MIT Museum

Honestly, I’m surprised this isn’t a free admission/​donation based museum. Will probably take the average person 1 hour to complete since there’s only one floor of exhibits. The most interesting part for me was the robotics/​AI section. Other than that, nothing really caught my attention.
if you have nothing else to do in the Boston area this could be a good way to kill some time. Otherwise, I would skip and save your 10 dollars. Probably biggest perk of coming here though is that Toscanini’s Ice Cream is right around the corner!

Pretty neat little museum by MIT. I had more fun on their 2^nd floor. They have a robot gallery upstairs and I find that listening to their videos helps you appreciate the history and significance of the robots that they have on display. They also have a small hologram exhibit but I wished they had a section where they explained the science behind creating a hologram. The museum features some projects from MIT students, made as interactive as possible, which was fun but I wouldn’t pay full price ($ 10). Student tickets are $ 5 and the first weekend is free for Bank of America card holders.

I’m writing this review dating back to a vacation i took in 2013.
I under stand both points when it come to this museum.
For tech nerds, the blast from the past is cool but, for non science people (me) there’s not much to blow your socks off.

I’m a bit surprised to see the MIT Museum ranked so highly. I’m definitely not a science person, and I didn’t see all the exhibits since I was there for a private event, but the exhibits seemed bland and not especially interactive. I thought the MIT students’ exhibit answering common science questions people ask on the Internet was the most interesting exhibit I saw, and even that one wasn’t especially interesting.
But it looks like a lot of people can get into this museum for free, so at least the only cost is your time, not your money.

In general I was underwhelmed. It looked like it got decent reviews so we visited. I wish we had picked somewhere else to spend our day in the city.
The museum is located in a busy area on a busy street west of campus. Parking is hard to find and expensive! The parking garages were around $ 20-​$ 30. Street parking is coins only… Who carries that many coins anymore? We paid $ 10 each to get into the museum. I’m not sure what I was expecting, maybe future scientists working on the latest anti-​gravity boots, or an invisibility cloak, or a way to turn light into water or something. It really didn’t live up to my expectations.
On the ground floor, they had a few little interactive exhibits but 90% of them were broken and didn’t work. The people working there just shrugged when I handed them a gyroscope that wouldn’t spin… and they just said it had been broken for a while. Hmm ok. So instead we went to a table run by a few young college kids and participated in a contest to create the strongest «bridge» with a piece of newspaper and 2 solo cups. I lost. Also on this floor, they had these pictures of Albert Einstein that turned into other people when you stepped back, like Marilynn Monroe and Hitler I think, that was pretty cool.
The exhibits upstairs consisted mainly of robots and electronics (hold onto your excitement) from the 1970’s and 80’s. Think ‘Johnny 5′, or maybe just a big version of just his arm that leaked oil in a pool on the exhibit floor. The coolest things were these creative little art exhibits that transferred tiny motions into moving art. Those in themselves almost made the visit worth it. The hologram exhibit that they promoted for the month was all from the 80s and felt extremely dated.
In general I left there with an empty feeling like there should have been something more. Something more, but there wasn’t. Johnny 5’s arm was it.

The MIT museum is a fun, interactive museum that in many ways, blends art and science. I and two coworkers came on a Sunday and we all got free admission!
I especially liked how parts of the museum featured art or inventions by actual MIT students or alum. There was one cool piece where you’re like a human etch-​a-​sketch where steps on the floor leads to a real-​time drawing on the screen. Another thing I liked was the holograms — Bob Marley coming out of the wall and optical illusions that change Albert Einstein into Marilyn Monroe and back again. Beauty and Brains I guess!
The kinetic art was also intricate examples of art and physics. Some displays were a bit abstract for me but certainly creative!
I highly recommend the museum — some parts are purely technical/​educational, but others are just plain fun. My only suggestion for improvement (and its because I’m biased) is for them to feature more examples of chemistry and chemical engineering!

Being a graduate of MIT it is fun to take in some memories walking around the museum. On the plus side there are a number of exhibits you can get your hands on and experiment with. The displays cover a good range of materials over a wide span of time as well. I do understand that it will be moving soon to a location on, or near, the other side of campus so hopefully there will be a significant upgrade as well, for on the downside…
I think there are places where more justice could have been served for specific topics (like Harold «Doc» Edgerton and strobe lab) — not that much more was needed in the way of space to cover the material but rather of all the works a person was known for I found it odd to have what I saw displayed. Also, with the hands on material I found it rather basic in design and though it was nice to be able to share photos with yourself via email the quality of what these experiments could be was far from achieved.
So… I still give it four stars for just being there and making the history accessible, however, it really should be a 5 star place and I hope the move to a new location gives it the upgrade needed to get there.

MIT is a more scientific school, so this museum is more about science which is not my favorite. This museum is also pretty small. Student ticket is 5 bucks after you showed them ur student ID. Gotta say it’s what u paid for. 5 bucks is not a lot, definitely the museum is around that price.

Some of the robot art they have is absurdist nightmare fuel.
The other stuff is cool, too.

Awesome musuem. $ 5 for students anywhere with ID. The dynamic sculptures were my personal favorite. A small fraction of the exhibits were out of working condition. Makes you wonder why you hadn’t done that in college instead of design fake space missions to low earth orbit.

