Philadelphia is a very historic city and I’m very proud to say I was born and raised here. I’ve tried living in smaller areas but at heart, I’m a city girl. Philadelphia has lots of things to do downtown and I’m proud to take advantage of all the things Philly has to offer but at the end of the day the museums are my favorite things to do downtown. I know, I’m such a nerd but I’m proud of this fact.
Named in honor of the great Benjamin Franklin, one of my favorite Philadelphia museums is the Franklin Institute for two reasons --- one, it’s centered around Science and two—the special exhibits. Every time I’ve visited the Franklin Institute I’ve enjoyed myself and I continue to be fascinated by all the exhibits they offer. I went a lot when I was a kid and I have no intention of stopping as an adult.
Let’s talk Science!
As I’ve mentioned earlier, Science is the main focus at the Institute but it doesn’t center around one specific area, the museum actually includes many various areas of science. My favorite area is biology and there are plenty of exhibits for me to explore which center around it—two main ones that come to mind are the Heart exhibit and the Brain Exhibit.
If you’re from Philadelphia or live close enough to it, there’s a high chance you’ve experienced the Institute or had the opportunity to do so when you were younger as a class trip. One of the big attraction for kids is found in the heart exhibit.
The Franklin Institute is great at creating interactive activities and features in each exhibit, it’s something I love about this place. One of the most popular is the Giant Heart, you can actually walk around and explore the inside of a human heart, it’s so much fun and you learn so much at the same time. I always loved that as a kid and even as an adult I continue to love it.
The brain exhibit has a couple great interactive activates as well. Neurons are a major focus when learning about the brain because they’re the little messengers inside our head that allow us to do stuff, without them--- well let’s just say things would be very different. To help explore these little messengers the Institute includes a ginormous neuron web that you can climb, it’s pretty similar to the playhouses at fast food chains but a lot cooler and way geekier. I feel this is a great way to have fun and explore the inner workings of our brains.
Another great activity is a touch screen which allows you to make your own collection of neurons. This to me is a great way to actually visualize how a signal is sent throughout the brain to allow us to do the simplest of motions. I’ve spent quite a few minutes with each of these activities and I feel they really help stimulate my brain.
These are just two examples of why I love the Franklin Institute but I don’t want to bore you, so on to my next major love of this museum!
Let’s talk special exhibits!
The Franklin Institute is known for its limited time exhibits and I feel they really go full out when they put these together. I have seen quite a few and I’m quite impressed each time.
On that note, their most recent exhibit brought us the amazing Jurassic World experience. This was definitely one of my favorites and I can’t begin to tell you how many times I must’ve said “wow” while I was there. Ilove dinosaurs, I think they’re fascinating animals and having the chance to learn so much about them is a win-win in my book.
This exhibit embodied the spirit of Jurassic World in every way, from the scenery to the instructional videos to the actual dinosaurs themselves. That’s right, actual dinosaurs! The animatronics present throughout the exhibit really made you feel like they were real, especially inside the T-Rex exhibit!
They also explored all the different areas of the park mentioned throughout the movie—there was even a Creation Lab with fossils and baby dinosaurs!! It was a very beautiful exhibit and the museum staff did a wonderful job at making the customers feel like they were truly part of the Jurassic World experience.
I hope to visit it again soon, before it leaves the museum, I’m going to be sad to see it go! So, if you’re looking for something to do in the City of Brotherly Love, try checking out the Franklin Institute, I bet you won’t be disappointed!