Museum of Science and Industry

Activity Overview

The largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere, Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry offers a great amount of exhibits and activities to interest all ages.

Things to Do

• There are a range of permanent exhibitions that you can enjoy as well as a number of rotating feature exhibitions. These feature exhibitions currently include the "Treasures of Walt Disney Archives" which gives visitors a unique chance to explore the history of the Walt Disney Company through real artefacts.
• Permanent exhibitions include the U-505, which allows guests to explore the only German U-Boat in the United States and a tour of a replica coal mine where you can learn first hand about the technology involved in coal mining.
• The Omnimax theatre is a five storey domed, wrap-around movie theatre that shows educational movies. Currently showing are movies about the D-Day landings and about the migration of monarch butterflies.
• The Museum hosts Live Science experiences where you can witness and take part in fun acitvities to do with physics, biology and chemistry. See up close and personal how tornadoes are formed in the Vortex Show, give manufacturing design a go at their Fab Lab or for those with a stronger stomach why not dissect a cow eye?!

Museum of Science and Industry Insider Tips

• To be sure you catch everything you want to see download a map and plan ahead.
• The museum offers 52 free days a year to Illinois residents who can show proof of residence when they enter. Active military personnel, Chicago fire-fighters, Chicago police officers and Illinois teachers from pre-kindergarten to 12th Grade are all entitled to free entry by showing a current I.D when paying for admission.