21. February 2025
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Carnegie Science Center Pittsburgh

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Carnegie Science Center Pittsburgh

19.95 USD
Carnegie Science Center Pittsburgh
4.1

Rating

 4.1/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very illustrative and interactive exhibits
  • Good connection by light rail / good parking situation
  • Nice cafe

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Some of the exhibits feel to be too small for the topic

The Carnegie Science Center is one of the best rated attractions in Pittsburgh. Of course, I have visited the nicely driven science museum a few times already as well. During my last trip to West Pennsylvania, I gathered some material for a detailed review. Here are my thoughts about the popular place.

 

Carnegie Science Center – Location & Admission

The Museum is located at the North Side, right next to Heinz Field Football Stadium. Thus, the area features a lot of parking opportunities, which will be more than sufficient on non-match days (including the Pittsburgh Pirates, the PNC Park is just few blocks away). The Carnegie Science Center features an own parking lot, which is 5 USD during your visit. If you come from central Pittsburgh, you can take the light rail to Allegheny station. The ride from central Pittsburgh is free.

The museum is open 10:00 to 17:00 daily, Tuesday closed. The General Admission is 19.95 USD – there are special exhibitions, which include additional fee and may be merged to a combined ticket. The General Admission includes the planetarium shows (which I could not visit due to a lack of time) and the Highmark Sports Works (see below) as well as the USS Requin submarine, which I will show you in a separate review. The museum offers a membership, which grants free entry.

 

Carnegie Science Center – The Visit

The museum is structured into several thematic landscapes. You enter the Carnegie Science Center at the first floor, the ground floor features the cafe, a major cinema and the access to the USS Requin. The first floor has two key exhibition areas: I first visited the SpacePlace, which is introducing kids to the life as an astronaut. The key exhibits are a replica of the International Space Station and a 1/3 model of the Hubble Telescope.

A part of the museum which was a lot of fun to me was the very interactive H2Oh! about water. There are fluid dynamics as well as a look inside the water life around Pittsburgh with some living exhibits.

2nd Floor: Robots & Miniature Railroad

Many people will especially head to the second floor in order to visit the Planetarium. I unfortunately did not have the time to visit that – the more I loved the roboworld, where you can explore the vast potential of robots. One robots is able to throw the basketball almost in perfection – but there is also an interactive exhibit where you compete air hockey against a robot, for example. More on the entertaining side, there are figures of R2/D2 and C3PO.

The Minature Railroad & Village already has its roots in 1919. Being located in different places before, it is part of the Carnegie Center exhibition since 1992 and features life in the region in the 1880’s to 1940. The second floor also features some additional SpacePlace exhibits.

Upper Levels

Third and fourth floor of the museum are significantly smaller in regards of exhibition space and also feature rooms dedicated for school kids education. BodyWorks allows a travel inside the human body, including the physics behind it. The Exploration Station allows you to understand the forces of nature, including a tornado simulation.

 

Highmark Sports Works – The Visit

The Highmark Sports Works is designed to be a very interactive places, in which visitors – majorly kids, understand the physics of sports, but also general anatomy and chemistry by active experiments. Unfortunately, some of the places I checked out did not work properly. Nonetheless, I felt that the concept is really cool. If your kids are between six and twelve years old, they will definitely love to be at the red painted building adjacent to the Carnegie Science Center.

 

Carnegie Science Center – Services

On the lower floor, right next to the exit to the submarine, the museum hosts the RiverView Cafe, which is indeed having some nice views of Ohio River (and the Fort Pitt tip of central Pittsburgh). The services and prices were just as expected – so that, not too surprisingly, the place was very popular among the local visitors.

 

USS Requin – Review

Here is my review of visitng the USS-481 Requin, which is included in the museum admission:

USS Requin – A Submarine in Pittsburgh

 

Carnegie Science Center – My View

The Carnegie Science Center is indeed a great place to visit when you are in Pittsburgh, especially on a rainy day, when you are looking for a roofed attraction with your family. A lot of stuff is nicely done and understandable for the kids – but there are still some items which are also fascinating for the elder ones. A more than pretty solid science musum in my favorite US city.

 

Flyctory.com in Pittsburgh

Here are all other postings by Flyctory.com related to Greater Pittsburgh:

 

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