Where Gumbo Was #517
The New York Hall of Science challenges what we usually mean by ‘museum.’ It is certainly a place to go for exhibits and to learn new things, but unlike most museums, it has hardly any exhibits that are not also interactive and manipulatable by its core audience: School children.
To really appreciate the place (hard not to keep saying museum), you really need to visit on a weekday morning, when it is boiling with children from early grades through high school on school trips. After lunchtime, when the yellow buses all have to return to base it’s quieter, but infinitely less interesting.
That’s because as an adult, not accompanied by any children, you can take clearer pictures, you can handle all the bits, pieces, dials, trials and so forth yourself—but the best fun and the most learning is watching kids do it and hearing them experiment together and teach each other.
Even the exhibits that are closest to static museum fare are connected to activity. Here, for instance, are three examples of prosthetic and robotic aids for the human body, each accompanied by the story of the people who both helped develop them and are users themselves. Next over, a cluster of kids work on designing their own and working out issues in how they could help.
A mock-up designed to allow students to experience what it’s like to use a wheelchair is paired up with a design-your-own station, at which students imagine how to add greater mobility or ease for wheelchair users.
Other stations allow students to learn about other mobility skills, including using how blind people learn to use canes and other assists to get around. And a station that features issues in caring for pets, and by extension, people. Nearby is a prototype lab where older students work on longer-term ideas.
Contrary to its seemingly-thriving state now, the Hall of Science has had a rocky history. The original portion of the building, with its distinctive concrete and glass walls, was built as the Hall of Science for the New York World’s Fair in 1964, and stayed open for fifteen years afterwards, but with little funding or maintenance, it had become outdated and crumbling. When it closed, the remaining exhibits were given away or discarded.
Renovation and re-opening were promised, but it was also the days of New York’s great fiscal crisis; a promised $8 million budget dropped to $40,000 and the Hall wasn’t re-opened until 1986, with the help of private grants. It was an immediate success, especially with schools, and the City began to provide more funding as well as a plan for further renovation and expansion.
Further expansion, including a new entrance, driveway, cafe, gift shop and theater, as well as a big science playground, came in 1996 and reflected the need for constant updates to keep displays up to date and relevant. Even then, the Hall was not totally out of the woods; after being closed for 16 months by the pandemic, it re-opened in July 2021, only to close again two months later after damage by Hurricane Ida. It re-opened again in February 2022.
Space exploration has been part of the mix since the beginning; the Apollo and Gemini rockets were part of the World’s Fair Rocket Park, which had a number of others as well. The Friendship 7 capsule is an outdoor exhibit, mounted next to other space-focused exhibits including the ridable tops above that allow a feel of how gravity and momentum change.
There’s even a nine-hole miniature golf course, in which each hole serves to illustrate another aspect of space or space travel.
Small things get attention, too, with exhibits pointing to the effect that even the smallest creatures can have on entire ecosystems. The idea is contained also in a huge exhibit in the original hall, titled Connected Worlds. There, visitors can interact with different environments through hand motions, and can alter the way ecosystems interact with each other.
Another ‘small’ exhibit: Several prize-winning microphotographs in vivid color; the one above shows cells from breast tissue magnified immensely.
Modern issues include power generation (by hand!) and what it takes to balance the electrical grid.
More shared workspaces with kids of various ages at ‘work’ with science…
Another project, with about a dozen panels and manipulatives asks a question that is part science and part philosophy; students are provided with information and tools, but not a final answer!
There’s a chance (at least for one adult) to have fun with mirrors… In case of confusion, the neon is wrong-reading so that it appears right-reading in selfies. I had to wait until after the kids were gone to get in…
Even the tiled restroom entrances are filled with science references.
The Hall of Science is presently open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. Tickets, which are online only, are $16 for adults, $13 for children, students or seniors. The 3D theatre and Mini Golf are extras.
Congratulations to George G and Jonathan L who correctly identified the Hall of Science as this week’s mystery location!
