Fort Worth Museum of Science & History

I was a little let down after visiting the museum. The entrance fee was $ 15 which I found a little high considering the size of the museum. The majority of the museum focused on energy and oil. Also, many of the exhibits were geared towards little children. I did really enjoy the cattle and cowboy exhibit.

Very nice building, but the exhibits are a joke. It’s about 25% stuffed cows and spurs, 25% «a bunch of stuff we found in the basement, mostly dead things in jars of formaldehyde» with zero description, 25% commercial for IBM, 25% commercial for the fracking industry. Aside from the shameless commercial half of it, even the permanent «collection» has almost zero description, context, or continuity in the exhibits. Admission is $ 15, or $ 21 if you want to watch the zero-​information IBM Imax infomercial. And don’t think the kiddies get a big break. I believe child admission is $ 12.
Really the only truly interesting thing is the girder from the WTC, which is in the entrance lobby before you even go in. How so little thought went into the content in such an expansive facility is hard to fathom.

We have been members here for a good long while and the more changes they make to the membership program the more they seem to be not focused on thanking or taking care of those long standing members. The first change was positive, they added the free parking! Once that was the case we actually referred 3 families from our Girl Scout troop to get, and they got memberships. Then when we went to renew in 2014 they took away the 20% off incentive for renewal if you did it the month before your expire date. They traded it for an extra month … A very much about money moment but I let it slide because I figured they might have a ton of membership & school groups but their one time pay numbers may have been down. The weird thing was that my original renewal was in Nov was moved to December … They asked me to still renew in October to get the extra month for when it came up in renewal instead of the month before my expiration date which the deal should have been in November for 2015 not still in October. So I won’t know if that will continue this year but that’s fishy to me.
Though I’m glad I renewed the 2 months early in 2015 because if I had waited I again would have fallen in to their new type of membership for renewal which is horrible. The prices have gone up and the benefits are almost non-​exestant. They pretty much got rid of the iMax aspect; what they replaced it with is what 2 maybe 4 vs the 25 you used to get. Now if you bring friends tickets are no longer discounted if your coming with a member. Like before if my family of 3 came with our friends that is a family of 3; we would get 5 in free & the extra person would get like $ 3 or $ 5 off their regular ticket price. Now that person has to pay full price. Which to me means I’m less likely to bring friends; and as someone who brought friends that did get memberships … That’s losing money not gaining money.
A lot of members are upset with the changes & if the renewal incentives are not back to some sort of % of or something better than an extra month if you renew two months ahead … We are looking to not renew.

Worst $ 37($ 7to park) we have ever spent… this wasn’t a museum, it was poor version of Chuck’e Cheese… nothing educational, and the dinosaur exhibit was pathetic… don’t waste your $…seriously what kid wants to learn about Fracking or Steve Jobs ideas on a big screen tv… they promoted the IMAX batman-​vs-​superman movie more then anything… sad…

Unless you have children or are going with children, this museum has little to offer for the adult crowd. That’s not to say its a horrible museum. There is just a heavy children theme throughout.
Growing up in the area in the 90s, I went to this museum all the time for field trips. Back then, it felt like there was more stuff. Granted, I really didn’t appreciate it because I thought it was all boring lol.

It was okay to keep the girls occupied but I think this is more for kids that are in kindergarten and below. For the amount that they are charging for admission, I would probably recommend somewhere else. I gave it two stars because it kept the kids entertained for 2hrs just running a rounding thinking it was going to have something fun… You can just Imagine two 7 year old kids conversation when they didn’t find anything fun…

Not much to the museum. Rather boring. Didn’t see much that would really grab a child’s attention and hold it for a bit. In fact, a lot of the mechanical features of the museum weren’t in working order. For a place that doesn’t have much to begin with, this was a huge bummer. This museum needs a HUGE overhaul. I’m sure Fort Worth can afford to put some money into updating this place and adding to it. It has so much potential.

It was a great way to spend 3 hours with my kids, ages 7 & 10. We were able to get free admission from a science event they hosted at my children’s school which saved us about $ 55 for a family of 4. There was a lot of hands-​on activity for them to enjoy. We liked the planetarium show which lasted about 20 – 25 minutes and was about our solar system. I felt the whole museum was very dedicated to hosting kids and families. I don’t think we will go back again since I didn’t feel like we got $ 55 worth of value from the visit.

This museum is well worth the annual pass if you live in the area. We live in Italy, but purchase the pass through my parents (our home of record). It’s a fabulous experience for both adults and kids. With a pass you can just drop in and see an exhibit or two and then go grab lunch. Otherwise, I would give this spot a full day to experience all it has to offer.
The Omni theater is also amazing. I have seen multiple movies there and have always loved the experience. I would highly recommend going to this museum if you are traveling through or live in the area.

My son loves this place. We bought a membership and use it often. Additionally, we’ve enjoyed movies at Omni and exhibits such as Titanic over the years. This is a gem.

