Orlando Florida Science Center

Image of an exhibit at the Orlando Museum Of Science

Orlando Science Center is the prize-winning, hands-on science museum in Central Florida. The exhibitions and programming have brought science to life for more than 60 years, not just for Orlando Central Florida locals, but also for tourists from around the world.

There’s always something exciting for the 670,000 annual visitors to see and do at the Orlando Science Center with four floors of immersive exhibit halls, laboratories, classrooms, galleries, an observatory, and experiences that change with the seasons. Via the STEM Discovery Center educational activities, both on-site at the Science Center and offsite at schools and community groups, the science center also reaches 153,000 students and educators per year. ¹

History Of Orlando, FL Science Center

In January 1955, a group of visionary Central Florida residents and the Central Florida Federation of Art and Sciences, chartered a small non-profit science museum to be named the Museum and Planetarium of Central Florida. The staff conducted presentations in area schools and showed displays in shop windows and bank lobbies, beginning as a “museum on the move.”

In 1957 Loch Haven Park, Orlando the City of Orlando provided room for a permanent facility. The Museum and Planetarium of Central Florida opened its doors in 1960. The museum was anthropology-centered in its first decade, with an emphasis on the natural history of Florida and the Caribbean basin.

Since 1955, the Orlando Science Center has come a long way. The Science Center had been functioning in a small building that was the original facility in Loch Haven Park for much of its existence. Today, the Science Center of Orlando occupies a beautiful 207,000 sq. architecturally distinctive facility constructed for the future with spacious exhibition halls, natural environments, classrooms, a theater, an observatory, and visitor facilities such as a science store and café. ²

Directions From Downtown Orlando To The Orlando Science Center

The Orlando Science Center is located 2.4 miles south from the center of Orlando, Florida. With such a short distance, if you find yourself in downtown Orlando, it would take you 40 min to walk to the science center. Taxi, buses, and ride sharing options are available for those who prefer faster travel.

It would take approximately 8 min to drive from downtown Orlando to the Orlando Science Center. Driving directions from Orlando to the Orlando Florida Science Center.

Top Exhibits

To keep visitors interested, the science center continuously is changing exhibits and sharing materials with other science museums around the country. Once an exhibit is proven with popularity, the Orlando Science Center will keep it as long as possible. Popular exhibits include:³

NatureWorks – Exhibit hall that describes the natural world’s diversity, with an emphasis on Central Florida’s diverse ecosystems.
Kinetic Zone – Kinetic Zone is an eclectic collection of immersive, hands-on exhibits that encourage visitors to explore the fundamentals of powers, such as electricity, gravity, Newton’s Laws, and much more.
DinoDigs – A display composed of fossil replicas of extinct sea creatures and dinosaurs.
Crosby Observatory – the largest public refractor telescope in Florida, as well as a number of smaller but still powerful telescopes strategically positioned for star gazing.