Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Fort Worth, Texas

On May 21, 1941 Fort Worth Texas decided to create a children's museum based on science and history. The purpose of the museum was to instill information to the masses regarding geology, biology, and zoology. They also wanted art and history to be a major part of the exhibits. The museum is still open today, with more exhibits than when it was first opened. Some of the exhibits are currently under construction, in 2009. In 1954 the Noble Planetarium was erected close by the museum, and in 1983 the Omni Theater with an IMAX screen was added. Each year they have over a million guests walk through the museum.

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is open daily, except holidays. The theater offers show times throughout the morning and afternoon at $6 and $7 for children and adults respectively. Those with memberships can enter the theater for free. Admissions to the exhibits are $7 and $8 for children and adults. The museum is open Monday through Saturday 9:30am to 5pm. On Sunday it is open 11:45am to 5pm.

Within the museum are 175,000 historical and scientific artifacts. Much of the displays have roots in Texas and the southwest. Under the science section thousands of specimens are on display. These species fall under botany, entomology, malacology, ornithology, mineralogy, herpetology, mammalogy, invertebrate zoology, meteoritic, and paleontology. Some of the specimens date back to the 1800's, while others are more modern.

The museum is very important in the paleontology world. They have helped uncover several dinosaur fossils, which are on display at the museum. They also have five new specimens from the Fort Worth region. Cultural education is as important as the rest of the exhibits to the museum. They have pre historic displays regarding cultures from those early times up to the present. In fact displays of Pre-Columbian ceramic figures with roots to Central America are at the museum.

Since the museum is about education, they have 20,000 items that have been duplicated for teaching purposes. Schools can borrow the 2,400 pieces collections for their students. These kits have cowboy gear, pioneer artifacts, and scientific specimens.

During the year the Fort Worth museum provides a number of events to get the community more involved. School open houses, science and history day, design inspirations, mad scientist ball, and more occur throughout the year. Most of the events are annually held, but new ideas do come about as well.

The construction which began in 2007 is adding more new exhibits. They created a whole new building for the new exhibits. Galleries at the museum include Cattle Raisers, Energy, Children's Museum, and Visible Collections. The Cattle Raisers gallery is all about teaching the history of cattle ranching in Texas and the Southwest. This gallery used to be a separate downtown museum. However, the new building has opened up space for it and to add more items. The Energy exhibit is also new with information regarding how to save energy, natural gas production, and even how energy has changed over time.