Maryland Science Center

Address:	601 Light St, Baltimore, MD 21230, USA
Phone:	+1 410-685-5225
Site:	mdsci.org
Rating:	4.2
Working:	10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–6PM 11AM–5PM

Location

+−

Leaflet

Photos 100

Reviews 9

Rahul Gor

There are more good things than bad to say about the Maryland Science Center. The biggest issue is parking. Paid parking as of today is about 2 dollars an hour for a maximum of 4 hrs. The center itself is located in a great area that makes it easy to get to if you are already in the inner harbor area. Some of the good things: Planetarium and the IMAX movies are great entertainment but not a lot of science. The displays are nice and well organized from the Human Body to the Electricity and Physics. There is a kids friendly area that helps inspire learning and critical thinking. A cafeteria is also located in the building but a little overpriced. Look to spend about 3 hrs or more if you do movies and demonstrations. There is also a dinosaur exhibit. Restrooms and water fountains are available. Cons: Some of the displays are broken. The displays sometimes do not cater to its audience i.e too complex for a child or too simple for an adult. The cost is reasonable for the time spent though if you are in a hurry and with less than 2 hrs it isnt worth it since most of the displays are hands on. Repeat visits are nice but it gets redundant and repetitive. By the 4th visit youve memorized the whole place. Get an annual pass if you intent to go more than once.

Nancy King

Unfortunately, the architect of this museum seems to have been more concerned with looks than functionality. There are great open spaces which are not well utilized, yet the areas for the special exhibits at the time we visited were narrow and over-crowded. At the time we went, people were trying to exit the IMAX, go down the stairs, and enter the popular traveling exhibit, all within close proximity, all at the same time. Parents, mind your chilldren! Additionally, those who are partially mobility impaired, as I am, should BEWARE. There is NO parking around or under the museum (though there are lovely sidewalks and spacious views of the harbor). The closest parking lots are across a wide boulevard with a walk/dont walk sign that is not long enough for get across the street in one go, and the very few handicapped spaces were all taken. There is NO elevator access to the street level. Stairs and a rather steep ramp is mandatory. From the parking lot, it is a good quarter of a mile to the entrance, which is on the back of the museum. Overall, the problems with the physical structure of this museum and its exterior access outweighed my enjoyment of the special exhibit we drove 75 miles to see.

Janell Miller

Eh! I cannot say I was very impressed, which was a disappointment. For the price of admissions ($100 for 1 adult and 2 children + parking), a number of the exhibits were old, or not in working order. So the kids became frustrated as they conducted the experiments, only to discover the darn thing was did not work in the first place. However, the planetarium was pretty nice. IMAX = Large screen, we know. Skip it and go for the shows in the planetarium. Now, for the staff. The more intellectual staff members were pleasant and obviously enjoyed their jobs; the "support" staff, not so much. Some were rude or completely unprofessional...sigh, so typical. So all in all, if youre a tourist family looking for something safe to do with the kids, and not have to worry about getting mugged on the streets of Baltimore, go for it. Its a wonderful idea, with great potential, but reflective of a crappy city, crappy management, and apparently a crappy Board of Trustees. ***Oh and another person here mentioned there were no hand sanitizer dispenser, and they are correct. For a "hands on" center, those are the details one would expect for $20 per person. Sheesh. ***

Daisy Crossfield

Maybe as a kid, it seemed a lot better and more impressive than it is now. Ive been plenty of times, and the only thing I can say that consistently impresses me is the dinosaur exhibit. As others have stated here before, the museum has A LOT of space... And yet fails to utilize it to its advantage. A lot of the exhibits are very old and havent been updated in years- or cleaned, for that matter. It feels as though it keeps shrinking, and half of the exhibits are not even in working order. People also seem to not know how to raise their kids to respect taking their turn, but thats always been a problem and its not much staff can do. Whats there is fun for the first time, but gets old after a while. What I remember is the Grossology traveling exhibit, where there was a lot to do in addition. Maybe Im imagining that, but heres to hoping Im not.

Jennifer Andres

Great museum. We love the classes that my kids take there and all the rotating activity stations they have. I wish there was a better way to register for the homeschool classes, though. I have called at 10am on the day they start registering and between using two phones I get the answering machine three times, then one line rings for 3 min. before switching to a busy signal, then I sit with a busy signal on both lines, and finally at 10:07 I get through and put on hold. Five minutes later the hold music stops so I think my call is being answered only to be told four minutes later that I am number 10 in line. After another 20 minutes I get to register for the classes which fortunately havent filled yet, but I wasnt so lucky before. However, the classes are so good that the wait doesnt deter me from registering every time.

A Private User

The Science Center has some things to offer very young children, but unfortunately about 25% of their hands on exhibits for kids are broken, particularly any exhibit involving electronics. Also, I was not impressed with the lack of detail. Most of the exhibits provided a very rough overview of a particular topic and nothing more. Some aspects of the exhibits were either missing or perhaps not much thought had gone into the creation of the exhibit. The science demonstration was worth seeing. Overall I do not think it is worth the admission fee. Staff also did not seem informed about the goings on in the Center.

Matt Merkel

A fun, modern science center. Nicely maintained, though a few exhibits are naturally off-line for repairs at any given time. The dino section was really quite something, with many of the always-popular carnivores on display. Plenty to keep the kids busy for most of the day (depending on the kids in question, of course) and probably wear them out, too. Not really cheap, but a fun place if science centers are your thing. The cafe wasnt bad, but next time I might prefer walking out to one of the other dining options in the area.

Alice Krall

Harmful, rude, and ignorant. No warning of,defense against, or apparently any scientific awareness of the obvious danger of a museum %100 based on "hands on" displays which directly expose all of the thousands of children per day to the cold germs which some of them of course went in with, but all came out with. Even the displays about germs had no hand sanitizer or wipes available,which would have been the perfect spot in the museum for teaching the need for such applications in a mass public "hands on" exposure .

A Private User

Unless you have very young children w/you.....pass. Lots of kids on class trips running all over the place or having temper tantrums. It is set up more as a hands-on museum with lots of experiments but does not offer much to hold the interest of those who are older. We bought 4 tickets (no IMAX included) for $60 - a total waste of money. Visit the American Museum of Visionary Arts - just a little longer walk down the harbor - if you are looking for something for older teens/adults interested in art.