I saw Sue at the USSRC in Huntsville, Alabama but Sue is a traveling exhibit and has moved on. She'll be visiting the Science and History Museum in Jacksonville, Florida in May 2012.

Be the Dinosaur^™ is an exhibit compiled by the famed Field Museum in Chicago and designed with assistance from world-renowned paleontologists to become the world’s first dinosaur simulation. The exhibit is full of interactive displays and computerized animations that allow you to travel back in time to the Cretaceous Period. *

You’ll learn what the world could have been like in the time of dinosaurs through a series placards, hands-on activities and displays.

You can view the world through the eyes of a Tyrannosaurus Rex or a Triceratops.

You can ride through the dinosaur lands in an adventure jeep and uncover dinosaur bones in the dig pits. Young paleontologists are even permitted to keep a fossil as a souvenir of their day.

As fun as the simulators and digging for dinosaur bones can be, the highlight of the exhibit is clearly A T.Rex Named Sue. At 90% complete, Sue is the most intact T-Rex skeleton that has ever been uncovered. She also happens to be the largest ever found at 42 feet long and 13 feet high at the hip.

Pretty fierce, isn’t she?

The massive dinosaur was discovered on land that was part of a Sioux Indian Reservation, but the land belonged to a private rancher, which created quite a controversy. You’d think the skeleton would belong to the rancher right? Well, it turns out that the land was held in a trust by the US Government. Who owned Sue? The rancher or the government?

After five years a judge ruled that the fossil did belong to the rancher, who offered Sue at a public auction to the highest bidder. After only eight minutes of bidding, Sotheby’s had sold Sue to The Field Museum in 1997 for a whooping $8.4 million~ the most money ever paid for a dinosaur fossil.

Workers at the Field Museum spent over 30,000 hours preparing the skeleton that consists of over 250 bones and teeth. To share Sue with those that are unable to travel to Chicago, they completed fully cast replicas to become part of the traveling exhibits.

For a brief time you can experience the Be the Dinosaur^™ exhibit and see Sue at The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama before the exhibit moves on to Denver. You can view the exhibit schedule at the Field Museum’s website.

U.S. Space & Rocket Center One Tranquility Base Huntsville, AL 35805 1-800-SPACE

You’ll find hours of operation and admission prices here.

Personally, I believe in a Young Earth, not that we’ve evolved over millions of years. I’m not looking to stir up debate here, I just feel like I should comment for those of you that share the same worldview as myself. As you could imagine, this exhibit is steeped in evolution and it’s kind of hard to get around it. After all, you are stepping back into the Cretaceous Period, that should be a tip off. :) That being said, Sue is really cool to see.

I experienced the Be the Dinosaur^™ exhibit as part of the #SCTweetup at the US Space and Rocket Center.

Through the Wardrobe and into the Land of Narnia

Have you read the Chronicles of Narnia and wondered what it would be like to step through the wardrobe and into that magical land?  I’ve imagined that moment since I was a young girl and read the C.S. Lewis classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time. When my children were young, we read through the entire series as a family. It took us months, as each night at bedtime, we would read a chapter from our current book followed by A Family Guide To Narnia: Biblical Truths in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia a devotional to accompany the series.   

When we learned that the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville would be hosting a special traveling exhibit, Narnia: The Exhibition, I couldn’t wait to go! As excited as I was, we nearly missed it, finally deciding to go the last day it was in town -- and I’m so glad we made it! 

The exhibit opened in the study of C.S. Lewis. It was easy to imagine that you were in England, in a wood paneled room in his home, featuring his writing desk, surrounded by his treasured books, including a rare first edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Oh, how I’d love to have a copy for my personal library!

As fun as it was to pretend that we were visitors of the late great author, nothing compared to the moment the docent pulled back the heavy wooden door of the wardrobe and we found ourselves stepping inside, through the wardrobe, among coats and furs, emerging on the other side, in site of the lamppost with gently falling snow brushing against our faces. We had entered the enchanting, magical world of Narnia and nothing would have made that moment better than if we’d been greeted by a half man, half goat creature named Tumnus.

If you’ve read the books by C.S. Lewis, or watched the movies by Walt Disney Pictures or Walden Media, and even slightly enjoyed them, you’ll love this exhibit. Not only are costumes and artifacts from the movie on display, but you’ll even encounter some of the creatures themselves!  The interactive, hands-on scenes ensure that this museum attraction is fun for the whole family. Young children will enjoy crawling through a log, like the small creatures of Narnia, creating a creature with the spinning blocks, or jumping in the blow up castle.

Older children will enjoy learning about science principals such as climate change while sitting on the frozen White Witch’s Throne or touching  the wall of ice—a frozen waterfall. They’ll discover the secrets of building a strong castle by building an arch and viewing an impressive scale model of King Miraz’s castle. They’ll design build their own coat of arms, lift a sword that belonged to the Pevensie children, fire a trebuchet and stand under the shadows of the majestic centaurs.    

You may have missed Narnia: The Exhibition in Huntsville, but you can still step through the wardrobe at the Buffalo Museum of Science in New York where the exhibit opens today, January 24th !   

The only downside to the exhibit is that photography is not permitted, but you can watch this short YouTube video to learn more.

Are you a Narnia fan? Wouldn’t you love to step through the wardrobe?

*The above post does include an affiliate link to Amazon.com.