Ben-Voyage: Liberty Science Center - Jersey City, NJ

Our latest Ben-Voyage brings us to a place I had loved as a child: Liberty Science Center. It's easily been a good 15 years since I had last gone, so I was excited to see if it would hold up and have the same magic for Ben as it did for me (spoiler alert: it does).

From their website: Liberty Science Center (LSC.org) is a 300,000-square-foot learning center located in Liberty State Park on the Jersey City bank of the Hudson near the Statue of Liberty. Dedicated to bringing the excitement of science to people of all ages, Liberty Science Center houses 12 museum exhibition halls, a live animal collection with 110 species, giant aquariums, a 3D theater, the nation's largest IMAX Dome Theater, live simulcast surgeries, tornado and hurricane-force wind simulators, K-12 classrooms and labs, and teacher-development programs. More than half a million students, teachers, and parents visit the Science Center each year, and tens of thousands more participate in the Center's offsite and online programs.

Photo from Liberty Science Center

I thought this would be an amazing Ben-Voyage because Ben has been super duper into science lately, asking about hurricanes, tornadoes, and anything else he can think of. Q: What better place to quench your child's thirst for knowledge than a 300,000-square-foot learning center dedicated to all things science? A: NONE. Liberty Science Center is THE place to be.

The Deets:

Liberty Science Center
Liberty State Park
222 Jersey City Boulevard
Jersey City, NJ 07305  

Liberty Science Center

Ticket Information: 

(Prices are subject to change at any time, please confirm in advance)

 Children under 2 are free, which is nice. 

We arrived a few minutes before it opened, and had no problem parking in a prime location. Although it is $7.00 to park, Liberty Science Center’s parking lot is owned by the State of New Jersey and operated by Central Parking. The Science Center does not receive parking revenue. There is also overflow parking available. For those with Electric cars, plug and re-charge at no extra cost under LSC's elevated solar panel array. 

There is something to enjoy for all ages at Liberty Science Center. I made a few mental notes of awesome exhibits Ben will appreciate when he is older, but there was plenty of things to do on each floor for Ben. I, myself, engaged in quite a few activities.

Photo from Liberty Science Center

 It was really nice getting there when it first opened, before all of the school groups and summer camps. It wasn't too crowded at all, however, some of the children in visiting groups were unsupervised and not taking turns on attractions. My recommendation is that if there is an exhibit your child really wants to see and engage in, get there when LSC first opens for maximum hands-on. That being said, very few attractions required only one or two children at a time, so it was very easy to divert Ben away from one thing and onto another while we waited.

The Welcome Desk was just that- welcoming! The woman working there was so warm and knowledgeable and really got us excited with all of the things to do. I had no idea there were demonstrations and shows! We were handed a schedule of programming for that day, and were floored to learn that all of these things were included with admission! 

Tip: You do have to sign up for some things, so I would make an itinerary with your day planned out and sign up for things as soon as you receive your Experience Guide at admission. You can also take a peek online at Events Calendar to start your plan as well. You definitely don't want to miss some of the amazing experiences at LSC.

 After making reservations for the experiences we wanted to do, the Welcome Desk attendant advised us to start at the fourth floor and work our way down, which was a great idea. 

Fourth Floor

The fourth floor is home to PixelPalooza, Block Party, Adventures with Clifford The Big Red Dog, Beyond Rubik's Cube, Energy Quest, Our Hudson Home, Rebuild by Design, and Nano Mini-Exhibition. 

We made our way to the fourth floor and came across an activity called PixelPalooza - Uncover a hidden picture as you wave and leap around to clear pixels from the huge screen. Ben loved it! and I loved that you could email or tweet the picture taken. 

One of Ben's favorite things was Block Party - Back by Popular Demand! Young visitors can make thousands of elaborate creations with our oversized foam shapes. A pair of blocks becomes a wall, walls make rooms, and rooms become houses. Inspired by creativity and teamwork, children can design and build anything from dinosaurs and giant robots to castles with moats and long, winding ball chutes. This seemed to be a favorite among kids, and Ben would have been more than pleased spending the whole day building things. We found ourselves there several times during the trip. Parents, this will take up some time!

