When you think of the Science Museum of Minnesota you probably think about exhibits that don’t require the visitor to be very active, but the science museum is trying to change that. The newest exhibit at the science museum is centered around the science of sports, and is aptly names Sportsology. I went to the exhibit on Apr. 3 after school and thankfully it wasn’t very crowded.

I started at the “faster, higher, better” activity where basketballs are suspended in the air at different heights. The goal is to jump in the air and hit the highest basketball possible. The highest one I reached was the 8 foot basketball, which I was very proud of. The highest one is 11 feet, which professionals should be able to reach, which means I’m 73 percent as high as a professional basketball player.

After that I went to the slow motion activity where you choose a sport and then do something from that sport in front of a camera. After that you can watch yourself in slow motion. I’m not a particularly athletically inclined person so none of the sports options looked great to me, but I decided on football because I thought it would be the most interesting. I pathetically threw the football in front of the camera and then anxiously waited to see my video. The video compares you with a professional athlete. The video of me playing a football was played right next to a video of a professional throwing a football. I can only assume this would be even cooler if you actually knew what you were doing and what to look for in the video, but it was definitely cool for me.

The next activity I went to was a race, you step up to the starting plate and choose someone to race against. There are probably 10 options, such as professional track and basketball players, a T-Rex and a mascot. I chose to race against the T-Rex because while waiting in line I had seen people choose almost all but the T-Rex and I was curious. Every other option was shown on the track but the background changed when I choose the T-Rex, it looked like a jungle. From the beginning I had a massive disadvantage because my legs were so much shorter than the T-Rex’s, on the screen where you can normally see the athlete, you could only see the bottom of the T-Rex’s legs. The race started and within 4 seconds the T-Rex had already finished. That’s right, he beat me in less than five steps. I finished the race about a second after him, which doesn’t seem like that long but in a 5 second race it’s a lot of time. This was one of my favorite activities because it was easy to do even if you aren’t super athletic.

The final activity was a weird balancing activity. There were small oval-shaped balls, similar to yoga balls, pinned to the floor, and you were allowed try whatever you would like on them. I consider myself to be fairly good at balancing and after mastering the art of standing on the ovals I decided to go for the more advanced handstand. The first try, I did not get close to a handstand, my attempt more closely resembled a donkey kick than a handstand but I was determined to try again. The second try was a little better but I still didn’t get it and finally on the third try I kicked up, stayed there for a couple seconds and fell to the ground almost kicking a little kid in the head in the process. Considering I stayed up for a couple seconds and did not give any small children concussions, I consider my third try a success. Not wanting to risk injuring anyone, including myself, I decided to be done.

I had a great time at the exhibit, the only downfall being that it was fairly small, I was in and out within 45 minutes. The Science Museum has plenty of other fun exhibits and you are paying for them all with your museum admission, I would advise checking out the whole museum. Regular admission costs $18.95, but on Friday after 5pm if you bring your student ID, you can get in for $6, and see a movie in the omnitheater for only $6 extra.