SPECIAL EXHIBITS
CURRENT EXHIBIT:
ATTACK OF THE BLOODSUCKERS
January 20, 2024 - May 12, 2024
Learn about mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, leeches, and other bloodsucking parasites in this skin-crawling exhibition!
Through 13 icky exhibits, guests learn the what, why, who, and when of how parasites live, work, and play an important part in our ecosystems.
Learn the repellant answers to questions and explore interactive modules:
Mosquito Cockpit: track prey
Tool Time: probe like a mosquito
WentzScopes: magnify a louse, flea, bedbug, tick and mosquito
Suckers Talk Back: learn of the bloodsucker’s ecological importance
Inflatable Tick: Mrs. Phillipa Tick grows on you
Matching Game: match the Gruesome Twosomes
TwITCHer: spin the dial with your right hand on the head louse
Mosquito Life Cycle: spin forward or backward from larva to adult
Suckers from Around the World: bloodsucking bats, moths, fish, lamprey, and birds
Live Mosquitoes: observe them in safely contained in escape-proof tubes
Live Leeches: which end bites?
COST:
This exhibit is included with regular Museum admission or Mississippi Museum of Natural Science Foundation Membership.
Check out our calendar for related special exhibitors and events.
This traveling exhibit was developed by the Environmental Exhibit Collaborative and funded by Jane’s Trust, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Chabot Family Charitable Trust, and is sponsored locally by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science Foundation, Feild Co-Operative Association, Walker Foundation, W.A. Taylor Foundation, Weyerhaeuser, and other generous sponsors.
A hospitality that is uniquely southern, an embrace of diversity that is distinctly Jackson.
Unique museums, Civil Rights experiences, educational and entertaining family-fun, historic districts and neighborhoods and more: Jackson's attractions offer something for every age, interest, and ability.
PAST EXHIBITS:
PERMIAN MONSTERS: LIFE BEFORE THE DINOSAURS
MAy 27, 2023 - december 30, 2023
Note: Museum will be closed December 31, 2023.
Step back in time nearly 300 million years when bizarre-looking animals dominated life on land and sea!
Learn about the greatest extinction the world has ever seen. This unique exhibition brings the past back to life with fossilized skeletons and full-size life models of the animals that ruled the world millions of years before the age of dinosaurs, in a time known as the Permian.
The exhibition blends art and science with artwork offering a glimpse back in time through the eyes of award-winning paleo-artist Julius Csotonyi. Permian Monsters showcases an amazing collection of fossils and models from this relatively unknown period. View fossilized skeletons and reconstructed models of amazing creatures that dominated land and sea. Meet the top predator, the largest sabertoothed creature of all time.
The Permian Period ended with the extinction of 90% of all species. Find out how a huge volcanic eruption set off a chain of events that led to the greatest extinction of all time to make way for Earth’s next rulers: The Dinosaurs!
Permian Monsters is included with MMNSF Membership or Museum admission.
This exhibition was produced by Gondwana Studios, Tasmania, Australia, and is sponsored locally by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science Foundation, Nissan, Henry and Martha Hederman Charitable Foundation, H.F. McCarty, Jr. Family Foundation, Regions Bank, Trustmark Bank, and other generous sponsors.
FROM HERE TO THERE
January 28, 2023 - May 7, 2023
Explore the science of how things move by land, sea, and air!
Lift, launch, and levitate as you experiment with hands-on exhibits that make learning about gravity, friction, and the laws of motion fun.
Ride a hovercraft to experience how air pressure works, adjust wind speed to form fabric into an airfoil, and float your sailboat to experiment with the effect of wind, rudder, and sail positions.
Turn up the heat to launch a colorful hot air balloon, operate an authentic canal lock system to move a boat from one water level to the next, and experiment with pneumatics, pulleys, hydraulics, and levers to see what kind of mechanical advantage works best.
From Here to There consists of eleven fun, interactive exhibits designed to spark conversation and encourage interaction among families, friends, and other museum visitors.
The exhibition is color-coded and divided into three main categories: transportation by land, sea, and air.
At the Simple Machines exhibit, use scoops, ramps, winches, and wheels to discover how simple machines can help move things across land. This ball-pit is fun for all ages, but is designed with the museum’s youngest visitors in mind.
One hundred feet of tubing allow you to send colored balls in a rushing channel of air from one Air Transport station to another. Watch the balls as they dart across walls, over your head, and appear at the other station in record time.
In addition to exhibits like Water Locks and How Do Boats Sail Into the Wind? that explore transportation by water, you can interact with exhibits that explain the principles of how things move.
Feel the friction at Carry That Weight as you try to move different weights across dirt, train tracks, and through water.
Find out which is the Right Engine for the Job as you explore how internal combustion engines work to power anything from cars and airplanes to lawnmowers and snow blowers.
The "From Here to There" exhibit is sponsored by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science Foundation, Feild Co-Operative Association, Walker Foundation, W.A. Taylor Foundation, and other generous sponsors.
