One of the dumbest things I've seen a museum do. These aren't "real", wild birds, this is a museum, a place of learning. Each section had only one laminated sheet of species IDs, and several were missing entirely. There was one computer to look up things. So at most, two people can look up IDs at the same time. The place was packed on my visit. How does that support learning?
@TinoPup I have a sneaking suspicion that this gallery will be the next one for the museum to overhaul. During my lifetime/visiting the museum, almost every inch of it has been overhauled at least once (for better or worse), with the only exceptions being the bird's world exhibit, the t-rex gallery, natural mysteries, the live animal collection, and a few iconic staples (ex. the lighting show theatre).
@Neil chace We didn't really stop at anything in the blue wing, other than the insects. This gallery is decent but is more fitting for an older style museum, not an interactive one like MOS is now. Their one attempt at making it more interactive, the lack of signs, is awful.
@TinoPup very fair criticism, the lack of signage is a weird touch. You probably didn't miss much that'd interest you in the blue wing. The dinosaur gallery is nothing special, and there are some other cool exhibits (some of the science in the park/physics stuff over there is pretty neat), but nothing I'd assume to be up your alley. The one thing I'd say you missed would be the lightning show, with the world's largest Van de Graaf Generators (so big they were installed first and then had a museum built around them!)- that's truly a sight to take in, and a very impressive performance to watch, albeit I did prefer the old version slightly to the most recent update (though not as much of a disappointment as the changes they made to the Omni IMAX theatre introduction- which is another record-breaker at this museum!)
@Neil chace I didn't know about the generators, those would be cool to see if I make it back at some point. I avoid all shows because I'm really sensitive to sound (and don't like crowds, it was a rough week!). I have headphones now, which might help. Some of the areas did look interesting, I liked the idea of science in the park and wanted to see the arctic area. It was SO busy, though, and my Dad was hoping we'd get back in time for him to go to an independence day party, so anything non-modern animals was skipped.
@TinoPup you missed absolutely nothing with the Arctic area. On my visit last spring, that was a huge disappointment- basically just a room with walls that are supposed to look like ice and some things for kids to touch/do to simulate being on an arctic journey. Nothing to do with arctic animals really, and unfortunately not much to do with climate change either, which would have been very fitting.
