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Take your kids to UI’s free Museum of Natural History

04-10-2008 | Family

By John Lohman

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In our never-ending quest to find educational and free things to do with our young kids, especially during inclement weather, I loaded up Lucy, age 2, and Quincy, age 5, one recent morning and headed to the University of Iowa’s Museum of Natural History in Macbride Hall on the Pentacrest in Iowa City.

After luckily finding a parking space on Clinton Street near the Pentacrest and walking a couple blocks to Macbride Hall, Quincy stated, “This looks like a city.”

I thought it was an interesting observation because Iowa City indeed seemed very vibrant at the time with hundreds of college students walking about -- and it just so happened that the last time we were in a “big city,” Chicago, I took him to the Field Museum. I wondered how the Museum of Natural History would compare.

We climbed the stairs to the main entrance of Macbride Hall and walked into Iowa Hall. We were greeted by a large replica of a Tyrannosaurs Rex skull, which I thought was a good start.

As we strolled around the museum, which was kind of dark, my son asked about the Ben Stiller movie “Night at the Museum,” in which the exhibits come to life. I assured him that wouldn’t happen here.

That was reassuring, especially as we moved from one exhibit to another in Iowa Hall and encountered a nine-foot tall, harry Giant Sloth. Lucy said several times, “No daddy! No daddy!” so we quickly kept walking. It turns out the sloth is nicknamed “Rusty”—perhaps because of its rusty fur color.

The museum is divided into several different halls on various floors of the building. On the ground floor is the Diversity of Life exhibit that features every major order in the plant and animal kingdom as well as elements of taxidermy, geology and exhibit design.

The third floor contains Mammal Hall and the Hall of Birds separated by the Macbride Auditorium.

The Mammal Hall has a tremendous number of stuffed animals that include a great ant eater, an aardvark, a huge zebra, a Giant Panda, a wolverine, a walrus and polar bears—just about any mammal you can think of is there. We were impressed. Hanging from the ceiling was a skeleton of a right whale, about 30 feet long and 10 feet wide.

The Hall of Birds features a great number of stuffed birds, including such rare birds as the California Condor and more common ones like a black bird and an owl. The most interesting item was a reconstruction of a Dodo bird that went extinct in the 1600s.

All in all, we were pleasantly surprised at the quality and quantity of the exhibits. We spent nearly an hour there looking at many of the exhibits, but it was clear we could have spent a much longer time there. We plan to go back soon—and the best part, it’s free.

The UI Museum of Natural History’s regular hours are 10 a.m to 3 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays; and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. The museum is closed on Mondays and National Holidays and summer hours vary. For more information visit the museum's Web site.