Visit the Museum
Exhibits
Science In Play
Different activity zones challenge children to investigate, assess risks, use objects as tools, shop for shapes, textures and colors, explore, build, climb, predict and test – all through experimental and imaginative play.
SIP Main Gallery
Reach new heights in our towering Happy Climber, sharpen your senses in the Noodle Forest, and engineer your own roller coaster with modular track pieces.
Science Depot
Changing themes means little scientists can explore, create, and share new things every month.
Color & Light
Build with Magna-Tiles on the Light Table, design with the biggest Light Brite you’ve ever seen, and explore light and shadow.
Shapes and Stuff Store
Shop for shapes, colors, and textures, or imagine faraway places in the Reading Nook.
Cityscape
Send an important letter in our classic mailbox, or travel to new destinations in our Smart Car.
Big Shapes
Build a house, a submarine, or a sea monster with the Big Blue Blocks
Water Table
A new and improved version of everyone’s favorite! Explore the properties of water while you splash and spray!
Air Ways
Harness the power of wind to send scarves traveling through transparent tubes, launching toward the sky and floating down in a flurry of color.
Grow Zone
Tiny science exhibits, like sensory and magnet walls, offer the perfect place for the little scientists to experiment.
The World We Create
A collection of interactive exhibits designed to engage in investigative science and engineering practices.
Rocket Table
Can you use tape and paper to engineer a rocket that will reach escape velocity? Try it!
Wind Tubes
Engineer your own flying machine! Use an array of different materials to get the most lift from your design.
Build It Up (the Crane)
Refurbished and reinstalled in January of 2017, this classic Science Center favorite allows visitors to experience the mechanics of a real crane, and the challenges of construction.
Whisper Dishes
Share a secret conversation from different sides of the room–acoustic mirrors reflect and focus the sound waves of your whispers to cover great distances!
Theremin
Activate your creativity and learn about the physics of proximity sensors with an early electronic musical instrument played without any physical contact!
Nanotech Gallery
Learn about the science and technology of the very, very small, and how nanoscience is changing the way we create new substances to achieve incredible functions.
Ohio River Bridges Project
See how projects like the Lincoln and Lewis & Clark Bridges blend Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math, to create beautiful and powerful structures that change lives. Test different bridge designs, discover the science behind their construction, and control a timelapse video of the construction of both bridges.
Discovery Gallery
In our Natural History gallery, learn about anthropology, archaeology, and paleontology. A beautifully-curated collection of specimens, from gems and fossils, to a real life-size alligator, give guests plenty to explore and observe.
Polar Bears
Get a sense of the scale and power of the largest bear in the world! Two real, full-sized polar bears are poised to give guests an up-close and personal view of this beautiful, vulnerable species.
Mummy
This authentic Egyptian mummy was exhibited at the World’s Fair in 1904 before being acquired by the museum. The mummy, Then-Hotep, has been dated to the late 25th to early 26th Dynasty (700-625 B.C.,) but the coffin is nearly 3,500 years old. This carefully-preserved artifact can be viewed in our Discovery Gallery.
Gemini Trainer
Project Gemini, NASA’s second human spaceflight program, fell between projects Mercury and Apollo (1961-1966.) While our Gemini space capsule never left the ground, it helped many astronauts in the 1960s prepare for their space missions.
The World Around Us
Natural and earth sciences come to life! Explore ecology and ecosystems, biological diversity, and natural selection and adaptation through three galleries: “atmosphere – the air that surrounds us,” “terrasphere – environments that support us,” and “aquasphere – the water that sustains us.”
Weather Watch
Weather is the interaction of sun, air, and water in the atmosphere, and weather patterns determine climate! Step inside Weather Watch to become a WLKY meteorologist, working to keep Kentuckiana informed of severe weather emergencies.
Go H20
Water is a powerful force and essential to sustaining life! At Go H2O, get a sense of how water moves and interacts with the landscape. You control the direction of the water, while processes like erosion, sedimentation, and flooding impact what you set in motion.
Cave Crawl
Kentucky is home to the biggest known cave system on Earth! Get ready, get set, and spelunk in the Cave Crawl, a part of our “terrasphere,” where you can learn what makes (and what lives in) a cave.
The World Within Us
Learn more about how our body works through hands-on exhibits that will give you a new appreciation for the parts most people take for granted. The World Within Us is an in-depth exploration of our life cycle and how we, as organisms, use matter and energy, process biological information, grow, develop, adapt, and age.
With planning underway to develop a new World Within Us you can help by providing feedback as we try out ideas that may end up joining the Science Center on a permanent basis, including these temporary installations:
Great Big Science To Do (through November 2017)
Take the highway to health at the festival of experiences we call The Great Big Science To Do. Envisioned and built by Science Center staff, “Highway to Health” will get you thinking about health equity and healthy habits in a whole new way.
Eat Well, Play Well (December 2017-April 2018)
What’s in the food we eat? This highly interactive bi-lingual exhibit encourages healthy living through exploration of the science behind healthy food choices. Students will discover what an appropriate serving size looks like, discover what it takes to burn calories, and reduce their risk of disease with healthy choices.
Human Plus (Summer 2018, dates TBD)
This exhibit is visiting Kentucky Science Center from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Human Plus offers visitors a chance to explore and create low- and high-tech tools that extend the abilities of the human body! In addition to compelling stories, the exhibit includes a mono-skiing simulation, a wheelchair DJ station, the opportunity to engineer innovative design solutions and insight into controlling a prosthetic limb with your brain!