Sonic Sensations

Experience our sonic world and the sensation of being surrounded by everyday sounds in our new featured exhibition, Sonic Sensations!

Experiment with pitch, test your own hearing, make a movie soundtrack, and sort high and low pitches by hitting colored bells! You can also create sounds by conducting an Invisible Orchestra, and launch a billiard ball to show how sound hitting our eardrums sends signals to our brain.

In a lively, engaging manner, Sonic Sensation presents a fun and informative opportunity to explore sound in our environment. Learn about the anatomy and physics of how we hear, find out about decibels, amplitude, frequency, pitch, sound waves, and what you can do to protect your hearing.

Measure the frequency of sounds, match mystery sounds, and try to find hidden “animals” in kitchen cupboards by listening (no peeking!). Young visitors will want try out Ear This!, a fun family photo op where they can see how they look with the ears of an elephant, rabbit, bat and more.

Come explore and learn how you hear, and discover how well you can listen.