SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity — Attraction in Sacramento

Listen… I am all for this museum. I love museums, especially science museums. This looks like a legit museum, and it’s new and nice. I really love the local exhibits and teaching us about local infrastructure, plants and animals, and the role of the Central Valley in the greater picture. Those are truly done well. There are also engineering workshops and kids were building a pinball machine and had individual classes. That was super cool - it is however $300! And for kids… that’s a lot, you can buy a membership in other design workshops at a similar price point to do a lot more than what I could see through the glass door. Anyway… I also liked the history of the actual building in the museum. A lot of fun building blocks for kids to play with. If you buy a year pass, they can kill a lot of time like in a day care.

The water exhibit was really interactive and interesting but I feel like it was a lot of cool tech for very simple messages. It’s almost a waste of building all that to say a few things. I wish that amount of effort was put into the other parts of the museum. The planetarium has two segments that are essentially the same - just going over the same solar system. The universe is very interesting but I just want one step further. Teach me about supernovas and red giants. We know the planets in our solar system, and you can just understand it in a sentence so why then sit through a 30min lecture about it? There is also a beautiful glass periodic table of elements on the second floor from donors, but not a single thing about chemistry anywhere. You can get a sheet of the periodic table of elements anywhere - on the internet, at Michael’s, etc. You can add some more basics just by asking ChatGPT and printing it out and sticking the response on a wall. Can we just make it a rule that if you’re going to put a science concept in a museum, you need to explain what it is and how it relates to the world? You can’t just stick it on a wall and say that you’re a museum.

There was a really cool giant city planning game on a wall. You can reuse that to create a game to combine atoms to make compounds and show what kids can make. I think this is a real chance for Sacramento to have the best science museum in the local region that people would travel to come to. It could really be boosted and hyped up. This is premium museum prices (18$ ticket per adult plus $6 parking is like 60$ total for three people in a single walkthrough in an hour), merch on point, a cafe, and a planetarium) and I think the museum could be a little more premium and teach kids a little more for that. I wish educators in the local area (even me, all I did was graduate high school) could use this museum as a hub for sharing knowledge, which is what they are...

I really really wanted to like this place ! But the whole experience was a little stressful and just not worth the money. Parking was $6 and the barcode outside, on the sign by the tent to pay ended up not working. After punching in all my info. So had to walk inside and get it sorted out there. The one that is taped to the front desk works. But standing there with a three year old having to type in all the information is less than ideal. Yet alone having to do that twice. Then we started walking through all the exhibits. A lot of the ones for the younger kids are toys they probably already have at home like legos, blocks and magnet tiles. Nothing spectacular. My kid wasn’t interested. The space exhibit was nice but thought there would be more stuff and artifacts. We went up stairs to a show that was going on. The speaker was very good but the subject matter was for older kids. Then finally decided to go to the gift shop and call it a day . My son found this cute little astronaut helmet and some goodies. We stood in like for awhile to check out . Once we got to the register the system was not working to run credit or debit cards. I don’t normally carry cash on me or my check book so this was a problem. I had to wait there to get it sorted out and it really felt like it took an hour. My three year old was a little fussy and getting tired while waiting. Saw some parents just leave with their crying children because they had to put their merchandise back. The process took forever but was not the employees fault at all. Just a computer malfunction or systems update thing . I felt bad for the people working there . They were doing their best and doing everything they could to make the register work. I almost walked out without the stuff and my kid would have been screaming and crying badly if that had happened. So I was happy they got it working somehow at the end after much waiting. Overall This was just not the best experience and one very expensive and stressful day. I would highly recommend not coming here. But if you do bring cash and...

There were no age recommendations for this museum, but I wanted to do something with my 11yo son on one of my days off. We got there around 11:40. We decided to start with the Universe show in the planetarium, which was AMAZING. The show we saw was definitely geared towards the parent(s). Personally speaking, the cost of the entry ticket paid for the show. I just wish you could do multiple different shows in one visit (one of the reasons for a minus one star).

There were also a lot of “feral” kids running around unsupervised. They would push their way into an exhibit and didn’t care at all about anyone else who had been patiently waiting. Example: We watched a child leave one of the “Build a Pinball Machine” exhibits. We went over and were there for about five minutes when the same child walked up and said “I was playing with this”. Another child at the pinball table next to us came over and said “I want the bell” and tried to grab the bell off our table (with the parents there). Another boy with no supervision grabbed things from our hands as we were attempting to build dams and levies. Yet another stepped in front of us at the “Build-a-Rocket” station because he found one on the ground as we were getting ready to launch ours.

This museum itself is great, but the lack of parental supervision of guests, lack of age recommendations, and lack of ability to see multiple shows is why I’m giving a 4-star rating. They definitely need employee supervisors...