Growth of the Miami Science Museum in Florida - By: BJ Adams

Sixty-one years ago, in 1949, an organization known as the Junior League of Miami's "Project Finding Committee" decided that one of the projects that the children of Dade County needed was a museum dedicated to science. Only four years earlier, World War II had ended with the explosions of two atomic weapons in Japan, and as the century entered its half-way mark, the results of practical science were seen as a potential problem but also a possible solution to a number of the world's concerns. It was deemed important that people should be familiar with science and how it's conducted. From this finding, a private Junior Museum began as a private organization which was non-profit, beginning modestly in 1950 in a house at 26th Street and Biscayne Boulevard. The interest was so great that the museum needed to expand, moving to the Miami Women's Club building. At that point, it was renamed, the Museum of Science and Natural History, but within a few years, the museum once again began to outgrow its space.

Within ten years of its founding, in 1960, the first building dedicated to the new science museum opened. In late 1966, during the height of the Space Race, the museum built a Space Transit Planetarium, then the best facility of its type on the planet; today, the activities of the Space Transit Planetarium also include international TV programming. For the rest of the 60s and into the 70s, the museum developed various affiliate clubs, each representing different disciplines of science. Sponsorship grew as well.

In 1989, the Museum's lease agreement was extended for 99 years on its present space. The museum, begun as an idea for children in 1950, now contains room for 4,000 member families, and 250,000 annual visitors. It includes one of the biggest science camps in the United States (serving kids from ages 3 up to 14), as well as exhibits and collections.

Known today as the Miami Science Museum, exhibits running currently include Cabaret Mechanical Theater, featuring 40 mechanized sculptures known as automata, filled with little cranks, gears, and pulleys which allow the sculptures to move. Planned for the new building now under development for the museum, there's an Energy Dance Floor. When visitors dance on the floor, the floor itself takes their energy and converts it into electricity, which then powers the music and the lighting. A smaller dance floor takes a picture of the visitor with a thermal camera, allowing dancers to see their energy escape their bodies in the form of heat. There's a number of prototypes, such as the latter exhibits, which will be available in the new building, as the Miami Science Center continues to grow.

About the Author

When planning a trip to Miami, you'll want to find an area hotel near the Science Museum.

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