Learning can be a lot more fun outside the classroom. New York has some of the world’s top science museums,
nature centers, and
wildlife preserves where you can make exciting discoveries and meet fascinating creatures.
Many programs are designed to help families enjoy learning together. The
Brooklyn Children's Museum, the world's first children's museum founded in 1899, and the
Children's Museum of Manhattan have hands-on exhibits for all ages. You could spend a whole day in
New York City’s
American Museum of Natural History, known for its giant dinosaur fossils and habitat dioramas. Imagination has free reign at the
Discovery Center in Binghamton that features a fire station with a real truck, a Boeing 747 cockpit and exhibits on everything from bubbles to medicine.
At Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the world-famous genetics lab on
Long Island, the
Dolan DNA Learning Center makes learning about the double helix fun. Trace your genetic ancestry and see what makes you unique. Explore interactive displays and see planetarium shows at the
Rochester Museum & Science Center or the
Sciencenter in Ithaca, where you can also follow the Carl Sagan Planet Walk.
You can learn all about
Niagara Falls at the
Niagara Gorge Discovery Center, with a real-time gorge camera and a virtual reality time portal that lets you control the movement of continents and gorge formation. To see over 10,000 specimens one ambitious naturalist collected, visit the
Pember Museum in Greenville.
Want to see live animals up close? Zoos, aquariums and nature centers make your average TV nature show seem entirely inadequate. You can visit the
Bronx Zoo, the
Buffalo Zoo, and many others in between. At the
Wild Center, a natural history museum in the Adirondacks, visitors of all ages love the nature programs and animal adventures. You might even see our state bird, the bluebird, or a shy beaver, adopted as our state animal in 1975.