Found this place on Groupon which k always check when I'm in a new place. It was $14 for two people so why not? I will say if you are a big science lover this one is not for you. There are a lot of kid activities but unless it gets updated one visit will be enough. I think it has potential to be great but there are about half of the items that were broken or stuff out that shouldn't be out, areas not closed off. There were a few cool things but i definitely wouldn't go back unless it was updated. read more

See all

Science Central is ASTC reciprocal. I was able to use my membership from another state. Children two years old and under are free. They have a great toddler section. The planetarium is new with a personalized tour! read more

Fort Wayne, unfortunately does not have a lot of museums like other larger cities. This is a great place for young kids however, most of the displays and exhibits are a little bit dated. There are some new things that they add every year. They used to have this really cool Bike track on the second floor, but it has not been used for many years now unfortunately. It's definitely worth one visit with kids but don't expect multiple hours of fun. read more

Science Central - Museums Near Me - Fort Wayne, Indiana

Amazing fun place for kids and adults to enjoy Worth the 2 hour drive Has a augmented reality sandbox read more

Science Central - uranus - Museums Near Me - Fort Wayne, Indiana

It was close to 90° inside. We tried to get out of the heat outside and it followed us. A lot of the exhibits were closed or didn't work right. Seems old and not kept up well. Not impressed, glad I had a membership to another museum that got us in free. I would have been super bummed to pay for that experience. read more

Took a 4 year old. Not super appropriate. Many displays are in need of cleaning and updating. Not a lot for a toddler to do. Zero staff suring our visit. Several are blocked off. read more

This is one of those must-visits if you have young children and you're in Fort Wayne. It's a small science center, but that's actually perfect if you have little ones, because you can visit the entire thing in about two hours. There are three floors of fun and educational exhibits, and each floor has lots of things going on. My kids spent and inordinate amount of time on the ground floor of the museum, because that was where the slanted room was. It's hard to describe exactly what I'm talking about, but it's a room where the floor is angled, so you feel all disoriented when you stand in it. They had fun running and sliding around in it. They could have stayed there a half hour if I let them. There are lots of little science exhibits that discuss everything from magnetic fields to weather to gravity to fossils and more. You know -- science stuff! On the third floor is where the kids play area is, and it's less sciencey but a fun place to play. It's for kids ages 7 and under with an adult. In this area, you'll also find a nursing room. Science Central was built inside of an old converted power plant, so its architecture is really unique. You can even see remnants of what it used to be in the cafeteria area. It's neat that they kept part of the history of the building in the museum. read more

I was impressed to say the least with Fort Wayne Science Central. I'm extremely familiar with the Children's Museum of Indianapolis and have been to the Smithsonian's and big Chicago museums. That being said, there's something about the science centers that have me more entertained for longer than the other museums. I think it's the hands-on aspect of learning science that intrigues me so much. There is such an incredible amount to learn for all ages at this museum (it's not just for kids!) My favorite part was the Science on a Sphere exhibit where you can learn all about our earth and the rest of our galaxy from a massive sphere suspended from the ceiling. They're also in the planning stages of adding on a planetarium to add to this exhibit! Science Central can easily take up an entire day (or two) so bring along your packed lunch and snacks because you won't want to leave! read more

Science Central - Museums Near Me - Fort Wayne, Indiana

See all

Went here when I was a kid like 10 years ago and it was so much better back then. Came here for the first time in a long time and it's different and not as good. They took out something's like the sewer (which was so much fun), wall climbing, weather man, and more. Most of the things are not working since they are so old or like in the rock exhibit they have a magnifier and it was so hard to see on the monitor. Things like the slide or the bike, was open at certain times and wasn't open all the time. I remember seeing lots of kids running around when I was young and now it's not as busy. My family had a coupon for admissions and we were glad because we wouldn't go back. It would be so much better if they would put newer things and take out the older stuff. read more

Science Central - Museums Near Me - Fort Wayne, Indiana

Purchased a membership only to later realize the museum is outdated and in need of renovations. Two of the major attractions, the bicycle and slide, are out of service for an indeterminable amount of time. The cloud machine has too little output to serve its purpose. I'm not sure if this is due to a lack of funding from the city, or something else. Regardless, The museum did not meet our expectations. read more

Our kids love this place. It take a couple hours to go through the multi-story building. The bike in the sky is always a favorite. It would be nice if they had more real-world professional equipment (like an ambulance, police car or fire truck) for kids to enjoy. read more

This place could be really cool. But all of the exhibits are outdated and shabby. Several were broken. We got in for free with our ATSC membership from another museum, so I'm not too broken up about it. I would have been pretty disappointed if we had spent $$ for admission, though. It was a relatively fun place for my son to spend an hour while in town. read more

Hmmmm, the idea of this place is great but it needs a lot of work. I gave it 3 stars because my 3 and 5 year old were entertained by the kids central area for seven and under, otherwise I would have given it two stars. The exhibits are so outdated, some didn't work or i couldn't figure out how they worked and the signage wasn't very helpful. One example is the mastodon skeleton. There was no explanation of what a mastodon was, whether it was the same as a woolly mammoth or related to it. I had to pull out google. Maybe the administration and designers need to take a look at some other successful science center or children's museums and get some ideas from them. The kids central has some neat things but it's rundown and dirty looking. read more

Science Central - The water table was great fun for my 10 month old, 3 and 5 year old but then I noticed there was black mildew growing in there:( - Museums Near Me - Fort Wayne, Indiana

Just ok. Would not go again. Once was plenty. Parking was easy. Exhibits seemed a out of date (technology). Science lessons at stations were good. Wind tunnel was $2 and should have been included. Some exhibits broken. 'Cafeteria' was a series of a few vending machines. read more

