For more than 60 years, the Orlando Science Center has been a place that inspires curiosity and exploration. Truly one of the great activities for Orlando families, the Science Center encourages learning in a fun way. It’s the perfect educational activity, fun and knowledge all under one roof. For visitors from out of town, Orlando Science Center is a must for your “things to do in Orlando” list. With four floors of exciting exhibits, amazing giant-screen movies and engaging live programming, the Science Center is perfect for people of all ages. It’s also the ideal rainy day activity – fun for everyone and completely indoors!
Located on the ground floor, NatureWorks an exhibit hall that describes the richness of the natural world, with a focus on the diverse ecosystems of Central Florida. It is full of plants and animals of coral reefs, cypress swamps, mangrove, and other Florida environments. You can learn how living and non-living things interact with each other and their environment. Sharing the floor with NatureWorks is KidsTown, a miniature town that introduces science concepts to younger children through whole-body experiences, hands-on interactives and imaginative role-playing, water tables, orange juice processing plant and more.
On Level 2 is Kinetic Zone, an eclectic array of hands-on, interactive exhibits, Kinetic Zone lets visitors explore the fundamentals of forces, such as electricity, gravity, Newton’s Laws and much more. Visitors can engage in a series of hands-on challenges that invite them to design, build and test their own creations.
Engineer It! is located in the exhibit hall on the Level 3. A hands-on exhibit that designed around the engineering process. Guests can plan a design; create a prototype; and improve and retest engineering prototypes. Just outside of Engineer It! on the Level 3 mezzanine is Fusion: A STEAM Gallery. It’s Orlando Science Center’s art gallery which integrates art into the STEM curriculum. All art on display fuses art and science in creative ways. While Fusion will remain as a permanent part of the Science Center, the exhibition is updated intermittently.
DinoDigs on Level 4 consists of fossil replicas of dinosaurs and prehistoric sea creatures. Uncover fossils in the giant dig pit “Jurassic Ridge”; examine real, fossilized dino eggs; explore displays that feature ancient land and marine reptiles; compare reptiles and dinosaurs to see similarities and differences; and discover denizens of the ancient oceans such as Elasmosaurus and Tylosaurus. Right next to DinoDigs is Our Planet, an exhibit that is geared to exploring the strange, curious and odd peculiarities of the universe and our place within it. Discover the dynamic forces and systems that shape Earth and uncover the mysteries of the solar system. Experiences include computer-based interactives and visuals, such as images direct from the NASA Hubble Space Telescope, and hands-on stations that explore some strange and familiar phenomena. There is also a Virtusphere: a 10-foot hollow sphere that rotates freely in any direction based on the user’s steps.
Florida's largest public refractor telescope, as well as an array of smaller yet still powerful telescopes are held within the Crosby Observatory on Level 6. Viewing stars and planets from the Crosby Observatory is only available select hours and is weather permitting.
The Science Center has a history of hosting traveling exhibits that are displayed for a few months at a time in different galleries. For information about the latest traveling exhibit, check the Orlando Science Center website.
The Science Center also has two movie that show educational films. The Dr. Phillips Cinedome features a theater with 300 seats and uses a fisheye lens to project to a giant screen measuring 8,000 square feet, creating an image that surrounds the audience and extends well beyond their peripheral vision. There’s also the Digital Adventure Theater: A National Geographic Experience; the Science Center was one of the first museums to join a national effort with National Geographic, giving the Science Center special access to one of the world’s largest giant-screen film libraries that includes award-winning films in 2D and 3D digital formats. Hollywood films are also available at the Digital Adventure Theater on select evenings.
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