 

By the time we visited Adventures with Clifford The Big Red Dog, the floor was buzzing with activity. If your child loves Clifford, you need to hurry and check this exhibit out! It's only open through September 14th. Inspired by the top-rated PBS KIDS^® show, the exhibition offers immersive adventures that reinforce “Clifford’s Big Ideas,” ten simple life lessons designed to help young children navigate their world, including Share, Play Fair, Believe in Yourself, and Help Others. Visit all of Clifford’s favorite places and friends on Birdwell Island. Explore Clifford’s doghouse. Climb up a nine-foot Clifford and slide down his tail, just like Emily Elizabeth does on the TV show. Use a conveyor belt to help fill Clifford’s big dog bowl with bones. Create sand art and search for treasure at T-Bone’s Beach. Browse the Norman Bridwell Art Retrospective and see 50 years (that’s 350 in dog-years!) of Clifford art and stories.

Photo from Liberty Science Center

The fourth floor also held a really awesome exhibition called Beyond Rubik's Cube - 7,000 sq ft of games, puzzles, history, art, and engineering, all inspired by Ernő Rubik's best-selling masterpiece.  Whether you're Mats Valk or just looking for an excellent way to spend a summer day, Beyond Rubik's Cube has something amazing you've never seen before. It is only open until November 30th, so go check it out!

Ben had a lot of fun with the solar-powered racetrack over in Energy Quest. Energy Quest examines the five major sources of Earth’s energy in search of the answers. Learn how we explore and harness these energy sources at activity-filled, hands-on stations. Join the exploration and experiment as a geologist, oceanographer, chemical and nuclear engineer, and more. Energy Quest’s five energy themes are: Surface (wind, solar, hydro), Bio-Stored (oil, coal, natural gas, bio-mass), Nuclear (fission, fusion), Ocean (waves, tidal, ocean-thermal) and Geo-Thermal (hydro-thermal, hot dry rock, magma).

Finally, we wrapped up our fourth floor adventure with Our Hudson Home. Overlooking the vast river and Liberty State Park, Our Hudson Home explores our complex relationship with this distinct and special ecosystem. Through hands-on experiences and unique underwater environments, you’ll discover how our use of the river can be successfully balanced with environmental preservation efforts and smart technologies that will ensure this unique natural resource continues to thrive. Ben really enjoyed seeing the native species to the Hudson. We were wowed by the sheer size of some of the fish! 

Third Floor

The third floor is home to Eat and Be Eaten, Touch Tunnel, Wonder Why, Communication, Infection Connection, and Olympus BioScapes. 

  Ben had a blast on the third floor! We checked out Eat and Be Eaten first. Eat and Be Eaten is filled with real animals that have adapted in amazing ways to survive in the wild. Some hide in plain sight while others turn themselves into toxic treats. Many of these creatures have unique behaviors that keep them from being captured or help them to escape. There were so many amazing animals to see. We loved the Cotton-top Tamarins and their twin babies! The staff was very knowledgeable about each animal and wonderful with answering Ben's questions and keeping him engaged.

We also caught the Meet the Macaw show. We got to meet Mickey the Macaw up close and 

watched him crack a walnut with his powerful beak. I was very impressed with the gentleman who presented it - how do they remember all the information? It was very informative and interactive!

 

The Touch Tunnel is still at LSC! I loved it when I was a little girl! Ben did not feel the same way, so we did not attempt to go on it, but it is one of the most popular things to do at LSC. This 80-foot, crawl-through, pitch-black tunnel has been the hands-down favorite at LSC for years. Exploring an unknown environment in the dark makes you realize how much we rely on sight to move through the world. 

Tips: The Touch Tunnel experience is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Line up early! To allow everyone in the queue a chance to experience the Touch Tunnel on busy days, the line may be closed to newcomers up to an hour before the building closes. Children under 7 years old must be accompanied by a parent or chaperone. Guests who are claustrophobic, pregnant, cannot crawl for 10 minutes, or have existing injuries or back pain should not attempt this exhibition.

 

We checked out Wonder Why. Ben was fascinated with creating a 6-foot soap bubble. He also loved the Kalliroscope. Other things to do include: Experimenting with the attributes of air at the Bernoulli Blower, Scaling the fossil-studded Rock Climbing Wall, and creating your own masterpiece at the Digital Picasso station. 