Hmmm...you're wondering, why did he 3 star this place, I thought he might 4 or 5 star it? I'll get to that in just a minute, but first let me tell you about our experience... Not long ago I went to Science Central with several relatives. 3 of them were 5 and under, so we range from adults to around 5 years old. This should give me a good cross-section of age range experiences to share. Upon arrival we didn't find the parking very well marked. It just happened that Clinton was being worked on that day. We did manage to locate a fairly close parking place, but ended up with a good walk to the the facility. For us adults it was not too big of deal, but keeping 4 young children pointed in the right direction did prove to be some what of a challenge. We were warmly welcomed by the staff at the entrance, given a well marked map of the place so we would know where to go, what to see, and roughly in what order we would take in all the sights. Price wise we just happened to go on a day they decided to have a half price discount for everyone, so that was a big savings for 6 of us. Here's the link to the hours and pricing... http://sciencecentral.org/visit-us/admission/prices They range today any where from FREE to $8, depending on the age and if you're able to locate any discounts. Speaking of discounts, be sure to search on the internet for printable coupons, we found tons of sites that offered any where from 20% to 50% discounts. So it's worth your time to look around before heading out. Once we paid...then began what I call the "zoo" effect. Again, remember we have several relatives with us that are pre-school and elementary aged. The place is sooo big and there are so many science displays the kids are immediately attracted to a lot of different opportunities all at once. There are smaller segments or divisions of the the museum, but it does have a open concept feeling because of the enormity of the facility. It happened to be cooler that day and we all wore coats, so we found the coat racks and restrooms right on our way to the first display...we unloaded our coats and we were off to the races! In general, here's why I 3 stared this place. I have a degree in education and science is one of my loves. I for the most part understood most of the stations. They did have signage on all of them, but we found them relative brief and not fully explanatory. In a couple cases I understood the intent of the station, but the adult relative with me had to ask me, and they are very smart. Of course the children were clueless about nearly every station, and with 4 little ones, we had a full-time job of explaining to them each station as we arrived. Many years ago I remember annually going to the museums up in Chicago. It was a pile of fun. What I reflected on in comparison to this museum is how those museums typically had auditory listening devices, so we as children, without the aid of our parents could quickly learn what the station was about. This freed our parents up tremendously and gave me and my siblings an adventurous spirit. It made us feel like we were learning on our own independently. At this museum,if I were to make a suggestion to the staff, it would be to offer a free app that families could download in advance. This app would be designed to list all your stations by name and picture, so that parents or children could use their phone or pads to access an audio about each of the stations. The cost would be very low and you would of course have to some how get the word out, so parents would come with phones, pads, and headsets, or offer very inexpensive earphones in your gift shop or dinning area. With these tools in had, I think a child, and adult for that matter, would come out having a much more enjoyable and educational experience. Having said all of that, the central demonstration area all of us enjoyed immensely. The lecturer had their content well thought out, they presented the material well, and the timing was brief enough to keep the attention of those younger ones. All the kids walked away thinking it was fun and even though they might not admit it, they learned a lot too. ;) And not to mention it ended with a real bang! Literally! They demonstrated the effects of certain gases to heat...and it sure got everyone's attention quickly. Overall we had a good, positive experience, but as I mentioned there is room for improvement. Science Central Staff, don't hesitate to reach out to me via email, I'd be happy to offer any assistance with the audio project, if I can. Parents, also an FYI, they have a large slide that of course all the kids want to go down right away, but upon arrival at the top of the slide, the kids have to be a certain size to ride it. Of course some of our children were slightly shorter than the necessary height, so it was a big disappointment for them. Let them know in advance...it will save you some headaches. read more

What a shit hole of a place. They have a height restriction on a kids slide. All of the stuff is out dated an in bad shape. The staff is made of high school kid volunteers and brain dead. They even tried to over charge me on admission. Not coming back read more

Would have possibly done 5 but the staff opened very few things. Kids loved the water and small kid area and they did enjoy a few of the other displays but like I said the staff didn't open any of the demonstrations so that was a bit of a let down. Overall it was pretty good but not great. read more

Fun place to go for the kids and to make memories. I love the play area on the top floor for the younger kids who could care less about the other things that go on there. The kids love the animals more so the frogs. I honestly love going for the adult nights more and getting to experience science central after hours. read more

This place is a waste of money... go to children's museum in Indianapolis. Half the stuff isn't working. They wouldn't let my daughter go down slide because she's an inch too short. read more

Went with 4 adults and 3 kids (4, 3, and 2y/o). Oldest adults were given senior discounts simply bc they were grandparents. Place seemed somewhat behind on updated tech, but it had a decent balance with kinesthetic activities. The biggest letdown were the demonstrations since they were boring for the kids and even us as adults. It was hard to hear both times and the kids wanted to leave both. The demonstrators didn't have enthusiasm. Our kids played mostly in the Kid Central as well as most of the other reviewers. The best part for the kids was the water section and the animals/bugs. Hope this place seeks feedback from the public and other modern sources to become better for the current times. May go back but will keep this visit in mind. read more

The place has potential but on the day we visited there was no air conditioning and most of the active exhibits were closed. Of course they don't tell you when you are buying tickets that the air is not working or that the large slide is rarely open. I would not go back and considered it a total disaster The only reason i even gave it 2 stars is that it has the potential to be a fun place to visit if they are able to correct a few of the issues. read more

Probably a great museum but burdened with poor customer service. As a member of a different children's museum with reciprocity with SC, we tried to visit today. At other museums around the country, the staff have been able and willing to verify our membership. At SC, we were offered no solution other than paying again. Too bad... read more