Check out these must-see attractions at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science

by Greta Kaul

Hint: It will probably take you more than one visit.

Exhibits at Perot Museum of Nature and Science

With 11 permanent exhibit halls, an in-house cafe, and outdoor attractions, you'll find it difficult to make it through this whole site in one visit.

DALLAS — You’ll probably need more than one visit to take in the whole 180,000-square-foot Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

With 11 permanent exhibit halls and one designed to host traveling exhibitions, the museum is big enough to get lost in and covers a broad swath of scientific discovery — from music to motion and dinosaurs to drill bits.

With hands-on components in every exhibit hall, the museum is geared to engage visitors of all ages. Here are some of the highlights:

A play structure built to reflect the downtown Dallas skyline and the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge are part of the Moody Family Children's Museum inside the Perot Museum of Nature and Science

LOWER LEVEL

Moody Family Children’s Museum

Geared for the 5-and-younger crowd and aimed at hands-on discovery, the children’s museum lets kids in on how the museum staff feeds and maintains terrarium animals. They also can take a hike up the Trinity River and play farmer at a mini Dallas Farmers Market designed to emphasize healthy choices of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Must-see: Dallas skyline climber

Traverse a miniature Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, then climb up and down a playground made of tiny Dallas landmarks, including the Old Red Courthouse, Reunion Tower, the Magnolia Hotel, Thanks-Giving Tower, and Neiman Marcus.

Sports Hall

The museum recruited professional athletes such as Roger Staubach, Nancy Lieberman, Joe Nieuwendyk, and Felix Jones to help teach visitors about human movement. In the Sports Hall, you can view X-rays of sports injuries, test your reaction time, compare your moves to the pros’, learn about healthy diets, and explore your body’s aerodynamics.

Must-see: Sports run and motion lab

Race the silhouette of a T. Rex (and find that you might be able to beat him). Then take on a cheetah, a friend, or even Cowboys running back Felix Jones. Across the hall in the motion lab, compare your moves to how the pros shoot hoops, hit slap shots, and throw the pigskin.

Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall: Building the Building exhibit

The Rees-Jones Exhibition Hall will give traveling exhibits 7,500 square feet of space to set up shop in Dallas. Its first temporary exhibit revolves around building the museum. Here, you can see how an exhibit hall is built, learn how a building becomes “green,” watch how the museum’s dinosaur bones were installed and meet the people behind the scenes.

Must-see: The building process

Some people design museum exhibits for a living. Others are construction workers, architects and landscape designers. It took more than 2,500 people, 450 concrete panels, and nearly 2 million feet of cable to put the Perot Museum together. This exhibit is a walk-through of the process from start to finish.

Louis DeLuca

Kids play in the Robot Arena, where they can design, build, and program robots, at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

LEVEL 2

Texas Instruments Engineering and Innovation Hall

With a $4.4 million gift from Texas Instruments Inc., the engineering hall will give visitors a hands-on look at the importance of engineering in everyday life. Here, you can see two Nobel Prizes on display, build a truss bridge, try to make a model skyscraper that will withstand an earthquake, and play music with your friends.

Must-see: Robot arena

Build a robot to learn how machines follow programmers’ instructions. Snap on a battery pack, a base, and four wheels. Add a gripper or a scoop, then control your creation.

Being Human Hall

In this space connected to the engineering hall, you can explore what lies beneath the surface of your skin. Check out the structure of your veins under a powerful light, estimate your life expectancy, and see cross sections of real human bodies. Then, test out a prosthetic hand and learn about the workings of the human brain.

Must-see: Motion capture

Learn about the human body by busting a move; mimic instructors in hip-hop dance, basketball, or tai chi as your body is projected next to theirs.

Discovering Life Hall

Cells are the building blocks of all living things. The way they are arranged determines what a plant or animal will look like and how it will function. Here you can explore how genetics are a factor in the similarities and differences between animal species. Then explore Texas ecosystems and make animal tracks.

Must-see: Texas habitats

Use all five senses to explore interactive dioramas of three Texas ecosystems: Crawl through the East Texas Piney Woods, smell the beeswax of the Blackland Prairie, and hear the prairie dog’s alarm call in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Lara Solt

A giant drill bit is on display in the Tom Hunt Energy Hall at The Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

LEVEL 3

Tom Hunt Energy Hall

If you could cut out a slice of the Earth beneath Dallas, what would it look like? What’s the difference between onshore and offshore oil drilling? In the Tom Hunt Energy Hall, learn about the science behind both traditional and alternative fuels, plus see a giant drill bit and a gas turbine engine powerful enough to supply as many as 1,500 homes.

Must-see: Shale Voyager

Learn how natural gas is extracted in North Texas by climbing into the Shale Voyager. Inside the motion-based theater, you’ll be shrunk down to travel 6,500 feet into a well shaft less than a foot wide in Texas’ Barnett Shale.

The Rees-Jones Foundation Dynamic Earth Hall

Everything on Earth, from its climate to its geography, is in constant flux. In this 4,000-square-foot exhibit hall, you can explore why. Be a meteorologist or a geologist for a day, watch footage of real Texas tornadoes and hurricanes, and feel the impact of a simulated earthquake.

Must-see: Earthquake shake

What does a small earthquake feel like? A bigger one? Find out what it’s like when tectonic plates shift, and why they do it.

Lyda Hill Gems and Minerals Hall

Not all rocks are what they seem. Some glow under the light of an ultraviolet bulb, and others are plain on the outside but complex on the inside. In this 2,700-square-foot hall, you can check out a gold nugget that weighs more than 50 pounds and learn how and why rocks are different from one another.

Must-see: “Grape jelly” geode

Geodes are ordinary-looking rocks with crystallized minerals inside them. You can turn a wheel to open and close a 5 1/2-foot “grape jelly” geode.

AP Photo/LM Otero

Tyrannosaurus rex bones are on display at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

LEVEL 4

T. Boone Pickens Life Then and Now Hall

Gawk at an 85-foot dino that makes a T. Rex look small, and compare the size of the giant reptiles with modern-day taxidermy animals in the museum’s 14,000-square-foot Life Then and Now Hall — its biggest exhibition space. Watch an interview with a paleontologist and play an interactive predator vs. prey game.

Must-see: Alamosaurus skeleton

Look an enormous Alamosaurus skeleton in the eye. The giant herbivore is a native of the Southwest, including Texas. Some of the bones that the skeleton was modeled after came from Big Bend National Park.

Expanding Universe Hall

Learn about the pioneers of space discovery and what scientists know — and still don’t know — about the universe in this 2,200-square-foot exhibit hall. Stargaze in broad daylight, learn about the scale of the universe, and virtually travel through the solar system.

Must-see: Journey through the solar system

Surrounded by 32 high-definition screens, take a trip from the Big Bang to the creation of Earth’s solar system.

Rose Hall of Birds

Why did some dinosaurs evolve into birds while others didn’t? Learn about evolution through “Darwin’s finches,” which evolved with different beaks to suit different diets. Check out a rotating display from the Edmund W. Mudge Library of Ornithology, a collection of more than 1,500 books at the museum’s Fair Park location.

Must-see: Build your own bird

Choose wings and songs, diets, and tails and feet and feathers to build your own bird. Then put on 3-D glasses and fly it.