Museum of Science and Industry

If you’re into exhibits loaded with interactive bells and whistles, this expansive Hyde Park locale is your ticket. The museum’s focus is broad, with permanent displays that include the popular, health-focused new "You! The Experience" gallery, the new whiz-bang "Science Storms," plus the old faves: a restored U-505 German submarine, a simulated coal mine and a glass-covered hatchery of chicks. Don't miss the controversial “BODY WORLDS and the Cycle of Life," opening March 18. Dr. Gunther von Hagens, a German anatomist who invented plastination (a way to preserve body tissue specimens), will bring his exhibit to Chicago for its U.S. premiere. Strong-stomached kids under 13 have to be accompanied by an adult. Expect a lineup of (real) human specimens that have experienced the effects of age, disease and injury, demonstrating the body’s amazing resiliency.