Perot Museum of Nature and Science vs. Fort Worth Museum of Science and History

We are Perot Museum Members. We live 32 miles from the Perot Museum and 60 miles from the Fort Worth Science Museum. Our membership allows us free entrance to both museums. As you can imagine, we visit the Perot Museum more often because it’s closer to us, although, the Fort Worth Museum has its charms.

1. PLANETARIUM

One thing the Perot Museum doesn’t have is a Planetarium. Before, when the Dallas Science Museum was housed at Fair Park, you could walk a few feet to the Planetarium. Unfortunately, it stayed in Fair Park, so we haven’t visited it since the Perot Museum opened in 2012. The Fort Worth Science Museum’s planetarium is ok. It has a special Big Bird presentation to teach small children about the sun and the moon (and the one constellation: Big Dipper). There are songs and Sesame Street characters (including Elmo). I liked it. It was nice and pleasant. Unfortunately, for my seven and nine year old, I would have wanted a little more, but for our four year old nice it was perfect.

Apart from distance and the Planetarium (or lack, thereof, in the case of the Perot), there are two big differences between both museums.

2. SIZE

One of them is their size. The Perot Museum is HUGE! It has 11 permanent exhibits – in 6 levels – plus an IMAX theater and a traveling exhibit. On the other hand, the Fort Worth Science Museum is a two story building. It includes the Planetarium, a way superior IMAX theater and seven permanent exhibits. It does have a traveling exhibit, which has included an Indiana Jones exhibit we really enjoyed.

3. CROWDS

Another big difference I saw is crowds. The Perot is huge, but it is usually crowded. It sometimes get so crowded that they won’t let you go in once they have reached capacity. If you go during the weekday, it will be packed with school groups. During the school year they will be led by a classroom teacher and plenty of parents, but during the summer they will be lead by a few daycare teachers trying to take care of children of all ages without any parents. During the weekends there aren’t any school groups, but since parents don’t work, this is the day when families visit. I prefer families to school groups. Also, if you are a member of the Perot Museum you have special member hours Saturday (8-10am) and Sunday (10-12pm) before the museum opens to the general public. Members, in my opinion, have grown in numbers. That’s good news for the museum, but not for us, who used to take advantage of those member hours. They are still okay – especially the labs on the second level which are mostly empty Sundays from 10 to 12pm, which is the time we usually visit. Those are pretty cool.

On the other hand, we usually get to the Fort Worth Science Museum later in the day and it’s always pretty much empty. We never have to wait to use a manipulative in a station, and since we usually visit during the weekend, I don’t know how many school groups they get during the weekdays. The museum is also smaller in size, and the exhibits are smaller, too. There is a lot of hands on in the Fort Worth Science Museum, and the children’s museum is great for children under 8.

As my kids grow older, they enjoy the Perot Museum much more, but taking my 2 and 4 year old niece there was a success. It’s still nice to have both museum at driving distance, anyway.

cheers!