Rochester Museum and Science Center - Rochester, New York - Hands-on Interactive Science and Technology Museum

Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC) is located at 657 East Avenue in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1912 and is located on 13-acre grounds. It houses the Museum and Science Center, the Strasenburgh Planetarium, the 400-seat Eisenhart Auditorium, the Preschool, and the Genesee Community Charter School. It also has a 900-acre Cumming Nature Center that is in the Bristol Hills near Naples, New York.

The Rochester Museum and Science Center is dedicated to increase the interest and the understanding of science and technology in a hands-on interactive environment. It houses its exhibits on three floors to stimulate and encourage investigating science and technology, natural science, and the region's cultural heritage.

At the RMSC, there are a number of exhibits and activities to involve visitors in science and technology. Besides visiting the exhibitions, there are docent-facilitated experiences and tours, which explore a number of scientific and social studies concepts in a hands-on environment. Amongst the different tours available are there are Animals and Plants Around Us tour, Glaciers & Giants tour, Ecology tour, How Things Work Tour, Our Town tour, and the Haudenosaunee tour. The RMSC also offers school overnight camp-ins and intermediate science discovery day, which allows students in grades 6-8 to spend time with local scientists and educators to perform and discuss a number of scientific experiments.

There are a number of permanent and temporary exhibitions at the RMSC exploring science and social studies. Examples of the temporary exhibits are the Be the Dinosaur: Life in the Cretaceous and CSI: the Experience. The Be the Dinosaur exhibit is an innovative first of its kind exhibit as it uses the conventional educational elements with computer simulation to teach children how dinosaurs lived in their realistic and accurate terrain.

The Adventure Zone exhibit allows visitors to embark on a simulated journey under Lake Ontario and experiment with weather and water cycle. How Things Work exhibit investigates simple and complex machines, sound, electricity, and magnetism. To learn about light, color, and optics, visitors are encouraged to go to the Light Here/Light Now exhibit.

Examples of the Social Studies displays are the Face to Face: Encounters with Identity, which examines how different people and groups show their identities. There is also the Native Peoples of the Americas, which deals with how people adapt with their environment to meet their needs. Another example is the Flight to Freedom: Rochester's Underground Railroad exhibit, which is divided into three sections: Slavery, Escape, and Freedom. This exhibit is meant to examine the Underground Railroad and present a number of issues and topics relating to it.

In addition to its numerous exhibits, the RMSC has an impressive collection that houses over 1.2 million objects dealing with evolutionary and environmental sciences, human cultures and communities, regional history collection, and the library and archives.

The RMSC caters to birthday parties, as well as a number of other business and social functions. For information about renting facilities and catering, interested parties are to call: 585-697-1943.

The Museum is open throughout the week. Mondays through Saturdays, the Museum is open from 9am to 5pm. On Sundays, it is open from 11am to 5pm. The Gift shop hours are on Monday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm and on Sunday from 12pm to 5pm.

The regular price of admission to the Museum for adults is $10. For students and senior citizens, the admission fee is $9. For children and teenagers between the ages of 3 and 18, the admission is $8. There is no admission charge for children 3 and under. There is also a combined admission price for the Museum and a Strasenburgh Planetarium film or star show. The combined fee for adults is $15 and $11 for students. The Museum can be reached by calling 585-271-4320.