Humans have struggled to understand the earth for hundreds of years, studying for clues on how to break open its crust and lick its nougat-filled centre. Dive into our planet's decadent secrets with today's Groupon for a year membership to the Johnson Geo Centre. Choose between the following options:
- For $20, you get a year individual membership (a $40 value, including HST).
- For $40, you get a year family membership, good for two adults and all family members under 18 years old (an $85 value, including HST).
Museum membership includes free general admission as well as 10% off gift-shop items, selected programs, special exhibits, space rentals, and birthday-party packages. Members also earn free admission to all Canadian Association of Science Centres partner centres.
Set into historic Signal Hill, Johnson Geo Centre guides guests through the past, present, and future of global and local geology. After passing through the modern glass-entry atrium, visitors spelunk through exhibits housed in walls hewn from the hill's 550-million-year-old exposed rock. Guests sit for earth-centric films in the Earth & Space Theatre, a Dolby Digital 3-D space, screening the high-clarity science behind spaceship earth's origins, living cargo, and average horsepower. Geo Theatre chronicles the earth's four billion years and awkward teen phase in 16 minutes of projection screen-free performance using a rock wall, a cave, a running stream, a glowing lava, and rain showers. Attend more static entertainment at the Mistaken Point exhibit, showcasing 565-million-year-old fossils preserved in layers of fine volcanic ash—granting glimpses of life's ancient sea floors.
Toddler visitors frolic in Kidzone, a fully equipped activity room stunning miniature mineralists with a fossil corner, planet cross sections, a reading area, and a puppet-theatre stage. Guests may also shop for earthy history in the gift shop, perusing elegant jewellery and housewares crafted from minerals, as well as games, puzzles, and biographies of A-list rocks. Wander through original rock outcroppings, wild grasses, and native plants on the museum grounds, or, with advance booking, visit the six geothermal wells as they generate the building's heat. Johnson Geo Centre leads talks and tours daily.
The Johnson GEO CENTRE
An expanse of 550-million-year-old rock surrounds the geological exhibits at The Johnson GEO CENTRE, a 33,600-square-foot facility that resides mostly in stone’s favourite hangout: underground. There, the Steele Earth & Space Theatre screens high-definition science-minded films in 2-D and 3-D, and the Geo Theatre projects the four-billion-year history of the earth onto a rock wall featuring a cave, running stream, and glowing lava. Exhibitions include scientific oddities such as a cutaway of the earth and 565-million-year-old fossils preserved in layers of volcanic ash. The museum also highlights the educational opportunities found in more recent events: real-life artifacts and interactive kiosks tell the Titanic's tragic story, and the ExxonMobil Oil and Gas Gallery explores energy with scale models of an oil tanker and offshore supply vessel.
At the KidsPlace, youngsters aged 1–7 can put on science-inspired plays on the puppet-theatre stage or study trilobites and eight-track tapes in the fossil corner. The gift shop also outfits kids with educational books and games, and adults can stock up on agate wind chimes and sterling-silver jewellery. In between bites of GEO sandwiches in the GEO café, members can peruse schedules of numerous monthly events or plan enrollment in summer camps aimed at junior scientists.