After closing for renovations, the Texas Museum of Science and Technology in Cedar Park will reopen with four new or expanded exhibits in September.


The museum’s two permanent exhibits—the planetarium and “Timewalk”—are joined by the traveling display “Drugs: Costs & Consequences” from the Drug Enforcement Administration and another called “Machines in Motion” about Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions.


“It’s going to be beautiful, functional and way better than it was,” said Torvald Hessel, founder and chief strategy officer for TXMoST. “It’s day-and-night different.”


The planetarium may present three new shows, he said. “Timewalk” will include materials that could not fit before the remodeling, which expanded space available, TXMoST Executive Director Ed Slane said.


“Timewalk” takes the museum guest from the earliest traces of life to human evolution, Slane said. It now features the skeleton of a tarbosaurus, which is a dinosaur smaller than but similar to a Tyrannosaurus rex.


“It really tells the story from the single cell all the way to you and me,” Hessel said.


The Leonardo da Vinci exhibit brings his sketches to life, creating working devices from his drawn inventions, Slane said.


“Children and students will be able to play with it and have that hands-on experience,” Slane said.


The last exhibit is oriented toward adults and high school students, with a portion appropriate for middle schoolers.


“Drugs: Costs & Consequences” includes half of a car involved in a driving-while-intoxicated crash and an area where the public can post sticky notes in memory of loved ones lost to overdoses.


“It is not at all, ‘Drinking is bad; you shouldn’t do it’; it is not anti-marijuana,” Hessel said. “It is literally the protection of ourselves and our children, and that comes through awareness.”


Hessel said TXMoST will reopen to the public Sept. 22, and museum members will get a first look at the new exhibits from 10 a.m.-noon the same day.


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