Today, I took my three children and husband to your museum for the first time. We drove about 30 minutes to get there and we’re excited to arrive! We walked in, paid visitors fee and found our way through the beautiful museum.
While our children appeared to be entertained, I want to bring to your attention something that was concerning for us– as it should be for those managing this museum.
Cleanliness– or lack thereof. I’m not talking about the usual debris that comes from a busy day at the museum. I’m actually highlighting what appears to be months if not years of buildup. Around knobs, handles and on ledges were hand prints and finger prints that had accumulated from MONTHS of not being cleaned. If this were a subway station, I would understand. It was grime– GRIME– in the children’s space. Had not been cleaned– not today– possibly not ever. It’s unsanitary and I saw employees walking around and tidying up– but the CLEANING crew? Questionable.
I included some pictures for you as well as a picture of the rag I used. It was a baby wipe… no detergent. That means that water and a rag could easily remove the filth. It means that no one has ever tried. It was gross.
I cleaned the knob on the left (red picture) and left the others for you to compare.
I hope someone in your department works to fix this situation. It’s bad enough our kids are always sick — but when facilities that cater to children do nothing to keep a sanitary environment, I have to wonder if they are in it for the children or for the $. I would work harder to keep this place clean, if I had anything to do w it.
Hope you understand the concern. Please view the attached pictures for your reference.

I’ve been to quite a few museums and I have to say this museum was definitely not worth the money or time. My husband and I paid $ 57 for our two kids and two adults plus $ 7 for parking. It took less than hour to go through and explore the entire museum. I would say it was more of a glorified science display than a museum. You literally could put together most of the interactive child centers in your garage for under $ 40. One «interactive» center was for making paper airplanes… Save your money and time. Head to Houston and see their Science Museum. It has awesome exhibits such as faberge egg exhibit, Egyptian artifacts, butterfly museum with real butterflies flying around you in their natural tropical habitat, etc. Now *that* is a museum. I want our money back.

Big emphasis on the cattle industry, understandable given the context. A large exhibit on oil exploration, including an interactive fracking exhibit for the kids. My 9 year old’s favorite was the seismic vibrator truck.
There is a smallish dinosaur room. There is a large room devoted specifically to IBM, including a five minute promotional video. I guess these days most kids have never heard of IBM.
Snark aside, my favorite part was right there at the entrance: a huge, mangled steel girder from the World Trade Center, mounted vertically, rising solemnly within a bright-​yellow enclosure lit by skylights. You can see this part for free, and really, it’s powerful to see a piece of ⁹⁄₁₁ like that. Drop by and spend five minutes.

We spent a Saturday morning here not too long ago. It was fun, but I would probably not recommend coming here if you don’t have children. Most of the exhibits are child-oriented…which honestly I didn’t mind too much. The featured exhibit during our visit was IBM’s Think. The exhibit just had multiple touch screens in a room that had 1 of 4 themes. I liked the idea of the exhibit, but think it was executed poorly.

As a DFW native, I’ve visited this museum many times. My elementary school came here on a field trip and watched a movie on what is now known as the Imax screen at the Omni Theater. On my most recent visit, I noticed that the chairs were in such poor condition that they were probably the same chairs from my field trip back in the ‘90s.
Other Unilocalers mentioned that this museum is catered towards small children and they could not be further from the truth. There is an actual school here, known as the museum school, and it is for preschoolers. Several of the areas are for kids under age 8. That excludes older children and limits the museum’s offerings even further.
Since my initial visits as a youth, I have now visited twice as a teacher escorting my students on field trips. I apologize for any students who have run around, yelled, or touched items like the beam from the World Trade Center. *cringes* The museum is fixed and very little changes. Upstairs you have the planetarium and Cattle Raisers Museum and an occasional exhibit on the opposite end that changes. As a Texas History teacher, the cattle exhibit is cool but could stand a bit of updating. There are a few interactive components but not enough to hold the attention of older kids. Downstairs there is a dino dig and other dinosaur artifacts.
My other complaint about this museum is that it’s way more science focused than history focused. I love a good history museum and Fort Worth has a rich history that extends past its involvement in the cattle industry and the Chisholm Trail. Maybe one day it will be updated.

