Buffalo Museum of Science

Came here for Beerology recently and was pleasantly surprised by all the new room designs. If you haven’t been here for awhile it’s definitely time for you to go back. I love the science museum and I feel it’s very important to support these not for profits in Buffalo. Go to their next event! Highly recommend.

I spent a great Sunday afternoon at the Museum today. It was my first time ever visiting the Buffalo Museum of Science and I was definitely impressed.
The exhibits were visually impactful, very informative and in great shape. I enjoyed seeing how they worked in and celebrated the dioramas that have been in the Museum for years. There was a good balance between content for older audiences and hands-​on experiences designed for kids.
Though several of the interactive pieces were out of order, there were so many things to look at and do that it didn’t detract much from the experience.

I came here for a mentor event with my Westminster student. I hadn’t been in such a long time! I really liked all of the different rooms that were available for the children. This place was very interactive with lots of stuff for the kids to do. It took over an hour to go through each of the room thoroughly. I enjoyed myself and it was refreshing to see all of the kids having a good time while learning.

We became members this year and had out children’s birthday party on site. My kids are 3, so I feared it might not be entertaining for their age. But there is a whole discovery room geared towards toddler age. They had a «bubble blast» theme for the birthday party — which was a hit! We explored most of the exhibits on site and appreciate the interactive parts.

This is my second time here, we ended up getting a membership. I went last week and it was dead. My two year old loved it we spent 4 hours there and didn’t experience half of it. Went back today on school vacation week. It was a mad house! We saw all they had to offer and look forward to going back when it is not so busy!

You get a whole lot of value for the relatively low admission price at the Buffalo Science Museum! Check it out when you want to get out of that Buffalo cold. and you know you want to.
If you have small children, you will enjoy this museum pretty much any time. If you have older children or are just visiting as adults, I would advise timing your visit when it will be less likely to be full of smaller children. As is always the case, there are plenty of adults there with implausibly large numbers of children under the age of ten, and not all of them mind the children. A good tactic is to go on school days, or after lunch when kids start to crash. If you go at opening and there are tons of kids, go directly to the upper floors, start there, and work your way down against the flow of the crowd. You can have the third floor to yourself for at least 30 – 45 minutes!
A lot of the exhibits seem newer, so it is a great time to go. Either they are fantastic at keeping things up-​to-​date, or they have just completed a huge set of new exhibits. Either way, it’s great. The displays are good, the interactive exhibits are in good working order, and the informational panels are superb. This is probably the best science museum I’ve been to in New York other than the major ones in NYC.

This place has a mixture of old displays and new. I would definitely say that it’s a bit more kid oriented instead of an adult museum, with a lot of interactive exhibits. The current traveling exhibit on mummies is pretty well done, with a lot of interactive bits as well.
Navigating the museum is a little bit confusing at first, but once I realized the trick, it was a lot easier. It’s also great to see lots of local oriented displays.

This is not the Science Museum of years ago. I think it’s been made larger and brighter, lighter, generally more inviting.
Tom D would be happy to see the hand sanitizer dispensers all around. He’d be less happy about the crumbs I saw though, more on that later.
I came for the mummies. It’s open until Oct sometime (extended a few weeks from original close date of Sept 21). Then it moves on to other cities. Both the Science Museum and the Buffalo Historical Society helped create this exhibit, working with about 10 other organizations from around the world.
I enjoyed the mummies. It’s a pretty «grown up» exhibit I felt, yet they seem to have school groups often around lunchtime. I assume there is a «child’s version» lecture to go with that but I saw only the «adult version».
The museum also has a nice area that teaches you about the history (science wise) of this area. From before the last ice age.
There is a large children’s area, from the toddlers to the older ones. Interactive. The kids I saw were having a blast.
Independent Health has joined the museum for a display all about YOU, the person. Healthy choices. How does the body work? Genetics and what they mean.
Learn about the solar system and how it affects weather on Earth.
And of course the BUG section. Everything you wanted to know and see. And more. But really everything that small child in your world wants to see. Creepy. Crawly. Flying. It’s all covered.
On to the café. This is a small café. It’s not the focus of the museum, but it offers a place for a coffee break if needed or a sandwich for lunch. There is food aimed at kids. There are adult sandwich choices. And some pizza choices. All made to order in front of you. Not a huge selection, but something for everyone (including vegetarian) and all reasonably priced. With tables. Which is where the crumbs come into it. There were crumbs on the two tables I went to sit at. I did not order food, just needed a moment to sit (which you are welcome to do without food too). But there were crumbs. Both of the café workers were very busy, which explains it, but just calling it out.
There is a store here as well. Not your usual museum store. But a store with games, both for kids and adults, puzzles, fun fact books and more. I did not buy anything, or even browse that long, but I do expect to be back when I need an interesting gift for a child, or perhaps an adult. They have some of the more typical things too, pens, little replicas etc.
Some fundamentals:
Very pleasant staff all around. All smiling.
Easy plentiful parking
Wheelchairs and strollers available there for borrowing (free)
Easy large aisles for above mentioned wheeled options
Open 7 days
All in all this is a great place for kids. It’s an interesting place for adults, especially with a good exhibit happening.

