Science Center of Iowa

My kids love the science center and love the combined pass with the Zoo. Its great to be able to go for a few hours at a time and awesome learning experience’s for the kids (and adults). This is a great place to take the family and awesome way to spend family time. So glad to see things like this in Des Moines.

My toddler LOVES the Science Center which makes me love it too! We usually spend a morning there and leave shortly after lunchtime.
I love that there’s various areas that she can play in and I can clearly see her at all times. There’s an area for little kids her age with a grocery store, kitchen, bubble vats, elevated «city», fishing, and more! This is always our first and last stop. There’s a wildlife area with a weather map where they can be on TV. Another area with a slew of activities from race car building (with Legos), rocket building, damn/​water area, ball wall, egg drop, and so much more. A planetarium where they can watch shows too. Plus other areas to explore.
For the adults or older kids, there’s an IMAX theater which I’ve been to once. Even as an adult, I enjoy playing along with my daughter and seeing her be amazed at the learning activities.
Lunch: They have a café with a menu, snacks, drinks, etc. The food is alright but nothing to write home about. We opt to bring our own lunches and eat in the café area.
Jackets and Your Stuff: They have racks with hangers for coats and also lockers if you choose to pay (50 cents each time you open them) to use them.
Parking: There is some metered parking around but you’ll most likely be parking in the garage. Either way, be ready to pay for parking with either coins (street) or credit card (garage).
If you’re local, it’s worth getting a year pass. We have the one for here and the zoo. So worth it!

Before you make the trip, I would caution that this is skewed a little more toward kids than adults. Lots of interactive and fun things for the kiddies, but not necessarily enough to hold adult’s attention. The building is beautiful, With about 6 different exhibit areas. There is also an imax theater that shows educational movies, and sometimes fun old movies. (Jurassic Park, Back to the Future etc.) I am not disappointed with my visit, but have no real desire to go back.

Is it weird that I’m giving the Science Center 5 stars, yet have no children? Don’t judge me. I’ve been to the Science Center more times than I can count. It might be my favorite place. They have different rooms for different ages, beginning with the really little guys. Bubbles and blocks and tons of other fun activities for the little ones, along with build a rocket/​dam/​lego car for the older kids. There is also a star room and wildlife exhibit with turtles, snakes, geckos, and the like. The exhibits in most of the rooms stay the same, but the exhibit downstairs is always changing. There are also cool demonstrations throughout the day and staffers walking around showing kids a new animal or lighting their hand on fire. While you’re there you might as well check out the IMAX, which has shorter documentaries for kids with short attention spans, and sweet movies like Superman for a good date night activity. You don’t have kids either? You don’t want to be a creep and go during the day like me? That’s cool, you can check out Mixology night which is held one Friday every month. Adults only, cash bar, guilt-​free science fun! Check out their Facebook page for more events.

Clean. Everybody’s positive and upbeat. However, after the three years, still pretty much the same old stuff. Some of that same old stuff is pretty neat though!

Really good for my kids 5 – 10 years old. We found just letting them figure it out after a 30 second intro was best. The free play concept is fantastic here. Even my kids, who are glued to electronics, got so immersed in the activities we had to drag them out.

took our 9 year old girl here. She had a great time working with the legos, and other hand-​on arts/​crafts on the lower level.
Upstairs she did not care for the snakes and nature exhibit, but that is just not her thing. They do have a great green screen set up with a local news channel and a daily report is done one-​site. Kids have a chance to interact with a green screen and see themselves on television.
Other hands-​on exhibits included building your own paper rocket and shooting it from a jet of air. Our daughter could have done this all day.
The space exhibit was informational, but I wish there was more to it.

We had high hopes for this place and were sorely disappointed. Our 1.5 year old only had 2 – 3 exhibits to see that were interesting. One of them (bubbles) caused the rest of the visit to suck. They use some kind of very strong (not kid friendly) soap for the bubbles and the stand is at eye level for a 1.5 year old. You can guess what happened. We thought it’d be Johnson & Johnson or something mild. No, his eye is still bright red and full of tears an hour and a half later. The place was also very dirty. I doubt if it was vacuumed in the last week. Stains all over.
Even with the half price coupon, this place is a ripoff. We will not be back.

If I had children, or my nieces and nephew came to visit, this would be a fun place to visit and hang out. As an adult, it is fun to visit maybe once. I really love science, and would like to be challenged more as well. Passionate staff, clean, and good vibe in general. Love the location.

