MOSI Offers $5 Admission Saturday

The Museum of Science & Industry, 4801 E. Fowler Ave. in Tampa, will offer the Tampa Bay community its last opportunity of the year for discounted MOSI admission Saturday, Dec. 1.

MOSI hosts several $5 Days each year to help community members of all income levels to access MOSI exhibit galleries, including The Amazing You exhibition; Kids In Charge!, the largest children’s science center in the nation; and more than 450 hands-on, interactive exhibits.

Admission on $5 Day includes entrance to the IMAX Dome Theatre Film To The Arctic and the exhibition Target America – Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause.

Other activities for the month of December include:

Cirque Italia will perform in its customized traveling tent at MOSI’s adjacent property through Dec. 2. The group will perform ACT XII, its 2012 opening show. With talented artists from across the world, Cirque Italia will have audiences dazzled under the big top. It features a unique moveable water stage, aerial acts, hand-balancing acts, contortionists, hula hoops, and many more performances. For more information, call 813-987-6000 or visit mosi.org. 

Space Junk is now playing at the MOSI IMAX Dome Theatre. After 50 years of launching into space, a growing ring of orbiting debris casts a shadow over the future of space exploration. Space Junk is a visually explosive, sensory expanding voyage into the now-threatened final frontier. Experience mindboggling collisions, both natural and manmade, and soar from the stunning depths of Meteor Crater to an unprecedented 22,000 miles above Earth. For information on tickets and showtimes, visit www.mosi.org.

MOSI is opening a new exhibit Dec. 2 called Slippery Science, a PNC Passport to Science: A Grow Up Great Initiative in Kids In Charge!, in MOSI’s children’s science center. It will include 11 new exhibits in which children can experiment with friction, collision physics or just ride a zamboni. Incorporating elements of the Tampa Bay Times Forum and Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team as a backdrop, the exhibit will include a series of interactive, age-appropriate exhibits with accompanying take-home activities and educator-led STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) investigations for children, parents and teachers.

Residents are invited to MOSI to take pictures with Santa on MOSI's Sky Trail Ropes Course and participate in holiday activities for the whole family Dec. 8 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Photos are free with paid Sky Trail Ropes Course admission. Or residents can have their photos taken with Santa on the ground for $7.

Skip the lines at the mall and head to MOSI for a buffet breakfast with Santa on Dec. 15. Special holiday activities and music will be included at this event. All proceeds benefit MOSI’s educational programs. Preregistration is highly recommended. Prepurchased tickets for MOSI members are $11/adult, $8/child. Prepurchased tickets for nonmembers are $13/adult, $10/child. Tickets at the door are $15/adult, $12/child. Tickets can be prepurchased by calling 813-987-6000.

Mission: Moonbase will open at MOSI Dec. 15. Guests will travel to the moon on a space transport to help operate a lunar colony. They will become a part of a team, living and working on the moon in the year 2070, achieving what once seemed impossible: a home away from Earth. Resources are scarce and guests will learn that a self-reliant lunar colony is a complex system that requires close monitoring. Guests will help monitor and observe the environment, resources like food and water, and air quality. Additionally, guests will continue exploring the moon and will assist in the launching and landing of spacecrafts that bring deliveries and supplies. Other operations within Mission: Moonbase include designing and assembling a robot that can complete certain tasks, monitoring mining operations, and activating the magnetic field to protect the colony from solar radiation.

The Hobbit will open Dec. 15 at MOSI. The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon, Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard, Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of 13 dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the wild; through treacherous lands swarming with goblins and orcs, deadly wargs and sorcerers. Although their goal lies to the east and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain, first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever...Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of ingenuity and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum's "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities... A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know. For information on tickets and showtimes, visit www.mosi.org.

The Museum of Science and Industry is a not-for-profit, community-based institution and educational resource dedicated to advancing public interest, knowledge and understanding of science, industry and technology.