Permanent Exhibits

When you enter the Museum you are welcomed to a place where nearly everything moves. In the Marvelous Motion Gallery you can explore how simple motions can combine to build elaborate patterns of movement. Simple motions - like swinging, circling, and falling - are governed by basic laws that guide movement throughout the universe.

In this gallery, you are invited to experiment, see what happens, and start to understand how the world moves. Key principles of motion are evident with exhibits like the Sand Pendulum, a Vertical Wave Machine, the Bicycle-Wheel Loopy Lasso, and the fascinating, ever-spinning Turntable.

As you pass through the Marvelous Motion Gallery, you’ll leave the East Wing of the Museum and enter the beautiful Light Bridge, which is flanked by floor to ceiling windows and spans the outside stream. Exhibits on the Light Bridge take advantage of the natural light to examine prisms, filters, and color.

You will view the changing of the seasons at one of the video time lapse stations, and appreciate the beauty of the Museum’s 21 wooded acres from the unique perspective of the museum Light Bridge.

There is a lot going on underfoot in Arkansas. Think that the ground is as common as dirt? Dig in and take another look. In Arkansas, there are wonders beneath your feet. Look down and discover caves, fossils, and crystals. Get grounded in roots, erosion, and unearth a fascinating landscape. Here you’ll find a life-size mastodon skeleton, a 3D Mapping Table, and a giant tree reading nook.

As you are crossing the Light Bridge, you will notice a unique structure through the windows to the south, which you can access through a door in the West Wing. Extending 180 feet from the back of the Museum and 40 feet off the ground, the Bob Wheeler Science Skywalk offers a stunning perspective of the 21-wooded acres surrounding the Museum.

Here, you can enjoy the beautiful view, experiment with the electricity that is naturally a part of your own body on the Music Bench exhibit, roll and run in the Rope Bowl, and test your fearlessness on the Rope V-Bridge. In the summers, a special Fog Bridge exhibit will periodically and suddenly appear to surely cool you down. This award-winning installation is the recipient of over 19 awards, including the People’s Choice and Members’ Choice Awards from the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

The Workshops Gallery is a place to try things out! Want to learn something different? Try playing around with it. Getting your hands on something can make a lasting impression. In the Workshops Gallery, you can experiment with all kinds of topics. Look for patterns in math, music, and natural forms.

Make water move, and make still pictures seem to move. Put heat, motion, and electricity to work - and spark a new understanding.

The Alliance Rubber Company Tinkering Studio provides a safe and fun place for children of all ages to explore, create, and invent through open-ended activities. Often messy - in a good way! - tinkering encourages adventure and supports the motto that innovation is possible only through trial and error.

New tinkering activities every week encourage this important self-led discovery.

The KYE-YAC Clubhouse is the museum's only exhibit devoted entirely to early childhood learning. This tot spot play area provides a safe environment for children who are preschool age or younger.

The KYE-YAC Clubhouse features a replica of the science skywalk with a fun play slide and other hands-on fun for the little ones.

Perhaps most famous for the fantastic creations in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Rowland Emett was also a satirist, cartoonist, and constructor of whimsical kinetic sculpture. Using common objects in novel ways, Emett created fantastic machines like the Museum’s "Featherstone-Kite Openwork Basketweave Mark Two Gentleman's Flying Machine" currently on display in the Workshops Gallery.

Mid-America Science Museum owns four of Emett’s sculptures and is the only museum in the United States to have them permanently on display. They have been in the Museum’s collections for over 40 years.