Took my 2 year old grandson. Many of the displays weren’t working. The area for young children was filled with kids 5 – 10 so the little ones were not able to play. I asked a staff member if there were age guidelines and he said no.
We had lunch. It was vey crowded and the food was mediorce.

I came here for one of the Mixology nights. Found on their website (
), the Mixology nights are held the first Friday evening of every month. They are 21+ only evenings where alcohol is served — usually with live music and a planned theme night.
The Science Center had a decent amount of areas to explore. I was there for three hours, and I didn’t touch some of the areas. If you’re going to really experience everything the museum has to offer including doing the activities, I’d plan on at least 5 hours.
A lot of the activities are social, so I REALLY recommend taking a family or friends or partner in order to really get the most out of it. As a lot of the activities are group-​orientated, you might feel a bit lonely without some people with you.
They have a «Small Discoveries» area especially designed for toddlers (specifically seven and under according to the website). This area has a lot of awesome things, and honestly, it appealed to my 24-​year-​old self as well. There is a tiny version of a grocery store with a bunch of healthy fake fruits to play with. There is a small kitchen area to go along with the fake fruits. There are plaques around the activities that were designed for parents to read for guidance to help their child get the most from the activity. There’s a playplace. There is a giant Carbon atom that children can put together. There’s a giant conveyor belt to learn how various pulleys/​etc. work. The BEST part is the giant bubble area. Giant tubs of bubble mix alongside giant metal rings with handles to help children make gigantic bubbles. There are nearby paper towels for clean-​up after they’re done. There are some benches around for parents to sit. (As a note, this area has a single family bathroom with a changing table in it)
The current exhibit is a Dinosaur exhibit. I was impressed by the amount of detailing that went into the exhibit. Alongside the gigantic dinosaur bones and the «standard» information plaques, there were digital versions. Move around this attached tablet-​like computer, and it shows the dinosaur come to life as you point at different areas of the skelaton. It gives you information about various parts of the dinosaur. Not only that, but there was a five-​person activity to try and put together movable copies of our continents to see how they used to fit together. This exhibit was not as huge as I would have liked, but as a temporary feature, I understand why. I was super impressed by the advanced technology that was used.
There’s a small space/​star area. This was fascinating, and I love that they reduced the lighting in the area for a more realistic «feel». However, a lot of the buttons or functions in this exhibit weren’t working correctly (like a joystick would only go up or down which made the entire activity pretty limited). This was disappointing.
«When Things Get Moving» is another exhibit that’s going to be seriously amazing for the family. All of the activities in here are designed to be group activities. There is a water-​flowing activity with blocks that encourages you to build a dam and increase the power generated by the spinning wheels. One of the wheels wasn’t measuring when I was here. There is a station to make your own paper rockets and shoot them out of an air cannon to learn aerodynamics. There is a LEGO building station to make the fastest car and race them on a sloped track. There is a domino station with stairs and other obstacles to try and ring the bell at the end of the track. There’s a «build your own egg protection» with a giant conveyor belt that goes to the ceiling to drop your «egg» (a plastic egg with an internal sensor) to figure out if you chose the right design to protect your egg. There’s a wall with various levers and pulleys and air pressure systems to guide a ball through a maze. There are soft squishy blocks which are shaped to help make an arch when built correctly.
There is also a weather/​the world outside room up here. Along with an active green screen that projects your image onto the current weather forecast to help you understand how weather stations do it, there is an entire thing about the Earth and its surface and weather. There are also a lot of cages with snakes in here (no, you can’t touch them).
Parking is in a paid-​for parking lot across the street. I was there two hours and it cost $ 4. Parking payment by debit or credit only. No cash. Decent amount of room. The Science Center was pretty busy and I didn’t have too much issue finding a spot.
Final thoughts: This is a great and fully featured museum that could be really fun for a family visit. With its modern look and interactive activities, it could be a fantastic date spot too. It’s a very clean and sleek-​looking museum and it’s clear they try to keep things looking good. However, some of the exhibits weren’t entirely functional, and the museum isn’t nearly as fun for solo-​goers either.

A fun stop for families. I stopped here with my friend when we were in DesMoines for the first time. There is an IMAX and planetarium where you can create your own show which is a best experience!
They have demos set up which is fun and gets kids from the audience involved. Love the hands on learning science features that really get gets into the experience.
Downfalls. Parking is expensive!!! The museum itself is expensive!!! It’s geared more toward kids but it is fun for adults. Needs some TLC on some of the exhibits.
I can’t wait to bring my God-​Daughter here!!!

