The Museum of Science & Industry (MOSI) is a non-profit science museum in Tampa, Florida. MOSI’s funding is provided by private donations, corporate sponsors, and support from Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa.
History
MOSI began in 1962 when Hillsborough County first approved funding for a youth museum in Sulphur Springs. Named the Museum of Science and Natural History, it provided natural science exhibits and educational programs to children and adults. The museum’s name was changed to the Hillsborough County Museum in 1967. In 1976, the Hillsborough County Museum’s advisory committee and staff started constructing a new museum in North Tampa to become the Museum of Science & Industry. The museum was completed in 1980 and permanently opened to the public on January 23, 1982.
In 1995 the construction of the 190,000-square-foot science center with Florida’s only IMAX Dome Theatre, extensive permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, a planetarium, and a public library was completed. Further renovations were done in 1996, 2001, and 2005. MOSI was the largest science center in the southeast and the 5th largest in the U.S. On August 13, 2017, MOSI closed 85% of its building and IMAX theater to save money. Many exhibits were removed, and the remaining exhibits were relocated to the museum’s previous “Kids in Charge” section.
Exhibits
Mission: Moonbase
Mission: Moonbase is a simulated permanent lunar base in the year 2070. The premise is that it is built near the Moon’s south pole, where there are believed to be large reservoirs of frozen water reasonably available within the rocks and where some highlands can experience long periods of sunlight. Moonbase is a larger operation’s operations center that includes food production (farming) and mining facilities. Mission: Moonbase at MOSI is funded, in part, by NASA and is part of MOSI’s plan to continually improve our guest experience and support the future of STEAM.
Slippery Science
Slippery Science contains multiple exhibits incorporating elements of the Tampa Bay Times Forum and the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. Slippery Science includes a series of interactive exhibits that teach friction, physics, the science behind reaction time, and more. A1 Bed Bug Exterminator Tampa
Past Exhibits
Gulf Coast Hurricane
The hurricane exhibit at MOSI allows people to experience winds that range from a harmless rainstorm to a category one hurricane. This exhibit is designed to raise awareness of the intensity of a storm. The museum refers to it as a “Get Smart, Get Ready” opportunity to enlighten people on how to do just that, learn and prepare for a storm. As the wind increases, a wall chart indicates the Beaufort Wind Scale and what could be expected of the winds that are being experienced. Each wind increment is tagged with an event (i.e., you cannot hold an umbrella at a wind speed of twenty-five miles per hour).
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