Pennsylvania's Children's Museums

Pack up your day bag, grab the kids and get ready to experiment, explore and play at one (or more!) of Pennsylvania’s many children’s museums.

Almost every corner of the commonwealth has a museum or two dedicated to kids and even more that feature kid-friendly exhibits. Complete with interactive displays and activities, your little ones may not even realize it’s all “educational” and will be talking about all the fun they had for days afterword. Get your earplugs ready - some displays and activities will have them screaming with delight!

Learning, discovery and fun abound at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. Exhibits include newly remodeled Waterplay where even the littlest tykes have the chance to get wet while learning about the principles of water in all of its states and Makeshop, where physical materials and digital media resources intersect. There, families can make, play and design "real stuff" using real tools and materials to translate their own processes and ideas into a completed project. Bonus! Both exhibits feature original artwork, adding to that museum-y experience. And it’s not too late for some Adventures With Clifford The Big Red Dog; the exhibit runs through September 1st. Check out all the fun exhibits here.

It’s all in the name at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia.  Check out the Flight Fantasy exhibit where youngsters use their body to make things go. The kids will love playing hopscotch on clouds, rowing a flying machine, and through the magic of an Interactive Blue Screen exploring distant planets on a rocket that families can design themselves. Fairytale fans will love the Wonderland exhibit that takes kids down through the rabbit hole and then leads them through the world of Wonderland where they’ll meet unusual characters, encounter challenging riddles and experiments and face optical illusions. 

The Franklin Institute boasts a full city block of exhibits your kids will love as well as an IMAX Theater, a 3D Theater and the Fels Planetarium.  Kid Science, The Island of the Elements presents science in a storybook setting where kids join the good guys and work to defeat the bad guys in an effort to save the planet in the name of science. Space Command is a research station right here on Earth with interactive displays that will rekindle your desire to be an astronaut when you grow up. Older kids with a penchant for intrigue can discover how real men and women change the world every day–one secret at a time in SPY: The Secret World of Espionage that features over 200 historical artifacts and the stories they have to tell on display now through October 6.

Check out GROSSOLOGY, The Impolite Science of the Human Body exhibit at the Da Vinci Science Center until September 2. Learn about the good, the bad and the downright ugly of body functions and odors in this sophisticated exhibit derived from the best-selling book by Sylvia Branzei, Grossology. Other exhibits include a live seismometer in the What On Earth area, where all you true movers and shakers can monitor underground activity from around the globe, along with the Watt’s Up, What’s the Matter, and What is Nano interactive exhibits and displays. 

To learn more about the areas mentioned in this article, please click here:

Pittsburgh & It's Countryside Philadelphia & The Countryside

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