Science Center: Meet Victoria

We went on T Rex guided experience at the Arizona Science Center. The experiences are small (up to 10 people) guided tours of one part of the Science Center. The tour is a combination of independent exploration and hands-on activities. We were the only ones on our tour so we had the areas to ourselves. It was great! We highly recommend it and would definitely consider doing another one in the future.

Megan, U and Matthew making paper airplanes while waiting for our tour to start.

Megan launching her plane.

Matthew launching his plane.

Truth!

A triceratops skull.

We spent some time independently exploring the Forces of Nature exhibit including watching the Forces of Nature show.

Megan going round and round.

Sarah enjoyed it too.

Matthew exploring the various ways rocks are formed.

Megan loved having the sand area to herself for a bit.

Matthew enjoyed playing with the sand as well.

The lake Megan and Matthew created.

We learned about continental plates and the different types of motion they have relative to each other by playing with kinetic sand and plastic plates that represented the continental plates.

Matthew flattening out his sand. One of the continental plates he used is visible below the tray.

We enjoyed playing with the sand as well.

U created Devils Tower.

A volcano came up as the continental plates drifted apart on Megan's tray.

Matthew created a volcano as well.

For our next activity, we excavated chocolate chips from cookies as we learned about being paleontologists. The chocolate chips melting due to the heat was one challenge of removing the chocolate chips without damaging them.

Next up was the highlight of our tour: a visit to see Victoria, a 66 million year old T. Rex skeleton that was discovered a few years ago in South Dakota. There were a number of interactive exhibits that showed us how Victoria lived and how her sense of smell, sound and vision compared to ours. We created our own T Rex and then saw it projected to life in its natural environment. We saw scenes of what Victoria's life may have looked like as she walked through her natural habitat.

Meet Victoria.

Her actual skull. It was cool to see it up close. On the bottom part of the jaw, there are scars that indicate she may have been in a fight with another T Rex. It's possible that this is what resulted in her death.

Close up of the teeth. If you look closely, you can see the serrated edges.

Her right femur bone. 

Our visit to the Science Center continued with us throwing/dropping different balls into a large container of flour to see what may have happened that caused the dinosaurs to become extinct. Our visit wrapped up with a short IMAX film that showed the life of dinosaurs that used to live on what is now Antarctica. The climate was much warmer then! We definitely enjoyed our visit!