Exhibit Galleries

At the core of the visitor experience at the Austin Planetarium, Science Museum and Technology Center are the exhibit galleries. These special spaces use a variety of design approaches to convey information that engages and delights the visitors. They are the essence of the mission of the facility and are carefully executed to appeal to all appetites for learning at all age levels. These spaces are organized in galleries that comprise the exhibit path for visitors.

The science galleries engage visitors in the breathtaking ways that science enables us to understand and change our world. They show us real things and fascinating phenomena. They introduce us to people—scientists of the past and present—to create role models and open career paths for students. They expose us to challenging ideas and give us a chance to imagine our future. They make science visible as an essential part in the human quest to make a better world.

The Austin Planetarium opens new pathways into integrated science, breaking through artificial boundaries and showing how science and technology work together across disciplines. Its exhibits will be oriented in three interrelated directions:

Basic Science —

These are activity-based exhibits that focus on core curriculum areas using themes such as how things move (Newtonian physics), electricity and magnetism, the sub-atomic world, how substances interact with each other (chemistry), how life is organized and how it changes (biology), the hidden beauty of numbers (Mathematics learned through number patterns, geometry, visualization of quantitative information, puzzles and more), light, waves, and particles, and how the earth is structured. These exhibits build upon best-of-breed science exhibits from around the world, applying both physical mechanics and computer visualization to aid learning.

Game-Changing Technology —

Texas is home to some of the most forward-thinking, leading- edge technology companies in the world. These exhibit areas focus on subjects like energy production, computing and display technology, health sciences, robotics, space technology and many others that bring different scientific disciplines into contact with each other. Visitors explore the way these key technologies work and the worlds of knowledge and possibility they open. For instance, one of the exhibit areas will focus on the manufacture of silicon wafers and integrated circuits, illustrating at the same time the further advances in sciences that computational visualization makes possible. Most of these exhibits are unique to Austin, while a few will leverage what has succeeded elsewhere.

Big, Interesting Problems —

Science gives us ways to solve global problems like building domestic energy sources, improving health and conquering disease, increasing and improving food production, preserving natural systems, improving global communication, and making education more broadly accessible. These galleries can be changed on an ongoing basis to focus on subjects that are current and relevant to people around the state and the United States. They bring different disciplines together in focused and targeted ways, and engage visitors in thinking about ways to improve the world. They will all be unique to Austin, designed to adapt to new science and changing priorities. Changing galleries will keep the Planetarium, Science Museum and Technology Center current and will continually refresh its appeal to repeat visitors. To portray the excitement of this interactive type of learning and exhibitry, we are presenting two concepts of exhibit experience.

Science Exhibit

The study of the earth’s geology tells us about our planet’s history and helps us find energy resources. Buried deep in the ocean floor and beneath the surface on land, microfossils are the skeletal remains of tiny, single-celled organisms that give clues to the biological past and to likely deposits of oil, gas, and coal. Visitors can enter a model of one such organism (above), magnified a million times, to explore the fascinating variety of the microscopic world and the way geologists and energy companies use this knowledge to explore new resources. In the background (left) are real earth cores and clues to the messages they contain about the past and our energy future, explored through multimedia. In the background is the Planetarium itself, wrapped in a glowing LED display that shows the earth in near real-time, based on satellite data from NASA, NOAA, and other research agencies.

Technology Exhibit

Do you know what a wafer is? Did you know the largest wafer factory in the world is right here in Austin?

Today’s expanding technological world is enabled by microscopic, integrated circuits in silicon wafers made from sand. This exhibit area shows the manufacturing process—one of Texas’ major high-tech industries—as well as the science behind the integrated circuit itself. It also illustrates specialized technologies like the Texas Instruments’ DLP chip that places up to millions of tiny mirrors onto an integrated circuit to manipulate light in the most advanced video projectors in the world. This and other innovations give Texas a leading edge in global technology, and provide young Texans with literally hundreds of interesting career paths.