Great Lakes Science Center

Why is the sky blue? Anyone who’s ever had a kid, known a kid or been a kid has probably heard this question a million times. The Great Lakes Science Center tackles fact-of-life doozies like this and, well, just about everything else.

It's time to impress your former high school lab partner (beyond just letting them copy your notes) at the Great Lakes Science Center. Create cloud rings out of water vapor. Use your fingertips to make light dance. Make music with flip-flops and pipes. Launch a rocket.

What You'll See:

• The Great Lakes Science Center permanent exhibits can teach you about Cleveland’s maritime history (the restored William G. Mather steamship), space exploration (the NASA Glenn Visitor Center), medicine (BioMedTech Gallery) and cool scientific concepts, like what 350,000 volts of static electricity does to your hair (Science Phenomena).
• In addition to the aforementioned permanent exhibits, the Science Center, whose motto is “stay curious,” also features an array of hands-on exhibits, traveling installations and a series of what it calls “out of the ordinary exhibits” that include introductions to nanotechnology, solar harnessing and wind power.
• The Science Center also is home to the Cleveland Clinic DOME Theater, the world’s first three-projector, laser-illuminated movie projection system, all shown on a screen that reaches six-stories high. The Theater shows both educational films and a monthly, Thursday evening series “DOME Movies After Dark" featuring Hollywood blockbusters on the big screen.

What Else to Do?

• Great Lakes Science Center is also the home to the Steamship William G. Mather. Explore the 1925-built Mather from stem to stern and see its huge cargo holds, brass and oak pilot house, elegant guest quarters and four-story engine room. Visit the captain’s quarters, see where the crew members slept and check out the galley where meals were prepared for the crew and guests. Walk the decks overlooking the massive cargo doors, and marvel at the “engineering firsts” that helped the Mather transform Cleveland into a great industrial center. Experience the golden era of steamships on one of the best.