The Rochester Museum & Science Center offers three floors of
hands-on exhibitions exploring science and technology, natural science,
and our region's cultural heritage. In addition to ongoing favorites
such as Expedition Earth, several new traveling exhibits each year make
the RMSC a popular destination for families.
FEATURE EXHIBITIONS
Giant Insects
In the Riedman Gallery through January 4, 2009
Discover "R" Weather
Rochester Business Hall of Fame
NEW OPTICS EXHIBIT!
Light Here | Light Now
Presented by Bausch & Lomb
Lasers, mirrors, lenses, prisms—hands-on fun with optics! Explore the science, technology, and engineering that have made Rochester a global center for imaging and optics research.
Bend brilliant green and red lasers through an eerie mist to learn about reflection, refraction, and diffraction.
Dance and move to mix a rainbow of "Colored Shadows."
Play beautiful music on the "Laser Harp" to discover a world of optical sensors. Find out how lasers can be used to detect motion s you wave your hands along invisible strings to "play the harp."
Take a trip to "Light Island!" Experiment with light and shadow as you play with lenses, mirrors, and colored filters.
Stories of Rochester contributions are woven through the exhibit.
NOW OPEN!
Flight to Freedom: Rochester's Underground Railroad
Explore the paths that courageous freedom seekers followed through Rochester in this dramatic, interactive exhibition. Walk in the footsteps of Austin Steward, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Reverend Thomas James as they overcome huge obstacles to build free lives. Learn how they joined Rochester activists in the fight to abolish slavery and help others seeking freedom.
Young visitors can follow their own child-level "Songs of Freedom" story as little Imani makes the dangerous journey north with her family.
The exhibition is presented with support from the City of Rochester and the Underground Railroad Heritage Trail, a program of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Also:
Explore the Underground Railroad Heritage Trail — Upstate New York
ONGOING FAVORITES
Expedition Earth Glaciers & Giants
Expedition Earth Expands!
You & Your Earth and An Ever-Changing Planet
AdventureZone
Sponsored by Rochester Gas & Electric Corporation
Explore
the underwater world of Lake Ontario as you dive to the lake floor in
the Deep Submergence Vehicle. Examine the rock layers of the Genesee
River Gorge in the climbing wall. Become a reporter in the weather
studio, or operate the fill valves in an interactive model of an Erie
Canal lock.
How Things Work
Discover
the science behind everyday devices in this hands-on, minds-on exhibit.
Through fun, first-hand investigation, find out how mechanisms such as
light switches, thermostats, and traffic signals work.
K'NEX
Flex
your engineering skills and creative muscle! Build trucks,
towers—anything you can imagine—with this colorful construction toy.
Purchase your creations to take home, or take them apart to come back
and play another day.
At the Western Door
Learn
how Seneca people created new livelihoods in the 1930s. See items
crafted by Haudenosaunee people as they entered a market economy. Learn
about clans, the "glue" that has held Haudenosaunee society together.
SMALL EXHIBITS
Howard W. Coles
Sponsored by the Rochester Educational Opportunity Center (REOC) and WDKX-103.9 FM.
This exhibit honors the historian, human rights activist, writer/editor, broadcast journalist and sociologist who founded the Fredrick Douglass Voice newspaper. It includes clothing, photographs, and Coles' typewriter. To learn more, click on the link below:
Howard Coles and the Coles Collection.
ONLINE EXHIBITS
Rochester's 1873 Time Capsule
Rochester Business Hall of Fame
Nagasaki Tamako
RMSC Quilt Project
British Pottery Displaying Erie Canal Imagery