Walk like an Egyptian this weekend at HMNS Sugar Land!

Travel through time and across continents this Saturday, April 20 with Ancient Encounters at HMNS at Sugar Land. Kid-centric, hands-on activities in the Butterfly Garden will teach young ones about daily life in ancient Egypt.

In partnership with the Houston Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, visitors can don pith helmets, investigate tombs, make their own cartouches and count bones to deduce the ancient Egyptian diet. Irrigation techniques and the importance of the great Nile River will be explored with a large model shaduf — all free with the price of admission.

For more information or to purchase tickets, click here!

Family Space Day is Sept. 15 — one of only two left in 2012!

Got big plans this weekend? We’re here to help as always. Now that we’ve got your Friday night covered, we think you should head south on Saturday toward Brazos Bend for a day of family fun at the George ObservatoryFamily Space Day!

For the duration of Family Space Day, the Challenger Learning Center will be open for individual children and adults to learn the importance of teamwork in a simulated mission to space.

Challenger Learning Center

In 1988, the Houston Museum of Natural Science was the first organization in the nation to establish a learning center in memory of the astronauts who died aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Since then we’ve taught more than 100,000 student astronauts the value of working as a team to accomplish a shared goal.

Be an astronaut for a day as you and your child are assigned jobs aboard the Space Station Observer and work in tandem to solve real-world problems. NASA volunteers will be running the missions and interacting with participants as they experience real astronaut training.

The Challenger Learning Center is usually only open to groups, so don’t miss this rare chance to complete a mission as an individual or as a family.

Missions will run this Saturday, Sept. 15 at 3 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Please note that missions are suited for children 7 years of age and older. Kids 7-9 must have a paid adult chaperone participate, and a minimum of 10 participants is required for each mission. (Refunds will be issued if the minimum is not met.)

Stay after your mission and see space from the other side during stargazing on the observation deck. Tickets to access the George Observatory telescopes go on sale at 5 p.m. for $5, weather permitting.

For more information on Family Space Day and the George Observatory, including mission times and rules, click here!

Watch a video of all the fun at Family Space day below!

Girls Exploring Math and Science at HMNS this Saturday!!

It’s National Engineers Week and what that means for us is that it’s almost time for GEMS 2009 here at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

The Girls Exploring Math and Science event has been hosted at the Houston Museum of Natural Science since 2006 and we’re all geared up for this year to be so much fun. We have Girl Scouts hosting booths on hands-on topics ranging from catapults and gravity to probability and electricity!

Our Community partnership with the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council has drawn in more and more girl scouts from across the council each year to come up with exciting topics to study and share with the GEMS visitors on Saturday during the event. We have also invited other groups from the community to host booths in the Grand Hall of the Museum and share their love of Math and Science through hands on activities and information about their organizations.

The 2009 Community booths will include the Society of Women Engineers, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine and the John C. Freeman Weather Museum among other great organizations with lots to share to our visitors!

So bring your family and join us for a fun event learning about Science, Engineering, Math and Technology here at the Girls Exploring Math and Science event on Saturday, February 21, 2009 from 9am - 12pm.

Come early so that you can beat the Saturday crowd, see all of the great booths and really enjoy the event!

(I would also definitely suggest buying your tickets online at www.hmns.org so you can just jump right in on Saturday and avoid the box office line!)

Darwin speaks: NatGeo Live Blogging Event

Charles Darwin turns 200 this year – and in a neat coincidence, his book On The Origin of Species is 150 this year as well. (Very considerate of him to wait exactly 50 years to publish, so we can celebrate all at once.)

That’s one angry-looking turkey.
From National Geographic’s 
Morphed: From Dinosaur to Turkey

Darwin’s theories continue to revolutionize science – and as you might have noticed, they’re still kind of controversial, even a century and a half later.

This weekend, National Geographic is coordinating a live blogging event where you’ll have the opportunity to debate the facts and ask questions of several experts on the subject.

Check out their blog for the experts’ bios and information about the event; you can also submit questions in advance. it’s taking place this Sunday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET in conjunction with the premiere of Morphed, a new series showing various species evolve as natural forces impact them over millions of years.

If that’s just not enough Darwin for you, come to the Museum this weekend for Darwin Day! You can see live animals, study adaptations in insects, and help create an evolutionary timeline that runs the length of the entire Museum, meet paleontologists, and explore representations of human evolution. In conjunction with Darwin2009, we’re also hosting Darwin-related lectures and classes all year long. You can also read more about Charles Darwin in anthropology curator Dirk’s post, An ‘Aha” Moment Worth Celebrating.