Science Museum of Minnesota
Trimester 3 Extra Credit
Name_______________________________
Period_____
Date______________
The Science Museum of Minnesota, founded in 1907, is a large regional science museum located on the
banks of the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul. The Science Museum of Minnesota is known worldwide
for its interactive exhibits, dynamic traveling exhibitions, and internationally distributed large format films.
Admission into the Science Museum is $11.00 for adults (age 13 and up). Parking in the ramp connected to the
museum starts at $5 for one hour, $6 for 1-2 hours, $8 for 2-3 hours, $9 for 3-4 hours and $10 for 4 hours or
more. For directions, hours and other information visit the museum’s website at www.smm.org. If you go to
the museum with a friend, EACH of you must complete this guided worksheet in order to receive extra credit.
Have fun!
Mississippi River Gallery
Floor 5 (Top Floor)
1. How many miles does the Mississippi River flow before it gets to the Gulf of Mexico?
2. How many million years ago did the sea covering Minnesota leave?
3. What is the order of rocks from top to bottom found in the Mississippi River bluff along Warner Road in
St. Paul?
4. What is a stromatolite?
5. Name 3 cities that receive their drinking water from the Mississippi River.
6. When were Zebra Mussels first found in the Great Lakes?
7. How do Zebra Mussels cause damage to aquatic ecosystems?
8. What is Castoroides ohioensis and where was it found?
9. How was this animal different from a modern beaver?
10. How did Whooping Cranes get their name?
Human Body Gallery
Floor 4
Go to “Can you feel the difference between an artery and a vein?”
1. Why does the artery have a pulse but the vein does not?
Look at the red blood cells and capillaries in your eye.
2. What are the tiny dots darting about?
3. What makes humans an exception to other animals?
4. What is different about the new antibiotics created by the scientists at Albert Einstein College of
Medicine in New York?
5. How many years did it take for the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus to develop a resistant strain to
penicillin?
6. What are two things you can do to prevent bacteria resistance from developing?
7. How do your nerves and muscles communicate?
8. How strong are your muscles electrical signals?
9. What is anosmia?
10. Why does a specific smell sometimes trigger a specific memory?
11. What happens in a brain affected by Alzheimer’s Disease?
12. What are plaques and tangles?
13. What are the 3 steps in making a memory?
14. How many pints of blood are you circulating?
15. Why can we donate blood without running out?
16. What are stem cells?
17. What are the two types of stem cells?
18. How many different cell types can embryonic stem cells develop into?
Go to the Good Cell vs. Bad Cell microscope station
19. What is contact inhibition?
Collections
Floor 4
1. Where did Don the Western Lowland Gorilla come from?
2. How did he die?
3. What kinds of grains are found in Minnesota sand?
4. What is in Puffy Star sand from Okinawa, Japan?
5. How old is the “tree cookie”?
6. Where is the “tree cookie” from?
7. How tall was the tree before it was cut down?
8. What kind of tree was the “tree cookie” cut from?
Dinosaur and Fossil Gallery
Floor 1 (Bottom Floor)
1. What do scientists predict is the reason for the large plates along the spine of the Stegosaurus?
2. Is the “Terror Crane” an accurate name? Why or why not?
3. On what continent did “evolution in isolation” take place?
4. What is a glyptodont?
5. Why did it go extinct?
6. Where is the Wannagan Creek Quarry that supplies the Science Museum of Minnesota with many of its
fossils?
7. How many individual Leidyosuchus formidabilis crocodiles were recovered from the Wannagan Creek
Quarry?
8. How far underneath the surface were most of them found?
9. What is different about the Wannaganosuchus alligator’s teeth/jaw compared to a modern alligator?
10. What is a surefire indicator of warm, swampy conditions 60 million years ago in North Dakota?
11. Who are the closest relatives of the Champsosaur?
12. What two toxins do cycads contain?
13. What damage can they cause?
14. Complete this sentence. The standing skeleton collected by ______________ _______________
paleontologists is the _______________ Camptosaurus skeleton in the ____________.
15. What is one of the smallest dinosaurs known?
16. Where is Poison Creek?
17. Who discovered the 11 dinosaur fossils found there?
18. What are coprolites?
19. How old is most of the earth’s oil?
20. How old is most of the earth’s coal?
21. What is an eremotherium?
22. When did they die out?
23. What is one of the Science Museum’s heaviest single fossil?
24. Name 5 animals found in the North American Game Park.
25. Why are Oreodont skulls sometimes called “trash fossils”?
26. How long ago were 3-toed horses common worldwide?
27. Why is it so rare to find a ray or shark fossil?
28. What organisms are most likely to become fossils?
29. What is Xiphactinus and when did it live?
30. Where was the large Triceratops fossil found?