This is a cool place and much better than you'd expect for a museum occupying a couple of floors in a larger building.

One of the most important things a science museum has to do is to explain the scientific principles it exhibits. This science museum does that wonderfully, and it does it in a way that is both accessible to kids and substantive to adults. I can't overstate how great this is. Otherwise it's a glorified playground, but this museum got it exactly right in nearly every exhibit.

I took my two boys there, not knowing if it would be worth the trip or not. They had a blast and learned some things, too. The museum fills two floors in the Center in the Square building. You can reach both floors by stairs or elevator, but I'm partial to the illuminated stairs inside the museum, each bearing the name and dates of a famous scientist. That's a cool detail that's totally unnecessary but really adds to the experience.

There's a sizable exhibit on the first floor of the museum devoted to aquatic life complete with a touch tank. Another exhibit examines how topography affects water flow and allows you to manipulate a map projected on a small sandbox to see it in real time. I think this was my kids' favorite exhibit and it was quite well done. Other exhibits examine core drilling and extraction, how there human heart works, and there's a trippy space that allows you to see your shadow in 3D.

The second floor has a group of smaller exhibits which cover topics from light refraction to potential and kinetic energy, resonance, and aerodynamics, along with many others. There's also a garden area with some interesting plants, though my kids weren't interested in it, so I didn't get a chance to see what it was all about.

We are members at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond and our membership there was honored here and allowed us to enter for free. Reciprocity is great!

Several different exhibits had broken or missing elements. It didn't ruin the experience by any means, and only two small exhibits were broken outright to the point of being unusable. It's understandable and unavoidable when you have so many people, including a lot of kids, interacting with the displays. Still, only one of them was marked as broken while the other left us to wonder if we were missing something about how to interact with it.

A note about parking. If you drive to the museum, there is a parking garage attached to the Center in the Square building. It's not cheap, though. It's a dollar for every half-hour, capped at $8 for a day. There are other parking garages within walking distance that may be cheaper.

You can expect to easily spend half a day there. Plan for more if you or your kids like making things as the maker space has many different materials to experiment with.

If you have a child with sensory issues, there is a small sensory space in the younger kids area. There isn't a lot there, but it is a nice haven if the rest of them museum gets too loud or busy or if your kid just needs a break from too many stimuli.