It was really cool to see the Honey Bee colony! Learn all about honey bees at our live colony on the third floor. An observation hive indoors and two field hives on the deck outside let you watch bees coming in and out of the the hive; workers converting nectar into honey and storing it in the honeycomb cells; the queen laying eggs; and larvae growing and maturing. You can even see beekeepers harvesting honey at certain times. Ben was very curious about the hive and enjoyed watching all of the bees work. 

Second Floor

The second floor is home to Café Skylines, I Explore, The JD Williams Science Theater, and the Wildlife Challenge, IMAX Dome Theater, Tornado Simulator, Pulseworks Motion Simulator.

Café Skylines had a great food selection that included brick oven pizzas, chicken fingers, handcrafted sandwiches, soup, daily entrée specials, a gourmet salad bar, and freshly grilled burgers and hot dogs. Seating options were plentiful and included a large group dining room, two smaller dining rooms with views of lower Manhattan, and casual seating in Governors Hall (where you may even catch a Live Science presentation while you dine). Vending machines with snacks and cold drinks are located in Group Dining, adjacent to the café. It was reasonably priced and very delicious.

Tip: Liberty Science Center does let you bring your own lunch! So don't be afraid to brown bag it!

I Explore was our next stop. Children are natural scientists–constantly investigating and testing the world around them. Discovery, inquiry, curiosity and play are the building blocks of lifelong learning.

In I Explore, children ages 2 to 5 (with their grown-ups) learn about themselves and their world in a safe, stimulating and engaging interactive environment designed especially for them. As a parent, I appeciate the fact that LSC put the thought into having something specifically for the 2-5 age group, and put a private bathroom right in the exhibit. Ben especially enjoyed building a car and testing it out on the Test Track. He also loved using the air cannon to launch balls into the two-story Ball Machine. I thought the cute science reading nook was a nice touch.

Tips: During the school year, try to visit mid-afternoon during the week and early in the morning on the weekends.This is a great opportunity for groups visiting with more than one adult to split up and take older children to experience other, more age-appropriate offerings at the Center, such as a film in the nation’s largest IMAX Dome Theater.

The Pulseworks Motion Simulator takes guests on intense “voyages” to far-off places.  Climb aboard for spectacular five-minute experiences including Grand Prix Raceway, JetPack, Diving with Dolphins, Solar Coaster, and Glacier Run! Trips are $5.00 per person and up to eight people can ride at once. Look for Pulseworks Motion Simulator adjacent to the main staircase at the east end of Governors Hall on the Second Floor. 

Hands down, Ben's absolute favorite experience and the highlight of our trip was the Tesla Lightning Show. Explore the excitement of electricity with singing Tesla coils, robotic drums, and wireless illumination. Twin solid-state one million volt Tesla coils produce bursts of musical lightning right in front of you in our new live show. 3 shows daily: 1:30, 2:30, 3:30 pm. Free with admission or membership. Seating is limited and tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note: Lightning Show contains very loud noises and strobe lights. Not suitable for children ages 2 and under. We were provided protective headphones to muffle the noise. It was really cool to see the Tesla coils light the florescent lights in time with the music. A young audience member was picked to play the piano and make the Tesla coils illuminate the lights. So cool!

First Floor

The first floor is home to da Vinci Surgical Robot Exhibit, Skyscraper!, The Hoberman Sphere, Connections Gift Shop

Whether you’re bravely walking a steel girder high above the exhibition floor, facing down jet-powered hurricane force winds to test a building design, or taking a quiet moment to reflect on stories about the World Trade Center, you’ll leave Skyscraper! with a new appreciation and understanding of the skyline that surrounds us and the people that made it happen.

 

Connections Gift Shop is huge and has a vast selection of anything science-related you could possibly want! The best part is that it is VERY reasonably priced. Ben picked up a Pet Tornado in a tube for about $7. Love it!

We didn't visit all of the exhibits, however, we will be back! Speaking of which, our family is going to buy a Membership to LSC. The value that you get for your money really cannot be beat. Check out some of the benefits and the pricing below:

I am SO happy that Ben got to experience Liberty Science Center. He adored it! It was great to see him learning hands-on and getting engaged in all the exhibits! We're already planning our next trip back!

Disclaimer: Liberty Science Center provided our tickets with the intent for this review