It was great! Very interesting! I love their galleries upstairs! And students only pay $ 5 which makes it even more awesome!

So I have been here around maybe half a dozen times in the past decade or so. Including when I came here for a Unilocal event just about almost ten years ago… The place is very cozy and has a couple of very unique exhibits. On this particular night they had a couple of speakers that talked about the process involved in designing computer games. Location is very convenient and parking is going to be an issue if you ever try to come during peak business hours. But being only around half a mile from the Central Square T stop…

I had an absolutely amazing time. I was looking for something to do for the afternoon and I decided to explore Harvard and MIT. MIT Museum did not disappoint. I had so much fun with its quirkiness and technology. I easily spent 1.5−2 hours there just exploring.
There’s a lot of moving things that are not behind glasses, which just makes the experience that much more satisfying. We’re not treated like kids, but we can definitely have fun like them!

A nice place if you want to introduce your kid to mechanical engineering and the history of it. A lot of the individual set-​ups are interactive, which is nice. I personally couldn’t get into it. I feel as though that if I were young again or significantly older (65+) I could have enjoyed it a lot.

Free museum days for first weekend for BOA members and free entrance last Sunday of the month!
I have 2 main criterias for doing things in Boston– 1. poor grad student=attends anything free 2. science student=enjoys geeking out about science stuff. Basically MIT museum met BOTH of these needs!
Pros:
Full of information on a range of topics to suit the likes of the masses! I went into it thinking there’d be a lot of engineering and hard science things like robotics (which was pretty AMAZINGLY COOL!) but they also had some really nice 3D art and a photography gallery too! Just goes to show that there’s always more to science than meets the eye ;) If you’re an avid museum person and enjoy reading all the plaques and info then it’ll take you 3 – 4 hours… if you’re a touch everything and scan the words and leave person… you’ll be done within 2 – 3 hours. The gift shop, though small, has tons of awesome gadgets and things relating to science or «nerd jokes» that make good gifts for that inner MIT student within us all. I liked it a lot!
Cons:
The place is pretty small, and has poor air ventilation upstairs IMO because on a Boston summer day, it got quite stuffy (dare I say a bit sweaty too?! ick.) in the upstairs exploration room, which incidentally is where all the cool stuff is so you’ll be spending the majority of your time there! (that’s why it lost a star for me).

This museum delights you in the creative processes of design thinking. Each piece is curated in a way that you gets you to appreciate the various elements of engineering science and math. One of my favorite exhibits is the machine who soul purpose is to oil itself. This is a great place for kids and adults alike. If you are in MTA member admission is free.

Came here on a blind date once. I won’t say much about the guy, but this museum is awesome! Variety of types of science, hands on demonstrations for the more tactile learners, and stuff that blew my mind – as a 22 year old!
Would definitely recommend to a friend. Would definitely do another blind date if it meant I could come here again.

This place is basically the sole reason I’m glad I grew up on PBS science specials. It’s essentially The Magic School Bus brought to life, in 2014. Holograms, bicycles that use kinetic energy to generate imagery, laser beams that activate sound and music, the science behind the latest developments in prosthetic limbs… the only thing this is missing is Bill Nye the Science Guy. I think deep down, we are all science nerds, thrilled by discovering how things work, the sometimes accidental inventions that sprout out of other scientific intentions, still those little 3^rd graders fascinated by the baking soda-​vinegar volcano experiment.
This museum takes it one billion steps further and shows the works of MIT students, affiliates, and certainly justifies the prestige of MIT. Most of these works have, in some way or another, influenced travel in space, advances in biomedical engineering, and have infiltrated our past, present, and future. There’s even a device that helps auto-​zip your zippers. Originally invented with the idea that it would one day help the disabled/​those with limited mobility dress themselves, this was nothing short of cool.
Admission is only $ 10 ($ 5 for students, and I think free for MIT students/​faculty), and undoubtedly will make you squeal with glee/​excitement/​leave you in awe at some point. I did have a fleeting thought when a 5 year old girl was playing with a machine, «Oh come on, you’re HOGGING IT. Is it my turn yet?». I suddenly became a 6 year old brat in my head. I just got too excited by the science playground I suddenly found myself in.
I don’t remember the last time I enjoyed a museum so much and wished there was even more to see, and I was a solid B– science student growing up, if that says anything…
Now all I have to do is request that Bill Nye greet me with a random scientific factoid as I enter and surprise me with some crazy last bit of knowledge as I exit. Mind. Blown. #justsayin.:)

Awesome place to visit to get a picture of the history of technology and how it has
tranformed lives around the world.
There are activities for kids. Surprisingly many are hands on.
I liked the visit because as an entrepreneur, I like to see how ideas are hatched
and how technology can be used in unexpected ways. Worth a ½ day to full day
visit. Something for everyone

As an MIT alum and museum lover, I am perhaps biased, but I always thought this museum was so cool. A lot of the exhibits are kinetic – you push a button and gears start moving, for example. A great way to spend an hour in Cambridge.
Bonus: near the bathrooms on the second floor (below the museum) is a great model train display.