Fort Worth Museum of Science & History

My wife and I had a "date day" so we headed to one of my childhood haunts. In fact, one of the displays was celebrating the 75th anniversary of, at the time, The Children's Museums' "Museum School." I'm 75 now and I started spending Saturdays at the museum shortly after the school was founded.We had a great time browsing through all the exhibits. After a while of strolling around it was time for lunch. The previous snack bar has been replaced by the "Exhibit Cafe" which has an expanded menu and lots of options. What's nice it most of the items are "grab and go" without waiting to get your selection prepared.After looking at the menu, my wife decided on the Museum Club which had smoked turkey, ham, hickory bacon, Romaine hearts, tomatoes, pickles and Ranch dressing. It was served on ciabatta bread and was HUGE, definitely enough for two. I decided to order the "Sweet and Spicy" flatbread. It had prosciutto, hickory bacon, tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese and drizzled with a chili pepper honey. Oh my! The flat bread had to be prepared so there was a short wait in the line.My wife loved her sandwich. She ended up cutting it in half and taking it home for lunch the next day. The sandwich was prepared perfectly and piled full of goodness. The ciabatta bread was fresh and had a wonderful "chew" to it. My flatbread was SO delicious. It was the perfect blend of sweet and spicy. The honey drizzle was so yummy.After lunch it was just about time for us to head to the Omni for our feature about rainforests. The new Omni is spectacular. The sound system is unbelievable and the 8K resolution is spectacular. We loved they kept the snack bar. Even though we had just finished lunch, how can one pass up the smell of fresh popped popcorn?To end our wonderful visit to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, we headed to the planetarium. Growing up in Ft. Worth, I spent so much of my childhood at the museum especially the planetarium. I dreamed when I grew up, I'd go to space. Things didn't work out exactly as I dreamed it. Outside of the planetarium, I stopped, and my mouth dropped open! In the case was one of the telescopes children could check out back in the 1950's. I used to check the scopes out all the time to be able to stargaze. In fact, the scope in the case could have been one of the telescopes that I used. Wow, what an incredible stroll down memory lane! The planetarium show was very enjoyable and brought back so many memories.What a wonderful visit we had at the museum. We'll have to return again soon and take in some additional offerings at the Omni.

Very disappointing. It is just a remnant of what it use to be. So many exhibits have been removed and so many fun things are gone. Someone needs to bring back the fun. Brought a friend in from out of town and embarrassed that I wasted our time.

Well.. well... I was so excited to bring my 18months old here for the planetarium. Just to came to find out that they don't open planetarium to public on school days till 2oclock show! SMH that was a waste of our time! Put that in your website!! And they also took the Sesame Street one out also! The museum itself was just ok. Some part need updating! It's children museum for age 4-6 and not outside that age range. Because if you are younger than 4, it's gonna be too hard for you and over 6, really is nothing much for them to do! I won't go again unless they will do something different. Just not worth the time!

The museum is an exceptional, kid-friendly environment with a wide array of engaging exhibits designed to spark curiosity and foster learning. Among the highlights are interactive coloring pages and archeological sand digs, where children can unleash their creativity and explore the world of ancient discoveries. These hands-on activities provide a delightful blend of education and entertainment, making complex scientific concepts accessible and enjoyable for young minds.Further enhancing the museum's appeal are the interactive grocery store and hospital play areas, which allow children to immerse themselves in real-world scenarios. In these play spaces, kids can learn about nutrition, health, and everyday responsibilities through role-playing activities that encourage both imagination and critical thinking. The museum's commitment to providing a dynamic and enriching experience ensures that visitors of all ages can enjoy a fun and educational day out.

We used to have Ft Worth Museum memberships for a good 10+ years and we let it go around 2022. What was a great museum when we were kids seems to become filled with either sponsored exhibits or large areas that amount to play areas geared to kids second grade and younger. We finally gave up our membership here to get one at a Dallas museum that is a bit more geared to older kids and adults; while still being little kid friendly; and has more member perks than Ft Worth has had over the last 4 years. Possibly they will improve the membership benefits once they get the Omni back open; but we somewhat felts burned the last couple of years we had memberships here when compared to benefits we get where we have memberships now.

This poor museum is in dire need of updating. History and science museum it is not. A beat up children's museum? That is a big maybe! While the science exploration area for kids is very nice, The mini community indoor play area had bare shelves in the Dr area, grocery store and the few objects the kids can play with are broken and absolutely filthy!Nothing looks clean. I loved walking in and seeing a memorial to 911. (anyone can see without a ticket) IMHO ...While they do have a great start to a Dino section, the energy/industrial area is the largest exhibit of the museum, yet the info is outdated and many of the hands on items have broken sound effect buttons or handles. It's just sad. The long horn/ cattle exhibit is beautiful, but you could easily miss it if you don't go looking for it. Over all, it an OK muesum, that should be called a children's museum.

