Perot Museum of Nature and Science
2201 N. Field St.
Victory Park, Dallas
214/428-5555
perotmuseum.org
Hours: 10am–6pm Mon–Sat and noon–6pm Sun. Open 10am–9pm on the first Thu, closed Aug 26–29 for maintenance, and open Aug 30–31 from 10am–9pm.
Admission: General admission is $15 for adults and $10 for ages 2–11. $2 surcharge for Recycle Reef exhibit. $5 for theater showings.
Parking: $6 at museum parking lot; metered parking is available nearby.
Each year, the average family tosses out about 450 pounds of paper, which just so happens to be the maximum weight of a green sea turtle. And how big is that? Look overhead at the three oversize cardboard turtles hanging in the Perot Museum of Nature and Science’s Recycle Reef. Rather than a gallery of priceless works, the exhibit itself is an art project that you and the kids can personally contribute to by crafting turtles, seahorses, crabs, sharks and more sea creatures from recyclable materials such as painter’s tape and wooden sticks.
Recycle Reef has a two-fold purpose: to inspire a child’s love for the ocean and to encourage kids to adopt the three Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle – as a lifelong habit. True to its name, the entire exhibit, everything from the fixtures down to empty glue sticks, will be recycled after it closes on August 25.
To get started, grab a piece or two of cardboard and head to one of the 90 craft stations built for both tall and small in your family, and spend as much time as you like fashioning a sea creature. Once your child has finished, ask an attendant to place the craft in the exhibit showroom’s “deep ocean” section, sunken ship, coral reef or kelp forest, which stretches up toward the ceiling. You do have the choice to take your creation home, but chances are the kids won’t pass up on bragging rights to say that their work has been on display in the Perot Museum, which opened to great acclaim last December and continues to sell out to capacity.
Recycle Reef is open to all ages, but for entertainment that’s tailored to the preschoolers, toddlers or babies in your family, head just across the hall to the Moody Family Children’s Museum. Park your stroller by the greeter’s desk, and the kids can roam, run, crawl, climb, splash and have a ball playing with the faux veggies in the mini-farmers market, the tent and campfire at the child-sized campsite and craft supplies at the Art Lab. Bringing your youngest kids on a busy day? You’ll find the Baby and Toddler Park, an enclosed pavilion just for them.
Whether you spend most of your day inside the Children’s Museum, Recycle Reef or the interactive museum’s 10 other exhibit halls, a trip to the Perot is one family fun idea you can reuse over and over.
Published August 2013
