On Saturday we ventured to the Indiana State Museum in downtown Indy for the opening of their Ice Age Giants: The Mystery of Mammoths and Mastodons exhibit sponsored by IMI. I hadn’t been to the museum in a long time and was shocked by how amazing it is; world-class exhibits, family-friendly activities, and room after room of Indiana-related goodness. It made me all warm and fuzzy for my state.
The Ice Age exhibit focuses on all the mammoths and mastodons found in Indiana soil. I was shocked to learn that most of Indiana’s 92 counties have produced mastodon bones, including some near my hometown. We saw a recreation of a dig site, the girls tried out some bone excavation, and they got to practice their spear hunting which was nice because that’s been on our to-do list for weeks.
Outside the exhibit, a fossil festival was going on and it was a major hit. Anything hands-on will entertain my kids for hours and they would’ve spent all day here if we let them. Searching for bones in sand, fossil hunting in pebbles, putting together a giant fossil puzzle, and making cement paperweights while checking out real-life, large scale fossils were some of the activities that had them enthralled. Plus, I think they walked away with some candy; someone knows the trick to getting kids learning, bribe them with sugar.
The exhibit runs from now until August 2014 and is included with your general admission ticket. For dates and times open, visit indianamuseum.org. We had a blast and the girls were worn out by the time we were finished the Ice Age exhibit which was a bummer since there was so much more of the museum we wanted to explore. If you’re local to Indy or making a trip here soon, make sure you stop by the Indiana State Museum, you’ll be amazed.
DISCLOSURE: I was gifted admission to the museum in exchange for this post, but all opinions are my own.
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