5 STEM Spots in NYC to Visit with Your Kids Before Summer Ends
List of STEM spots for curious kids in NYC.
Summer goes fast, but it’s not over yet. If you've been meaning to squeeze in one more adventure with your kids before school takes over, we have a few suggestions, and they all happen to be exactly the kind of places that make curious kids even more curious.
New York is one of the best cities in the world for this. Here are five spots worth getting to before September.
New York Hall of Science
Out in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, NYSCI is the kind of place kids don't want to leave.
The outdoor Science Playground (one of the largest in the country) is packed with hands-on structures that turn physics into something you can climb on. Inside, Connected Worlds is a standout: a large-scale immersive installation where kids interact with a digital ecosystem projected across the walls and floor, making decisions that affect rivers, forests, and deserts in real time. There's also a dedicated Design Lab for building and making. Great for all ages, but especially for kids who learn by doing (so, all of them).
MoMath: National Museum of Mathematics
Right in Midtown, MoMath is unlike any museum your kid has been to. Climb aboard the square-wheeled tricycle that somehow rides perfectly smoothly; it's a working demonstration of how shape and surface interact that you genuinely have to experience to believe. The Math Square lets visitors manipulate patterns and games just by walking across a glowing floor. Every exhibit here is interactive and built to flip what kids think they know about math.
If your child is a math whiz or doesn’t like math at all, take them here.
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
A real aircraft carrier parked on the Hudson River. The Space Shuttle Pavilion is home to Enterprise (NASA's original prototype orbiter), a Soyuz capsule, and VR experiences that put kids inside the space program. The Submarine Growler is the only American nuclear missile submarine open to the public; you can inspect the once "top secret" missile command center and walk through the entire vessel. There's also the Exploreum, a fully interactive space where kids can climb into a Bell 47 helicopter and navigate a mock submarine. Everything here is the real thing, and it shows.
American Museum of Natural History
The Hayden Planetarium's current show, Encounters in the Milky Way, takes you through the solar system in a full-dome experience that's genuinely hard to put into words, and tends to generate a lot of questions on the subway ride home. The permanent Hall of the Universe and the Cosmic Pathway walk visitors through the 13-billion-year history of the cosmos. On the science side, Eyes on the Universe showcases dazzling imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. The Hall of Ocean Life's 94-foot blue whale model doesn't hurt either. Plan for a full afternoon.
Brooklyn Children's Museum
Founded in 1899, the Brooklyn Children's Museum is the oldest children's museum in the world, and it's still one of the best. The hands-on exhibits are built around science, culture, and creativity, with a particular focus on younger explorers who learn through play and tactile exploration. If your kids are on the younger side and you want something a little less overwhelming than the big Midtown museums, this is the one to go to.