Our Family Trip to the Da Vinci Science Center

One of our Christmas gifts this year was a family membership to the Lancaster Science Factory, which includes an ASTC Passport giving us FREE admission to more than 300 science centers around the world. When we were looking at the list of local centers to see where we could use our pass, the Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown stood out to us because it was only a little over an hour away.

It was raining on our drive there, and it hit me that this is another perfect rainy day family activity that I will be adding to my list!

After a quick look at the Da Vinci website, we were convinced this would be an excellent source of fun for our family—and while I don’t want to spoil the rest of the post, I will admit it was just that! We had SO MUCH FUN! They definitely meet the expectations they set for visitors with their tagline—filling our experience with exSCIting possibilities.

The Exhibits We Loved

Tunnel Vision – This is widely known as one of the Da Vinci Science Center’s most popular exhibits, Tunnel Vision is a hit with visitors because it lets them crawl through a 72-foot maze-like tunnel in complete darkness. Visitors feel their way and discover how they adapt when they cannot see.

High Flyers – lets your child make a flying funnel from a cone shaped paper cup. All-ages will love to experiment and strategize how to get theirs to fly the highest. We were fortunate enough that the family before us gave us some unique tips, like pointing the cone down, to get the highest flight!

Robot Dinosaur – T-Rexroth, the Da Vinci Science Center’s robotic dinosaur, demonstrates hydraulic technologies that theme parks use to create exciting attractions. Visitors can make him move with a joystick. Parts of the hydraulic system are labeled so visitors can explore how it works.

Marine Tank – The Da Vinci Science Center’s 560-gallon Marine Tank lets visitors see a variety of creatures, watch hermit crabs peek from small rock caves, and discover why spider crabs camouflage themselves. The tank includes LED lights that provide enhanced views of sea creatures living in the midst of live rock and a soft bed of sand.

Deer Park Water Table – The Deer Park Water Table is designed specifically for preschool-aged children and sits less than four feet above the ground. The exhibit features movable parts that visitors can position to manipulate the flowing water. The exhibit is complemented by informational panels describing Nestlé Waters North America’s jobs, efforts to conserve water, maintaining healthy hydration practices, and water recycling.

Melting Snowman Activity – I’ve included the recipe for the slime in the Da Vinci Center Prep Guide, which you can download here.

Newton Chairs – Visitors discover Sir Isaac Newton’s Second Law of Motion – that force is equal to mass multiplied by acceleration – as they sit on the chairs facing each other before they push-off against their feet and roll backward. The force is pushes between the riders. The mass is the mass of the riders. The acceleration is each rider’s change in speed over time, or how quickly a rider changes from being still to being in motion.

Built Like A Mack Truck – The Da Vinci Science Center’s exclusive Mack Trucks exhibit features a life-sized truck cab and game simulator challenges visitors to build the most fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly Mack Truck and drive it through realistic challenges.

Live Science Shows

I don’t know if they always offer live science shows, but when our family visited Da Vinci, they featured a Frozen Magic Live Science Show at three different times during the day. This was a great break from the hands-on learning activities and especially nice for us parents to sit for a little. The show was very well done, with a video screen magnifying all the science experiments the scientist performed, and a lot of crowd interaction with the kids.

Our daughter was excited to be chosen to help make snow on stage! I never would have imagined you could make snow from shaving cream and liquid nitrogen. Wow!

See our trip in action!

We’re starting a new Frugal Lancaster YouTube Channel this year so we were excited to capture a lot of our experience on video. We love that not only will you get to read about the museum but now you can get a quick look at the fun things you’ll experience there too!

Tips for Making The Most of Your Visit

Plan to stay at least 3 hours if your kids are 3 and older. Our visit was from about 11am to 2pm, and it felt just about right timing wise.

Get there early. The Science Center opens at 10am. We always recommend arriving as early as possible. We visited on a holiday so there were more probably more families since school was not in session. We definitely noticed more people visiting from the 11:30am to 12:30pm timeframe. After about 1:30pm, most families have left because of napping toddlers, so there weren’t as many lines or waiting.

Bring a packed lunch. We asked the help desk and they said it was perfectly fine to carry in our own lunches. They have several round tables available to use. There are vending machines for drink and snack purchases, but there is no cafe or other food options.

Bring a camera. This is probably a given, especially if you watched our video and saw our kids facial expressions as they experienced the fun, but I had to mention it anyway. If you use your phone as a camera, make sure you have plenty of memory left, because if you are like me you will be tempted to not only take lots of photos, but lots of video too!

Wear comfortable clothes and shoes. You will be doing a lot of moving and hands-on activities. The Center is on two floors and for most of the exhibits you will be on your feet. There are some benches for sitting down and waiting, especially at the Keva building blocks, where kids tend to get in their building zones and build for a long time. This is a great area to hit up in the afternoon if you have a child who is on the verge of still needing a nap—our 3 year old loved having his own space, building and there are tons of blocks so sharing is not necessarily required. 😉

Have a plan. Be prepared to talk about key science concepts with your child. You will get a lot more out of the experience! Now this is probably personal opinion, but for our family, we like to take our time at each exhibit, read the plaques and learn—not just run from one thing to the next. Granted, this is hard with kids, especially little ones, but it is possible.

This free guide will help you with quick and simple science terms to talk about with your kids! Its a quick read in just a few minutes the night before your visit, or on your drive to the Science Center.

Location, Pricing & Special Events

The museum is a quick and simple drive taking Rt 222N from Lancaster to Rt 78 near Allentown. The Center is soon after you pass Dorney Park.

Tickets are $12.95 each (ages 3+). For a family of 4, thats $51.80.

The important thing to note is that a family membership costs only $85. So if there is any chance at all that you intend on visiting again with the year (and believe me, if you go once you will want to go back again, mostly because of their enticing events like Ice Cream Wars), you really should just buy a family membership. I promise you, it will be worth it!

We visited only a few days before their Ice Cream Wars 9.0, which sounds like terrific fun mixed with learning!

If you’re visiting the Davinci Center, the Crayola Factory is also nearby. Check out our family visit and how shocked we were in the length of our stay—as well as the tips we have found on saving on your admission tickets!