Museum of Innovation and Science miSci

"A cool place to take kids and learn how physics work, see some old GE history of Schenectady, or have fun with a date for an hour or so. I really appreciate how much this place appears to be embedded in more niche interests as well (I overheard some HAM radio operators were doing demos for kids).

If none of that is for you, the planetarium is an inexpensive addition that is simply amazing. You can actually see the stars, and the guide is incredibly knowledgable, friendly, and willing to provide further resources.

$15 for the museum, +$5 for the planetarium."

Mathew DiGennaro

"I went expecting similar displays and two specific interactive exhibits the first being this tunnel you'd walk through that would detect how quietly you can walk, the other this room where you'd pose and a reflection of you would appear on the wall after a flash... To my disappointment everything had changed...the front is basically like a scientific children's arcade that features a variety of things but for adults it was not too exciting. The back of the museum does feature more of an adult exhibit but it's basically a bunch of technology from decades ago to somewhat current. They still hold strong in the interactive exhibits but I was truly disappointed that the attractions I was hoping to see were no more. I get exhibits change over time but those two had been my favorite. Needless to say my visit was rather short, I had spent way longer at this museum the first time I had gone. The planetarium still exists, but I opted to not do it because I had done it before the additional cost for that is $5.
They still had the hurricane machine which is fun to do and costs $3 for about a minute.
This museum is quite small so the $12 cost makes sense. It's great for kids but this visit I felt was not as adult oriented as I would have preferred. They also host birthday parties.
I have posted some photos of some of the exhibits."

Tara (Tara)

"It should have "kids" in it's title because pretty much if you're not a kid or don't have one with you then you won't have much to do or see here. I'd say about 70% of this "museum" was just kids toys/playgrounds for children to mess around with while their parents watched. Upon entering we were met with a cacophony of kids running around screaming and having fun. I don't know if this is just a summer thing to entertain kids out of school or if this is really how it is year-round. I didn't see as many didactic exhibits as I wanted as this city is very historical, but the ones I did see were pretty interesting. We had a session at the planetarium which was nice and comfy, and the lady running it seemed pretty knowledgeable about stars, planets, and the sky but the presentation was a bit dumbed-down on account of children being present. My boyfriend said when he went a couple years ago it used to be much better with more actual and cool exhibits there, but it looks like since then they have made some dramatic changes and took out a lot of good stuff. The place is actually pretty small, I was surprised. It took us about a half hour to go through the whole thing on account of most of it just being kids items, and another hour went to the planetarium. It looks like they hold other little programs here for kids too and they have a "meh" store upfront. The tickets in my opinion were a bit pricey for the quality of the museum overall...but they have a membership price which probably in the long run would be more worth it if you plan to visit more than once. But like I said if you don't have children it's not really worth it if you're just going as an adult. One section which was confusing for me was a little grocery store section that seemed like it was sponsored by Price Chopper with a bunch of kids running around with toy carts and fake plastic food. I didn't really understand the relevance to the museum or anything educational it offered to the building as a whole, and to me it just seemed like it was there to take up space."

Victoria Lacagnina