We have a family membership which paid for itself in two visits. They have a great kids area with a water table, messy play, building, actually a little bit of everything. There were days this winter when we went to just at in the kids room for two hours. The rest of the museum is equally as great. Tons of exhibits. The motion room is a favorite. Excellent place for kids to learn and burn some energy!

It is great for children under the age of 10. I have experienced better and more entertaining science museums. The only entertaining part was the engineering or «in motion» part. It is large and could have added more to it to better take advantage of the space. The different aspects of science weren’t really embraced. It was pretty bland in all honesty. They just need more interactive and aww inspiring pieces.

I have 3 kids under the age of 5 yrs old, and they love this place the 2 that can talk were chanting «science museum, science museum» almost the whole way there. The place is $ 60 for the whole family for the year, and I got $ 10 off (look online for deals), an amazing deal for a family!
I would be willing to bet money that there is no place better to go in Buffalo when it is raining or snowing with young kids, and probably few better places even when it is sunny.
There is this one room right when you walk in on the first floor that would make the $ 60 for the year worth it. It has crafts, toys, building areas, a play river you can send any type of toy down, make believe play ares (eg. a space shuttle launching area), and that is just getting started. I can just let my kids go crazy and the room is such that I can see all of them by a quick scan. The best part is I don’t have to clean up afterward. :)
So if that weren’t enough there is another 3 stories of all sorts of hands on things and awesome things to look at. Like dinosaur bones, a space area, a nano area, a body area, a weather area, short 3D movies to watch, 2 cafeterias, a gift shop, and thats just to start with.
I love going to this place with the kids and would recommend it to anyone with pre-​teens!

The museum is OK, not great. The reason is because the core collection of the museum is really lacking and old. The museum relies heavily on the traveling exhibitions to draw crowds in. I’ve taken several groups here for field trips – the whole museum can probably be seen in an hour and a half, but the programs are pretty decent especially for the traveling exhibits.
Overall: Museums are hard businesses to run because you have to balance interest, educational, monetary and needs of the community. The traveling exhibits are great and worth seeing, but the core collection is bleh. If you’re thinking about bringing students here I wouldn’t bring students older than 6^th grade because the kids will be bored quick. If you have a small family it might be worth getting a membership.

This is a very small museum. Being from California, we are very spoiled with amazing museums and art galleries. This museum is very much geared towards young children. The only floor that would really interest anyone other than an elementary school-​age child is the 2^nd floor. It has several small exhibits with animals, but the exhibits are very basic; nothing extensive like you would see in a museum in San Francisco or New York City. Floors 3 and 4 have a bunch of interactive activities, but they are really not super enriching. Some parents just let their kids roam free with minimal supervision on those floors. It feels like a zoo. I would never take anyone here and I wouldn’t go back myself.

Okay, okay. So I feel bad for giving such a low review since I am a member and I have hopped into the museum a few times. $ 25/​year membership for students by the way. The workers there are all very cool and super nice. The gift shop has a nice selection from cute stuffed toys like a blood cell, or a neuron, to puzzles and pretty minerals.
The exhibits are definitely geared towards young children, and I do give them credit for updating at least some of the displays. The space exploration on the top floor is probably my favorite. It would seem that funding for the most part is low. The museum does try to push new and changing events such as the Science Café, the Sports exhibit. A good majority of the old displays are dioramas that could possibly be updated or changed.
In the updated Human Body exhibit, the robotic display to teach kids how doctors are using robots for surgery. The robotic arms are super clunky and the washers get stuck in the corner and the rubber band won’t come up from the pegs. I am imagining it is a daily task for an employee to get reset the rubber band to where visitors the next day can try their hand at «surgery», only to get it stuck again where the robot arms can’t pull it up.
Nice detail and good effort! I would like to see more focus with the displays on certain types or areas of science. It is maybe half natural history museum. It is still nice to visit and something to do.

