Liberty Science Center (LSC) in Jersey City, NJ, has been a family favorite for years. Located at Liberty State Park – where you can also hop a ferry to the Statue of Liberty – LSC offers four floors of hands-on exhibits, animals, and demonstrations. Here are just ten of the many amazing ways to spend your day at LSC.
- Black out for a few minutes. The Touch Tunnel is an 80-foot long, crawl-through pitch-black maze that has been the hands-down favorite at LSC for years. I tried it myself, and it’s an eye-opening experience feeling your way through complete and utter darkness.
- Go on a quest for power. The Energy Quest and Got Power? exhibits allow you to experiment with various ways to make things go. From wind to tidal and solar to muscle, you’ll use power to race cars, light up bulbs, move fans and spin wheels. My kids couldn’t get enough of these exhibits.
- Balance like an ironworker in a skyscraper. In the Skyscraper! exhibit, you’ll see artifacts from 9/11 and learned how skyscrapers are built. The more adventurous in your family can walk a narrow steel girder 18 feet above ground, just like the ironworkers!
- Brave a hurricane. Suit up in ponchos and goggles and feel the power of 100 mph hurricane-force wind and rain. You’ll learn how engineers test the behavior of buildings in high winds.
- Become a brain surgeon. At the da Vinci Surgical Robot Exhibit, you’re at the controls of a robotic simulator used by surgeons-in-training which combine 3D HD vision, specialized instruments, and a far wider range of motion than a hand can make.
- Make a six-foot bubble. You might want to grab a seat and relax while the kids explore the Wonder Why exhibit. They can climb the rock wall, test their reaction time, make a 6-foot soap bubble, balance a beach ball on a stream of air, and more.
- Get an infection. At Infection Connection, the sneeze display is a huge hit. Motion activated, this display sends out a puff of air and water, simulating a sneeze, whenever anyone gets within a couple feet. The kids were belly-laughing and loving it, walking by again and again… and again!
- MAXimize your movie experience. Liberty Sceince Center’s IMAX and RealD 3D theaters bring movies to life with show like Great White Shark, Titans of the Ice Age, and Dinosaur Passage to Pangaea.
- Try something new. There are always new exhibits rotating into LSC. This winter your little ones can join Bob the Builder in Sunflower Valley to fix, build and tinker. Sing it with me, “Can we build it? Yes we can!”
- Take in the view. Something else to love about LSC? Every window affords gorgeous views of the New York City skyline. You can see the Empire State Building, the Freedom Tower, and the Statue of Liberty, and there’s an observation deck that is not to be missed.
If you’re in the NY/NJ area, spend a day at Liberty Science Center. You and your family will leave feeling inspired by a world of possibilities.