Sciencenter

We decided to visit the Sciencenter on a quiet Friday afternoon. We had flown in from Oregon two days before and wanted to let our 2 year old play and run off some steam as she adjusted to the time change. We have a membership to a museum in Oregon which granted us free access to the Sciencenter so we set off.
I remember going to the Sciencenter just once as a kid, on a school field trip so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The lady at the front was extremely friendly and helpful. She let us know that the tide pool was open, but only for another 20 minutes so she recommended we check that out first. We headed in that direction and had a great experience. There were all sorts of sea creatures for the little one to touch and the lady working the exhibit was fantastic. She provided fun age appropriate facts about the animals and helped our little one touch them. We moved into the animal room and all of the enclosures were clean and well maintained.
We worked our way upstairs and back downstairs again. It flowed well and I couldn’t help but comment on the huge amount of space they had for their exhibits. We were especially impressed with the two story Rube Goldberg machine that they had, I must have watched it for at least ten minutes on each level. We eventually made our way to the toddler area, which housed the usual stuff, a water table, a little kitchen, some books, puzzles, and a cool little vacuum table in the middle. Our little one played in there for quite some time before we were able to get her out to the playground.
It was a little on the cold side when we visited, but we went outside anyway. The playground is fantastic and so unique! We loved the music area with the steel drums and giant xylophone. There’s also a sand table, which garnered much attention. I loved jumping on the suspension bridge and the pendulum exhibit. There’s a big spider web in the middle that was fun to climb, even as an adult. We had an absolute blast outside.
This is a great place to bring kids for a day of fun. The playground in particular is really special and I wish more Sciencenters had something like it. It’s ironic that a museum in upstate New York would have such a great outdoor exhibit! Overall, we had a blast and had to take our little one out of there kicking and screaming!

Fun place. Our son loves it here which is all that really matters. Would be nice if they fixed some of the interactive stations and changed it up a little more, a lot of the stations do not work. Also the landscaping outside is in desperate need of some love and it’s looking a little run down. Aside from those few details, it is educational and fun for kids.

We’ve been members on and off for 8 years while raising children. A nice place to visit if it isn’t too crowded. Staff is uneven in terms of helpfulness and courtesy. A craft helper, probably a teenaged intern, was really helpful and friendly, while a staff member at the desk was grim, almost comically slow, and while holding my member card with my name on it, addressed me as «pop». The exhibits change infrequently, the place is kind of grubby, but for a twin the size of Ithaca, it’s nice to have. Membership provides reciprocity at other children’s museums around the country.

Great place for kids ! Even for adults lol I learned a few things here !
There is many things to do here and sometimes on weekend they have hands on actives you and your child can do. It’s a really great place. If you should your EBT card you can get in for $ 1

This is an amazing gem in Ithaca. The kids love it and it’s a lot of fun for adults as well. Some of the exhibits don’t work on occasion. But they are regularly refreshing the space. If you’re in town go there. If you live there and have kids, get an annual pass.

While going here as a field trip, this is a great way for children to learn how science works. It has so many activities for students to observe and children cant get enough of it! Built in reptillian room, science interacted playground, and amazing sculptures to do and see, how can you not love it? One downside was leaving, I really enjoyed this field trip and would like to go back again. Looking for a fun science-​interacted place to go? Just go to the Ithaca Sciencecenter!

We are members of the Sciencenter and really enjoy bringing our son there. A membership is really the way to go if you are local and plan to go there even once a month. We even got to go to a wonderful Children’s Museum included in our membership when we were traveling — there are many museums that allow you to enter for free with a Sciencenter membership.
The exhibits grab kids’ attention and it looks like the museum is well maintained and very clean.

This science museum was a BLAST! Tons of interactive exhibits from solving crimes, to building dams, to blowing bubbles. I love science so this place was perfect for me. It was obviously geared towards kids (which I am not), but museums for adults are boring. It also has a space-​themed golf course which looked awesome but we decided to get burritos instead of play. For a fun, cheap, and educational activity in Ithaca, look no further!

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
The Sciencenter is on the small side, although quite adequate for a city the size of Ithaca. The target is demographic is definitely on the young side – I’d say around 75% of the exhibits are geared toward children under the age of 12. As such, I wouldn’t really recommend this museum to adults without children looking for something to do.
Most of the exhibits are very informative and engaging, if dated. Everything worked well and there wasn’t too much foot traffic on the day we went. The daily admission rate is a good value; however, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a membership because there doesn’t seem to be a lot of reason to visit multiple times. The only way a membership would be a good value is if you plan to visit a lot of other science museums in different cities, since your membership at the Sciencenter gets you reciprocal benefits at other museums.

We were visiting the Finger Lakes for a week, and wanted to have a day trip that didn’t involve wine tasting. You know, for the kids.
Our five year-​old liked looking at the beehive on the second floor. We weren’t able to find the queen, but it was fun looking at them. She actually laughed out loud and ran over to the different-​colored shadows and the mirror exhibit (convex and concave).
One thing she suggested was that the playground should have some slides.
Our three year-​old liked the playground best. Actually, it was pretty cool. There were echo tubes, gongs, and exhibits of simple machines that used the kids as the weights… but no slides.
The first room was by far the most interesting. Games about histograms and place value as well as puzzles and dam building.
Some of the exhibits seemed to be getting a little out of date, and I’m the guy who thinks of 2004 as recent. Seemed like a lot of it was Ask The Question, Flip The Placard. Also, some of the space exhibits on the second floor were either difficult to figure out or didn’t work.
We’d go again, and we did spend all day there, which says a lot.

Great little museum in a small town. Especially enjoyed the discovery center upstairs where kids could borrow experiment boxes. Closes a few minutes before the museum, but lots of fun, hands on activities and experiments.
Fun!

I love the Sciencenter! The first time I went it was smaller — I was in college and they had just built the Sagan Planet Walk. My mathematics professor assigned the walk to his students, and when I got to Pluto there I was at the museum! What fun! Then it got even bigger and was a regular Sunday afternoon stop for my husband and I (haha it IS great for kids, but we always had fun even just ourselves).
Hubby really likes exhibits where you can build things — I think his favorite ever was a Kinex bridge building exhibit. My favorite part is the Saturday Showtimes with John Alvarez, who is awesome. He does shows about plants and food and animals, full of information and always with fun & humor.
In the summer Galaxy Golf is also fun, and if you want to hold a sea star you should visit their Touch Tank! I used to work here and loved to see kids at the Touch Tank, they were so amazed and humbled by getting to hold the animals.

The Sciencenter is a gem to find in a small town like Ithaca. They feature a bunch of exhibits, including a Live Animal exhibit (I saw and touched a huge snake once!), interactive exhibits, ocean and outer space exhibits. Sciencenter also features a summer camp. Their playground outside is also a lot of fun. Great for kids and the family.