Came here with family on Halloween since we were in Fort Worth for some other event and wanted to check out the place before driving back home in Plano.
We drove around trying to find parking and eventually found the parking lot for the museum. There is no free parking around this area. You’ll have to pay the $ 7 flat rate on the Museum’s ground packing in the back.
Adult tickets will set you back $ 15, junior kids tickets cost $ 11, and senior tickets $ 13.
The only free display you can see here without paying at the museum’s entrance is the ⁹⁄₁₁ Tribute Exhibit called N-​101, a full-​façade panel that supported three floors (101 – 103) two stories above the center of the impact zone of the North Tower. The only other place in Texas that I’ve seen a ⁹⁄₁₁ exhibit like this was at the George W. Bush Presidential Library.
FYI, this museum is mainly for kids. Yeah, there are some cool stuff adults can check out, but the museum is mostly designed for a hands-​on experience for the younger kids, 8 and younger. If you are looking for a science and history museum for older children or adults, your best bet will be the Perot Museum in Dallas.
My 1 and 3 year old boys had a lot of fun in the Children’s museum exhibit. The DinoDig was closed due to the rains. I enjoyed the Energy Blast, Think, Dinolab, and Cattle Raisers Museum exhibits. These were really cool interactive exhibit galleries. They also have a public planetarium called the Nobble Planetarium with some collection such as a 100-​pound iron meteorite found in Blue Mound in 1979 and some cool presentations for those interested in astronomy and space.
There is also a cafeteria in the museum, though nothing impressive about it.
Overall, the museum is a great place for young kids under 8, there is so much for them to do. There are some cool things for adults to look at and learn, especially the history of Fort Worth’s energy sector and the cattle trade. There is also a cool slide inside the gift shop that my 3 year old could not get enough of!

Shame on my fellow Unilocalers.
The museums in Fort Worth are one of the things I like most in this awesome city!
This museum is the best in Texas. Dallas (the Fair Park location) and Houston have ones less clean, more crowded, poorly maintained, and far less to see.
I agree there is not much for adults, however
at the entrance are now iron girders from ⁹⁄₁₁. This is the only place in Texas to see them. I had chills seeing the melted and twisted metal. Most kids were not around to experience the real thing.
For the kids:
The children’s museum is one of the top rated in the country (also the Zoo and Kimbell Museum). The activity rooms constantly rotate. Kids spend a lot of time learning about physics while improving motor skills.
Activities we did today:
— learned about tornados
— learned about ocean current
— played with a Lite Brite
— made hats
— drew pictures in a black light room
— built domino bridges
— learned about how cartoons are made
— dug for dinosaur bones
— learned about the Barnett Shale
— pretended at a kids grocery store
— learned to weigh and X-​ray
— saw snakes and spiders
The price is more expensive than before– $ 37 for two kids, one adult non members, but very much worth it.

We were in the area visiting family and discovered that our Museum of Science and Industry membership from home got us free admission. We grabbed the kids and went to check it out.
There’s really not much at all to do here until you have kids. There’s an omnimax theater that was very busy but other than that, all I saw were exhibits geared towards kids.
We very much enjoyed the crafting room and the outdoor dinosaur dig.
Our kids had a great time but I’m glad I didn’t pay to get in because there wasn’t really that much to do.

A fantastic museum for the whole family. Came for the Indiana jones exhibit and the myth busters. Both are fun for children of all ages. The permanent exhibits are neat too.
I recommend it.

Fun for the Family!
Visiting from New York by way of Oklahoma, I met up with my family from Austin here in Fort Worth. My cousin has kids, and I’m always game for a museum, we decided to check this place out.
Upon arriving, I asked for discounts. AAA discount only on one of their additional fee experiences. We weren’t doing that, so it didn’t work for us. Also, no teacher discounts. I always ask about that and many places do have teacher discounts. So full-​price we went. A presentation in the planetarium and regular admission.
We started out with the kids checking out the Curious George Exhibit. TONS OF KIDS. TONS. I guess I shouldn’t have expected otherwise since it was a holiday, but it was difficult to experience some of the displays and activities with my littlest cousin because there were just so many people in one room.
The 13-​year old and I decided to take off to the Penguin photograph display — we liked that a little more, and it offered up some great photo opportunities of our own!
We headed to the planetarium next for our showing, and it was interesting. Interesting in that it was so small. I come from a town with a science museum and planetarium that has a Zeiss «Carl» projector that is HUGE. The showing we went to was definitely for little kids — I would have liked something more for adults, but when you have kids to please you do what you can. It was cute for 2 – 3 year olds.
The cattle/​ranching exhibit was fun. I learned quite a bit, and to be honest I LOVED that everything was in English and Spanish. I’m not accustomed to that back home in western NY, and it gave me an opportunity to practice my Spanish! And as an ESL teacher, I think it is a great resource to have for students of English.
Downstairs the exhibits were busy centers of learning. Kids were creating and discovering everywhere. I had a lot of fun designing my own paper flying contraption and attempting to make it fly in a wind tunnel. I guess I’m a big kid at heart.
One last thing to note — one exhibit — the energy exhibit about natural gas extraction. It was hard for me to appreciate at that when there is such heated debate going on in our area of the country right now. I feel like the sponsorship of this exhibit is a way to subtlety mold the minds of our future generation. A fun 3D virtual reality experience gears you up and gets you excited about debatable issues. Just seems like propaganda to me — but that’s just my opinion.
Overall, a fun experience and great way to spend the day with kids.