Destination: Kids, adults will love Mazes & Brain Games at N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences

The N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences opened a new special exhibit that lets visitors put their brains to the test in a series of optical illusions, full body games and 3D puzzles.

"It was actually really fun learning about all of the different tricks your brain plays on you as you go through," said Tammy Stern, content developer at the museum. "... It's highly fun and highly active, but we've added some tidbits of science about optical illusions and balance."

The focus here is on fun with a side of science. You'll find lessons about teamwork, dexterity, memory and brain exercises, of course. It's a science museum, after all. But kids and parents will enjoy exploring the various stations and spaces and learning lots of fun facts in this highly active, visual and immersive exhibit.

Minotaur Mazes is behind Brain Games. The company also created American Adventure, which stopped at the museum in 2016 with an indoor maze and zip line, and Rainforest Adventure exhibit, which was at the museum in 2014 and included monkey bars and a spider web-like rope piece that kids could climb.

Expect the same hands-on and interactive exhibits at Brain Games. It includes more than 60 "puzzling" experiences that are intended to inspire exploration and ingenuity, along with lots of other games, activities and stations that the downtown Raleigh museum has added on its own.

In Mazes & Brain Games, visitors can start by exploring large "maze" with plastic panels that lead you from one section to the next. Here, you'll answer a variety of questions that focus mostly on optical illusions. Are the lines curved or straight in a picture? What's a negative image? And you'll see art from the 1500s that - even then - had fun with illusions. There also are fun house mirrors - which the kids love - and a space where visitors can learn more about the physics of light, testing

From there, visitors can explore the rest of the exhibit, which includes large floor mats with mazes, a balancing game that requires you to move a marble around a maze and a large life-sized web maze with ropes that looks kind of like the scene in "Mission: Impossible" where Tom Cruise tries to avoid the lasers.

For very young kids, the exhibit features a smaller musical instrument maze where kids can play with different kinds of instruments as they walk through. (Parents likely will need to duck through this one as it's just five-feet tall.)

Next to the smaller maze, you'll enter the Cosmic Brain Games room complete with black light and lots of glowing things thanks to UV reactive paint and other materials. Kids love the Shadow Freeze wall where they hold a pose, wait for a flash and step away to see their shadow on the large wall.

At 1 p.m., daily, the museum also will put the brains of rats to the test as they weave through a small maze in pursuit of some treats. One rat will be featured each day. Museum staff will time them to see how long it takes for them to complete the maze. In some cases, it's less than a minute. In other cases, let's just say, those rats enjoy taking their time.

Mazes & Brain Games runs through Sept. 3 at the downtown Raleigh museum. Tickets are $5 per person. I highly recommend this exhibit. It's definitely one you could return to many times during its run.