Today's hours: 10am - 5pm
A Mirror Maze: Numbers in Nature
On view June 8 – Sept. 9, 2024*
Never look at the world the same way again.
A Mirror Maze: Numbers in Nature is an interactive and immersive exhibit featuring a life-size mirror maze, that exposes the mathematical patterns that abound in the natural world. From the delicate nested spirals of a sunflower’s seeds to spots on a giraffe, guests will discover a unique—and sometimes puzzling—perspective of our daily surroundings. A Mirror Maze: Numbers in Nature also features an array of artifacts—Bighorn sheep antlers, honeycomb and an aluminum anthill casting—that demonstrate real examples of patterns in objects from the natural world.
The crown jewel of this exhibit is an elaborate mirror maze in which guests can explore and navigate a seemingly infinite repeating pattern of mirrors. Interactive elements throughout the exhibit allow for hands-on learning to understand that math is all around us in everyday life, revealing the beauty of our world through numbers.
Exhibit Highlights
- Includes a 1,700 square-foot Mirror Maze for guests to explore
- Animated imagery from nature, demonstrating the endless patterns found in our world
- Opportunities to compose your own music using symmetry, draw patterns on a digital screen, and create a musical scale using a harp
- Interactive challenge to find symmetrical patterns in your body using projections and a two-way mirror
- Bonus puzzles, imagery, artifacts and more!
A Mirror Maze: Numbers in Nature is designed and developed by the Museum of Science + Industry Chicago. Local support provided by the Isdell Family Foundation. Additional support provided by the Frances Wood Wilson Foundation.
*Dates and titles are subject to change.
Fernbank is a nonprofit natural history museum, giant screen theater and old-growth forest, and is not affiliated with Fernbank Science Center, which operates as a division of DeKalb County Schools.