I really enjoyed it here! While there are many kid directed activities and locations the actual museum exhibits and information was really fun and educational for an older audience.Came with a young family member anyways so had a ton of fun with her and highly recommend for a family outing just don't go to the Chick-fil-a as the food is frozen and pretty much just microwaved before you for the same steep price!

Unfortunately after At least 11 years of membership, after today we're just going to let our membership expire at the end of January. Having known what we got pre-covid compared to how it is now, it's not a good fit for us anymore. Prior to 2020 our membership included parking. At a certain point we had been told when we first got the membership they owned the lot on the cowgirl side of the museum. They had an amazing gift shop we would buy something from every time. From 2017-2019 my oldest got to go to a special single day summer camp for members. They had amazing, interesting and well known exhibits. Things like mythbusters, titanic, Indiana jones, bodies, George Washington, Dora the explorer, etc. They had plans for a remodel which included an experience that reminded me of Sorin' at Disney. With the 2020 closer the museum remained closed into 2021, shy of a 2 week attempted re-opening in December 2020. During closure I guess folks were not checking things as they should have and a flood of the Omni theater went unseen until it had done a lot of damage. Omni still remains closed and won't reopen until fall 2024 unless they have more delays. I will say with the closer our 2020 membership extended out to January 2022 due to the length of the closure. We made use of the reciprocal membership and went to the Perot & Herd during our home museums extended closer. With renewing in Jan 2022 we gave a lot of grace in a post covid world. They charged for the planetarium for awhile, now it's back to being included. I was told the parking lot was taken over by the city with all of the development in the area. They kept the free parking for awhile but it became discounted parking with our 2023 membership. The 3D/4d show was hit and miss to being open. A lot of the activities in one area became things my kids do at school. There wasn't really traveling exhibits, and the ones they have brought seemed underwhelming compared to things that had come before. Even more frustrating compared to what other museums bring to their location in the DFW area. We almost didn't renew in January 2023 but Perot was more expensive at that point for what we needed. Though the Perot was bringing in well known exhibits including a science of the Art of Pixar, that had been planned for 2020 but with their line up made it to the Perot this past year. Now with looking forward Perot has changed their membership levels it is $10 cheeper without any special deals for a Perot with ASTC still included. We loose free access to the cowgirl museum but we didn't regularly visit there when in the area. If you have kids kindergarten age and younger this museum might still be a good fit & live in the area. I really recommend a rebranding of the museum as a children's museum vs Science & History if they continue to remain the same or down the path they are on.

Here's what we were able to see on our most recent visit, which was very short and sweet. We came in on a Saturday around 1:30pm and while there were plenty people around, it really wasn't crowded. Parking is $6 for 0-2 hours and admission is $16/adult, $12/child, and babies 2 and under are free. We spent most of our time in the Children's Museum exhibit (which is what most of my photos are of). This is meant for kiddos (up to age 8) and it's super cute. They've got a little kid-size grocery store, a play hospital/ambulance, make your own train tracks/buildings, a giant cable car, a quiet room for nursing/rocking, and their own restrooms. There's also a play mat and toys for little toddlers and babies. Winnie just speed-walked/ran through everything for the most part, haha, but if we came more often she would spend more time exploring. Downstairs there's also Innovation Studios where you can draw, design, and invent. There's the Energy Exhibit all about natural gas and generating power and oil drilling. And an enormous long-neck dinosaur... a Paluxysaurus jonesi, apparently. He's pretty cute. 110-115 million years old and one of his femur bones alone weighs over 200 pounds. Insane! Okay what else was downstairs... the Dino lab and outdoor Dino dig park, an outdoor playground, and a space gallery. And the Stars Cafe with sandwiches, hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken tenders, fries, fruit, nuts, chips, etc. Upstairs there's a few special exhibits like: "A Century of Clothing: Circa 1850s through 1950s." That was really cool, all these old tiny clothes and shoes. There's also an exhibit on the path to modern medicine, the transformation of weaponry, and the Cattle Raisers Museum for all your Fort Worth "cowtown" specific trivia and artifacts. And finally the Omni theater, although it's currently closed for renovation. The building is pretty dated overall, an artifact in itself, haha. But overall this museum is clean, comfortable, affordable, and really does offer a lot if you take the time to look.

Review from adult perspective: I am a proud science nerd, so I really wanted to love the FW Museum of Science & Natural History. However, as an adult, it was barely ok. The Energy Exhibit was mildly interesting... the tiny Dr. RA Ransom, Sr. display in the first floor hallway was great... and the Cattle Ranching exhibit upstairs was very interesting and engaging. Otherwise, the museum is honestly a Children's Museum with a few adult-level displays that felt like afterthoughts. Definitely NOT worth the $16 per adult fee + the $6-12 per car parking fee across the street. Now, for kids, it looked like KIDS LOVE IT. So, I am glad the museum is available.