You can have birthday parties at the Buffalo Museum of Science — did you know that? If you didn’t, now you do. And they are awesome.
I am writing this review based on the perspective of just having held a birthday party for my son there this weekend. The party theme was «Mad Scientist Lab» and with it came an educational discussion from the museum staff member running the show regarding electricity, electrical properties, chemicals, chemical reactions and scientific notes like how to read the meniscus in a graduated cylinder. The kids got to perform experiments, play with a Van de Graff generator, and even got to make «slime» by using functional chemical reactions between water, glue and borax.
After the party, and included with the party cost, the kids got to tour the museum. Currently, the Science of Sports exhibit is up, which includes dozens of fun activities for the kids such as speed running, hockey speed shooting, football throws and more.
In all, a great time and a great place to take the kids any old day — or consider having your next party or event there too.
Learning made fun — it doesn’t get better!

The science museum not only holds some great events and very interesting exhibits, but they also help children learn and grow in the Science Magnet school that’s located in the same building as the museum just on the other side. The school is a great school to be accepted into, if you’re interested in sending your child there and want more information you can find their website here on Unilocal,or Google it.
Some of the exhibits they have released over the past year are the Grossology and CSI Exhibits. Each has had great responses from our community as well as some folks from other cities that have traveled here to experience those great exhibits. Another exhibit opening up on September 29^th 2012 is the Science of Sports exhibit. This new exhibit will cover a lot of different areas of what makes sports what it is such as the complex equation of math, biology, and physics. To learn more please visit the Buffalo Science Museum website at

Great interactivity between the staff and guests, feeding them information on exhibit questions any of the museum guests may have. I have yet to run into any negative employees that work for the museum, which speaks volumes on their hiring process being pretty stellar.
Some new upgrades are going to be made to the science museum once everything gets settled in details. My company as well as the science museum and an undisclosed company will be working to move forward in the next era of technology. It’s a pretty exciting project that should revive the community and encourage them to visit the science museum to experience this interactive technology.
Overall, the Buffalo Science Museum is a great source of all scientific information that is very important for the growth of all of those interacting with the educational information that the Science Museum greatly supplies to our community.

Its a basic science museum that is good to take a stroll once through all the exhibits but then its the age of kids that really matters to decide which floor to spend time on.
If you are interested to know each and everything then they do have guided tours.
For very young kids, there is an awesome play area Exploration gallery) on ground floor and i find its a great way to get them off screen and busy during WINTERS !!!
Its not a huge place so you can see everything and decide where to stick next time when you are back. Do take the membership if you are even planning to return atleast second time as it will break even :) If you have M&T Bank discount then its super cheap to take membership.
They open some special exhibits of CSI, Grossology etc and if you sign up then they will send you the details. Its good for little older kids.
The planetarium is not anything like if you have seen one in NY city science museum. Its a small room filled with info cut outs and cardboard models.
In the bugs & little creatures there is a millipede that you can hold on and someone will explain you all about it.
All the exhibits are just more about reading the ABOUT it, which gets a little too much to go through if you are with younger kids.
For school going kids who are really interested in Science then you can take a look at the various programs they offer for all the kids on their website. That is really worth.

The museum it self is a trip back in time. I am sure many of the exhibits have not been updated in decades! It’s kind of creepy. I can see why we went on a Saturday and it was not busy at all. The weirder part is that there were no workers there! We had a few questions about exhibits and there was no one to ask. It has potential and clearly used to be better. Maybe it’s the product of declining revenue.
It was kind of sad. We’ll probably go back. There are not many other options like it for kids and they could use the money. But, wow, please Buffalo, invest more in families. We are trying to invest in you.

The previous reviewers hit a nail on the head. The science museum is not necessarily the best science museum ever, but it is a great destination for kids. The play center is so much fun… there are not a lot of indoor play space options for kids in the city, like there are in the suburbs and this is one of the solutions for that.
My daughter loves the animals on the 2^nd floor, and even though I think taxidermy is a little creepy it is definitely educational for preschool and elementary ed age kids.
We have visited it about 5 times in the past year and my daughter has enjoyed herself every time, which is definitely impressive in my book for such an inexpensive trip to do with the family.
Go early on special event days, like everything else on a free/​special day it gets pretty wild.

Went here on Sunday for the morning and had a good time with the kids. We first spent about half hour to 45 minutes in the kids play room area on first floor. Then we did the 4^th and 3^rd floor.
Kids area was great and mine had a lot of fun playing with the water they had there. 4^th Floor was space themed. It was OK, could have had some more interactive displays. My son loved the gems, rocks, and crystals on the 3^rd floor.
All in all its not big and has a bit of natural history museum to it more than just straight hands on science, but still a good day trip for the kids