In 1949, The Junior League of Miami’s Project Finding Committee decided that the children of Dade County needed a place to explore, expand their minds, and experiment with the world around them. In other words, they needed a science museum. And it only took a year to get the ball rolling with a lot of momentum. The Junior Museum of Miami opened in a house on the corner of Biscayne Boulevard and 26th Street, but it didn’t take long for it to outgrow its first home. After a few years, moves, and name changes, the Museum opened at its current location on the grounds of the historic Vizcaya complex – and now, it’s growing even more, with construction under way for the new Patricia and Philip Frost Museum of Science in downtown Miami. It all began with a simple but clear vision from The Junior League of Miami, and the League continues to support the Museum today, over 60 years later. As visitors to the early science museum will tell you, children would come from all over just to see “the beehive in the chimney.” So, what better way to support the Museum than to bring back the bees? (The non-killer kind.) With a donation from the Junior League of Miami to build a brand new beehive exhibit, and help from Bunch Farms in installing the hive, the next generation of Dade County’s children can see (and even hear) inside the busy buzzing lives of bees.

Junior League President Katie Lane Arriola, Museum President Gillian Thomas, Junior League Past President Dana Martorella

Junior League of Miami members are joined by their kids, with Museum President Gillian Thomas, by the Bees exhibit

Bee Puppet Show!

The new Bees exhibit

The busy buzzing bees at the Museum

This past weekend, we launched our newest exhibition: Moving Things as part of the inaugural Big Truck Days weekend. Nearly 1,000 visitors were able to climb up and into the driver’s seats of big rigs from Ryder, a 60-foot Miami-Dade County hybrid bus, a big Miami-Dade County hybrid garbage truck and a Daimler Freightliner safety truck!

Hands-on activities, including solar- and air-powered Lego car building, a Mousetrap Car building contest led by MiaSci’s own Upward Bound students, and a ramp building and matchbox car race were fun and educational for visitors of all ages. Exciting prize giveaways and raffles for dads included Monster Jam tickets, Monster Jam gifts, Perry Ellis apparel and cologne, and Miami Science Museum ticket and membership gifts!

Big Truck Days visitors were the very first to experience the brand new exhibition Moving Things, sponsored by locally based transportation and logistics industry leader Ryder and its charitable foundation. Visitors were able to test their own brain vs. brawn in this fun, hands-on exhibition focused on how things move from place to place – sometimes easily – sometimes with great effort…but always full of surprises. Moving Things will serve as a prototype exhibition for the new Miami Science Museum, scheduled to open in Museum Park in 2014 (Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science).

“The Moving Things exhibit and Big Truck Days bring to life the innovative processes, advanced equipment, lifesaving safety features, and green technologies used in commercial transportation and logistics,” said Ryder Vice President of Innovation Steve Monroe, who serves on the Miami Science Museum board of trustees. “Congratulations to the Miami Science Museum for creating a fun, educational experience to highlight a growing industry that will continue to be a strong source of employment, regardless of where products are sourced, assembled and distributed around the world.”