Houston is home to a wide selection of cultural activities and has the most diverse population in the United States. One of Houston’s best institutions is just a short walk from Rice - the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Last week, our ESL students were able to enjoy an evening at the museum to explore all the exhibits and artifacts on display.
Featuring the Hall of Paleontology, the Chemistry Hall, Hall of the Americas, Hall of Texas Wildlife, and much more, the Houston Museum of Natural Science is one of the largest and most visited museums in the country. Our students were eager to experience the museum for the first time or to return (for those who had already been).
Students arrived at the meeting point outside our building to begin a short walk to the museum. Along the way, students talked about what they were most looking forward to seeing when they got there.
One of the first exhibits to see after arriving at the museum is the newly-updated Chemistry Hall. This hall features many interactive exhibits, like an electronic periodic table, an alchemy game, and more. Students tried to lift a motorcycle and a piano in a physics exhibit, while others watched a marble roll down the sides of another exhibit, which was meant to simulate what happens when you approach a black hole’s event horizon.
A main feature of the science museum is the pendulum at the center of the Chemistry Hall. Students watched as the pendulum swung back and forth, knocking over a wooden block every few minutes. This is a mechanism to tell time as the day progresses.
Next, the students visited the Hall of Paleontology, where they saw everything from dinosaurs to giant armadillos. Part of this hall also includes a small exhibit on petrified wood, and the students marvelled as they walked by each colorful piece.
Moving on, the students went up to the second floor, where they saw the Hall of Texas Wildlife and the Cabinet of Curiosities. In the second exhibit, students found a giant globe and spent some time identifying their home countries on the map. They later explored the rest of the hall, where they could open the cabinets and touch the eclectic collection of objects stored inside.
Students were impressed as they approached the mummies in the Hall of Ancient Egypt. The museum has a wide collection of relics from both the Old and New Kingdoms, including makeup equipment, ancient mirrors, canopic jars, and even a cat mummy.
In the Hall of the Americas, students saw the path ancient peoples took as they migrated from Siberia into the Americas over the Bering Land Bridge which once connected Asia to North America. Some students explored the Inca section, while others were curious about the Maya and Aztec section of the exhibit.
Before leaving the museum, the students shopped around the museum’s gift shop for souvenirs to remember their time.
Many students wanted to get dinner together after visiting the museum. At a local taco shop, students practiced their English by ordering their meals. They discussed their favorite museum exhibits as they ate. A few students were even planning their next trips back.
The sun set as students walked back to Rice, where they’d all met up to start their museum excursion. This ended the day, and students went their separate ways to get home that evening.
This concludes this social activity recap. Thank you for reading, and please stay tuned to our social media channels for more exciting social activity announcements and recaps coming later this session.
By Hadrian Barbosa