Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Sternberg Museum of Natural History

Over the weekend the whole family loaded up for a little day trip to Hays, KS. Hays is knows as the "German Capital of Kansas". Of course I didn't realize this until we were already there or we would have made different plans for the day. (DR and I have a LOT of German ancestry.) Instead we visited the Sternberg Museum of Natural History which is part of Ft. Hays State University. Sternberg is a great little museum! 



We were greeted on our way in by this "little" guy. Right under this life size prehistoric critter there are fish tanks with an alligator, an alligator gar and an alligator tortoise.



The museum was full of fossils and skeletons but my kids were definitely drawn to the life size models. 



The T-Rex was by far the favorite! It was mechanized and every few minutes it's head would turn, it's mouth would open and it would roar! 


Yahoo loved this baby dinosaur because it was "chewing grass" and she kept wanting to come check to see if it were still eating it's lunch. 


Dig like an archaeologist!! 

But this is where we spent the most time, the.... 



There were tons of toy animals, drawers full of specimens...


...specimens in acrylic that we studied under magnifying glasses....


...LOTS of live specimens; snakes, turtles, toads...


...and tons of books to look through....
....and....



Ellis County? Yeah, that's the county we were currently standing in. 


I much prefer this spider! 

Sternberg was a great museum! I only wished we lived closer; it was a 3 hour drive to get there but it was well worth it. 

We also visited the Old Ft. Hays which was right next to the railroad and served as a supply depot for the other forts in Kansas. But I'll share more about that later! 

3 comments:

  1. I can just imagine how your kids loved this place
    How fun to learn with everything MOVING in front of you! We took the girls to see the dolphin, Winter, yesterday, the one from A Dolphin's Tail, and that was crowded but fun. Now it's beach time for the rest of the week. Bear wants to parasail, but not sure if Daddy will go for that.

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  2. What a fantastic and fun learning experience for your family! Happy to see you all went and enjoyed it.

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