Awesome turn out for the late night adults-​only (I believe its called mixology at the museum or something of that nature?) event. My review of the museum is strictly based on this experience — I was very happy to see so many young professionals in attendance and that they had live music. Unfortunately, the museum itself could use a little love — exhibits were either on the outdated side or needing some repairs (especially in the room with the Dominos, Lego race cars, etc.). The exterior of the building is unique and eye-​catching, it would be nice to see that enthusiasm flood into the interior of the museum. I’m hoping to revisit the museum down the road to check out the IMAX theatre. I appreciated that they are located in the heart of Des Moines in close proximity to other museums, food and entertainment.
Adult night notes:
-$ 5 entry
-$ 5 mixed drinks
–coat hangers available at entry

I really enjoyed my time here. Of course there is basically nothing there that is meant for a 23-​year-​old dude but that doesn’t really matter. It’s an affordable place that has a lot to offer those who have kids and can still provide others with a nice afternoon. Potentially if they expand on their scope at least a little bit, I think that the science center could be a very special place.

Great family fun and educational at the same time. Check out their special events, displays, and programs. Lazer light shows, IMAX theater and more!

My girlfriend and I visited here since we were passing through on our Lincoln-​Omaha trip. Overall, it was okay and probably nothing really changed. So, I can’t really give it a higher or lower rating. I must say that it was lacking the special exhibit so that was a bit disappointing. So, in that regards, I will have lower my original rating with no special exhibit. Well, the plus side was that my science museum reciprocal membership was honored so did not pay for our admission.

I came here for a work-​related event so it was at a discounted rate. Overall I would say it was pretty much what I expected. There is a fair amount of attractions to see here, but you can definitely get through them quick if you do not spend your time with the children attractions.
We also checked out the IMAX documentary film. The screen is huge and was an awesome experience. I’m not sure how it would be watching a full feature film though, it may be tough to watch with the engulfing screen.
The only reason I did not give 5 stars is because I would say for the price it would not be worth the amount of entertainment this place offers. It is a more kid-​friendly place if anything else.

The Science Center of Iowa is a great place to bring the kids. Both educational and fun for the whole family. SCI is a very hands on museum so get ready to get wet, and maybe a little messing using both your mind and body is the scientific atmosphere.
The Science Center has been a staple for Des Moines for years! The weekly hours are geared more towards children but the SCI holds monthly Mixology events that are geared towards adults looking to drink some drinks while they make rockets and watch movies in the star theater!
The staff here are fantastic and the place is always very clean and comfortable! You might want to go later in the day during the school year, because sometimes it’s flooded with school groups!
The café is a good spot to catch a quick lunch as well, and the out door seating is perfect to catch some summer sun!

The Science center is really great if you have kids, especially in the winter when everyone is crazy from being cooped up and need to run around and have fun! :) There are a few rooms with play and explore areas, cool and interesting installations and live animals. Some of the reviewers said they don’t like the big open playroom however I love it, it might seem chaotic but if you have multiple kids to keep track of they can play with different exhibits and you can see them both at the same time which is really nice. Also– my kids LOVE the exhibits, esp the make and launch your own rocket ship, ball machine and hydro power water table.
WHO TV 13 also even has a fake newsroom area but certain times, like noon, you can see and sometimes be on a real live tv weather forecast!
I think the admission price is a little high but we buy a yearly pass which i think is a good move– theres nothing worse than paying admission at a place like this and then feeling you have to stay and get your moneys worth. If my kids freak out 30 minutes after we get there, no big deal we can leave.
If you an adult I can’t imagine it would be fun by any means except for the IMAX theater
which is obviously awesome or if there is some kind of special exhibit. The other big exception for adults might be the Mixology night they have– first Friday of the month 21+ 5:30−9pm, drinks, live music $ 5

This place is great for children but not for adults. I purchased a groupon hoping it would be a fun few hours to spend here. I set my expectations too high because we finished exploring the center in about an hour. The space is large but is not filled with exhibits. It is more of a large play area for children.
They actually have live animal exhibits here with snakes, frogs, lizards and turtles. Randomly right next to the animal exhibit was their fake weather center where the kids can see themselves on TV pretending to be a weather caster with the green screen.
There are a lot of hands on exhibits for the kids and they have a store here too (which no one really is permanently stationed at). If you want to buy something you’ll have to call an employee that works at the ticket station.
The last time we came here was to watch the Harry Potter movie on IMAX. The IMAX theater here is great.
Parking is about $ 3 for the first hour and $ 1 for each hour after that.