SPACE: A JOURNEY TO OUR FUTURE
MAy 28, 2022 - december 31, 2022
Examine amazing discoveries and explorations from the past of human space flight and meet today’s explorers who are shaping our future destiny in the universe!
Touch pieces of the Moon and Mars
Ride a self-powered centrifuge
Tour a full-scale future lunar habitat and work station
Get an up-close view of next-generation spacecraft and technology, and
Interactively plan a trip to Mars.
This child-friendly exhibit features the most advanced interactives, immersive environments, and artifacts to bring this epic story to life.
The Space: A Journey to Our Future exhibit is sponsored by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science Foundation, Nissan, Entergy, Gertrude C. Ford Foundation, Trustmark Bank, Regions, and other generous sponsors.
GAME CHANGERS
January 28, 2022 - April 24, 2022
Get your game on! Discover how innovation has shaped the video game industry. Game Changers takes you on a fascinating journey, exploring the past and uncovering the future of gaming.
The exhibit examines how the intersection of audio, storytelling, graphics, and gameplay creates the immersive environment of current video gaming systems.
Live the video game evolution from memorable Pong to the photorealistic, immersive games of today
Explore over 120 of the most influential games that have transformed the gaming scene, and test your skills with 16 games that have significantly changed the gaming experience, including Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, Angry Birds, Space Invaders, Flower, and Adventure.
PLAY
Step inside a game and become a video game character - using Kinect technology, try out different costumes and accessories from your favorite characters
Create your own 8-bit character on a large-scale pixel wall
Play a game developed for people with vision loss, and discover how the gaming experience changes when the graphics are removed
Working with a partner, operate a supersized NES controller to play a game of Super Mario Bros
Play Tetris on a giant Game Boy
Play a sound-matching game and test your knowledge of retro video game music
LEARN
Discover original concept art, storyboards, level designs, and scripts of some of the most influential games ever developed
Listen to experts from the industry explain how they develop the games you love
Explore iconic video game music and sound to learn how it has changed the gaming experience
EXPLORE
Explore the technologies that game creators use to develop increasingly sophisticated storylines, graphics, gameplay, and audio
Experiment with augmented reality and virtual reality and see how these technologies may alter the gaming experience
Examine future video game trends and imagine what gaming could be!
Game Changers is a traveling exhibition developed and produced by the Canada Science and Technology Museum and managed by Science North in partnership with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Electronic Arts.
The Game Changers exhibit is sponsored locally by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, the MS Museum of Natural Science Foundation, Feild Cooperative Association, Sanderson Farms, Inc., The Walker Foundation, H.F. McCarty Jr. Family Foundation, W.A. Taylor Foundation, and other generous sponsors.
WILD WEATHER
MAY 29, 2021 - DECEMBER 31, 2021
This exciting, highly interactive exhibit illustrates severe weather as a powerful and unpredictable force.
Visitors of all ages will be immersed in the science of severe weather. Delve into current severe weather science, discover cutting edge technology, and investigate the stories of scientists, forecasters, and passionate enthusiasts. You'll leave feeling like you've been saturated in severe weather elements.
Eight exhibit zones lead you through a series of Wild Weather experiences to gain a better understanding of the science behind severe weather, emerging technologies, and forecasting techniques and hear the stories of people who are working to better understand and mitigate severe weather impacts.
From thunderstorms to summer heat waves, hurricanes to blizzards, uncover the science behind the weather all around us and learn how exciting new discoveries are unraveling many of weather’s mysteries.
Fly through the eye of a hurricane, create a mini-tornado and dance up a storm as the weather around you responds to your movements, and get blown away in a staged hurricane photo op.
This exhibit is included with museum admission or MS Museum of Natural Science Foundation Membership.
Click here for museum admission, hours, and directions.
Wild Weather is developed and produced by Science North in partnership with the Ontario Science Centre. The exhibit is sponsored locally by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science Foundation, Nissan, Regions Bank, Trustmark, Weyerhaeuser, and other generous sponsors.
in our own backyard
Dr. Zeb Hogan
Photo Credit: Courtesy Brant Allen
January 18, 2020 - April 26, 2020
June 8, 2019 - January 5, 2020
Monster Fish: In Search of the Last River Giants
Open NOW - April 11, 2021
This interactive exhibition based on the Nat Geo WILD series "Monster Fish," showcases the results of Dr. Zeb Hogan's decade-long search for the world's largest freshwater fish.
the robot zoo
January 18, 2020 - April 26, 2020
Explore the biomechanics of complex animal robots to discover how real animals work.
Machinery in the robot animals simulates the body parts of their real-life counterparts. In the robot animals, muscles become pistons, intestines become filtering pipes and brains become computers.
A fascinating combination of science, technology and fun, “The Robot Zoo” brings STEM into the visitor’s minds with fun.
dinosaurs around the world
June 8, 2019 - january 5, 2020
Explore the world of Pangea – from the ferocious plains of Africa to the tropical beaches of Antarctica – and discover 13 ANIMATRONIC DINOSAURS, educational activities, a touchable fossil, authentic casts, & more!
Click here to see the video.
