EXHIBITS | curious

Curious Exhibits

Join us at Curious, an exciting science/art/technology hands-on museum in Palestine, Texas. Based on the world-famous Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA, Curious integrates curiosity, creativity, exploration, learning, and fun!

Forces and Motion

Keva Building

Special wooden blocks give visitors opportunities to build a vast array of intriguing structures and patterns.

Wind Tube

Visitors can craft sculptures and other objects from paper, plastic, and other materials and then test them to see what flies.

Bernouli Blower

Small objects float above two movable hoses blowing air. Exploration of how this happens helps visitors understand aerodynamics.

Harmonograph Sponsored by Andrea and Paul Morris

A table suspended from a tall frame, when moved, creates mysterious shapes and designs on a large piece of paper. How does this happen? Visitors can explore the fascinating interaction of motion and design.

(temporarily unavailable)

Balancing Stick

Try balancing a wooden dowel with a special weight on it on your hand. Where should the weight be? How does changing the weight’s placement change the behavior of the stick? In this exhibit, the dowel is attached to the pillar to allow interesting movement.

Bubble Screen Sponsored by Palestine Junior Service League

Everyone is intrigued by bubbles….their shapes, their incredibly thin layers, their beautiful colors. Visitors will explore bubbles in a different way in this exhibit as they raise a screen of bubble film and watch the interplay of forces, light, and color.

Electricity and Magnetism

Circuit Workbench

In this exhibit, visitors immerse in an open-ended experience at a long workbench They can create and test different types of circuits and explore a variety of ways to make light, motion, sound, and other circuit-driven phenomena.

Magnetic Sculpture Sponsored by Prosperity Bank

Visitors create a sculpture using magnetic particles. They also can see what happens if they move the sculpture close to a lodestone.

Pedal Generator

In this dramatic demonstration of how much motion it takes to generate electricity, visitors sit and push pedals. These pedals, in turn, generate electricity, which the visitor can see on a display

Light and Color

Colored Shadows Sponsored by Braley Builders Supply

How do colors in light mix differently than colors in paint? Can you create a light painting on a wall? Visitors explore these and other fun questions about light and color by making their own shadows on a wall.

Light Island

How does light reflect and refract? At this exhibit, visitors experiment with optics and the effects of mirrors, lenses, prisms, and colors.

Human Kaleidoscope

What’s it like to see yourself reflected hundreds of times – a crowd made up of only your image? Duck into this human-sized kaleidoscope and watch your reflected image stretch into the distance.

Life

Garden of Smells Sponsored by Atmos Energy

Did you know that your nose is a chemistry laboratory? This exhibit helps visitors explore ways that chemistry and their noses are related.

Giant Microscope

Visitors can view the micro-world and organisms moving around in it magnified 100 times on a 12” screen. Adaptations What helps animals, plants, trees, and insects survive?

Earth and Beyond

Augmented Reality Sandbox Sponsored by Hugh Summers and Timothy Triplett

The future is here! Experience 3D visualization of changing topography in a sandbox where topographical maps are projected onto landforms created in the sand. The maps change as the landforms are changed by moving the sand or by holding your hand over a landform to create rain. Experience the future for yourself!

Earth, Moon, Sun, and Planets Sponsored by Oncor

How is the solar system arranged and how do the Sun, Earth, and Earth’s moon relate to each other? Visitors explore these questions and figure out real distances between the Sun, Earth, and planets in a hands-on activity.

Geometry

Nature’s Geometry

Nature is full of geometric patterns. From honeycombs to nautilus shells to pine cones, nature offers intriguing visual treats. This display lets visitors see how geometrically-oriented nature actually is.

Playing with Geometry Sponsored by Texas Farm Bureau Insurance

How many different geometric shapes can you create? Visitors are intrigued by the use of a variety of multi-colored polygonal tiles that they can use to construct their own patterns. This will relate to the natural forms in Nature’s Geometry.

Building with Geometry

How can you solve 3D geometric problems? In this exhibit, visitors are given a variety of problems involving geometry and are invited to solve them using geometric shapes that can fit onto each other. This will relate to the natural forms in Nature’s Geometry.

Tinkering Lab Sponsored by the Summers Family

Many great inventors get their best ideas and aha moments by tinkering with materials. This special area is devoted to immersing visitors in these moments. Exhibits throughout the museum help further these thinking skills to prepare visitors for their tinkering experiences.

Marble Machines

This area promotes open-ended exploration and tinkering with ideas of how to make a sphere move down a creative ramp at the slowest speed possible.

Tinkering and Thinkering

With museum facilitators leading activities at designated times, visitors experiment with a variety of materials, techniques, and technologies to explore properties of materials and unexpected possibilities.