Academy of Natural Sciences Reviews

When with a little one he loved it, staff was friendly and knowledgeable great place.

Super awesome museum and any young boys dream come true

I often went there as a kid and it's still amazing and has the 1st dinosaur ever discovered in New Jersey there

Really had a great time. Stayed about 1.25 hrs and the whole family loved it. The price is a little steep so you might want to consider that, but our 18 month old loved all of the big animals and it was almost better than the zoo in certain ways because the animals were right up front and visible. We also really loved the butterfly room and who doesn't love dinosaurs?!?!?!

Small and bit old feel but well done and explained. Loved the butterfly exhibit and the dinosaurs. Best for younger kids but after in or 9 years old if they ever went before it won't be such a hit.

Love this museum! Kiddos love it too! I'm going to be saving money for a membership!

The show case was excellent. Animals both living and preserved, summary of their history in each case. Dinosaur skeletons and a live animal show in the auditorium.

What a great place. We took my daughter here as a good way to spend an afternoon. Other than the normal difficulties with parking in the area, it was a great experience. The Academy seems to be well run and everyone had a good time. A very good use of our afternoon.

Pretty decent museum. Has a nice dinosaur exhibit and a good number of taxidermy animals. Can see everything in it in 2-3 hours. Has a kid's room on the top floor with a number of smaller animals and room for them to run around.

I went here childless to scope it out for a school field trip. I was very interested in many of the exhibits and found the child tree house area to be amazing. There were lots of live bugs and small creatures for the children to view. The butterfly exhibit was awesome as well. I really liked the unique educational gifts in the gift shop. I only had a small amount of time so I spent less than 2 hours there and felt like I saw everything. Would probably be guest to get a museum pass to see this along with the Franklin institute or Please Touch Museum for a full day.

Great place!This was a lot more entertaining and enjoyable that i though it would be. Information is simplified greatly to accommodate children and families.Amazing.

My whole family loves this place! It was a bit crowded when we were here last weekend, all in all we all had a great experience per usual.

Great time with the kids. Too much to see in one day, got the annual membership and look forward to returning for their new shows.

Great experience at the museum-dinosaurs and dioramas are a great combination. Very kid friendly, not overwhelming. Staff very helpful.

I loved how they had many things to see besides the spiders there was a room with just live butterflies flying around.

The exhibits are nice, but dated. I enjoyed my 1 hour walk-through (that's all the time you need), but it wasn't worth the $25 admission price.

Loved the butterfly house. Friendly and knowledgeable staff.

I always love it here. Happy that they do parties. They do a super speedy tour for that but the service is very good.

Our daughter in law arranged for her, her 3 year old, 3 month old, my husband, and me to visit the Academy of Natural Sciences last week. We all had a blast in the butterfly exhibit (the docent was so much fun and taught us a lot), the live animal show (the young man handling the animals was very informative and great with the audience), and the children's area where they could walk around play in the sand and touch animals. Everyone working in the museum was very kind and helpful.

My 8 yo daughter and I had a blast exploring this museum. She enjoyed digging in sand, playing archeologist, and reading the information on all of the displays. If it weren't for the former, she wouldn't have done the latter.

Kids love dinos. This place has the dinos, plus a lot more.

We paid the extra $3 to see the butterflies, It was worth it. The butterflies were beautiful and we even had a few land on us. I had my grandma in the wheelchair and easily navigated our way through the museum. The exhibits were able to be enjoyed without my grandma getting in and out of the wheelchair. The kids, especially my 9 year old son, loved the exhib on the 3rd flood. He enjoyed petting the turtile and snake. The kids were learning and not even realizing it.

I really enjoyed visiting this Museum with my family. My kids particularly enjoyed the butterfly exhibit. The dinosaur and fossil dig was pretty neat also. This was really a great experience with a little something for everyone.

My daughter loved, loved, loved this place. Every kid should have similar educational experiences such as what you can find here.

Was so impressed with this museum. Lots of exhibits and very child friendly. There's even a room where you can walk among butterflies. There's another section where volunteers help kids touch and feel all sorts of animals include turtles, lizards, and cockroaches.

It was cute...very informative...clean...staff was very friendly...will go back for special events

Ony real reason to go are the dinosaur bones qnd taxidermy animals

Great exhibits! One of our favorites from our trip.

It wasnt crowded the people were nice and the entry fee was only 2 dollars with your access card

Wonderful afternoon filled with facts and fun. Perfect family outing

So fun i want to work here super interesting the animals are amazing the animal displays are beautiful

Great place for younger kids I love the play area upstairs it's kind of hidden in the back it's a nice rest spot..so worth finding to let the kids play and you can relax and watch them.

One of my favorite museums! They have wonderful displays and tons of interactive areas for young children.

The museum is quite small but nice place for younger kids ,clean, not expensive, very friendly staff

This was my first time and I was not disappointed. I loved the outside in exhibit where the live animals were. I also loved the arrangement of the displays. Everything was so life like. I'll definitely go back for another visit!

Great place for the kids! Alot of under construction, but that means new exhibits. Great for all ages! Love the displays

This museum's collection is not humongous like other ones and that's a good thing. It's a much more pleasant experience and the quality is phenomenal. Location is easy to get to and the building is easy to navigate

A bit dated. Would have been great at half the price.

This is a great museum to take your kids. We enjoyed the dioramas of animals in their natural habitat, and the exhibit on how these were made. There is a fantastic dinosaur exhibit. We didn't pay extra to see the limited time butterfly or extreme bug exhibits, but they looked nice from the outside. The staff were wonderful.

This is a wonderful museum. A must see for science and art lovers alike for its historical habitat dioramas. They are beautifully constructed and still hold up almost ninety years later.

The museum is aimed a little young, but there is something for everyone. There are the dioramas, fossils, butterflies, and a special traveling exhibit.

It's a little pricy to get in, but if you invest in a membership it pays for itself in just two trips. Plus, it gets you into other science museums through the passport program.

Overall, I would highly recommend visiting a few times. It's a wonderful institution doing great work.

Took my grandson and some of his friends to Mine Faire. They had a great time and were excited to see some of the YouTubers they watch.

We had such a great time at totally turtle weekend. We were a little disappointed in the extreme bug exhibit but still totally loved our experience

Great dinosaur exhibit. Alot of the interactive stuff and exhibits were closed off. Pricey for what you get.

We love this place! Our 5 and 7 year old son ask to go all the time.

Very interesting exhibits and saw a nice live animal show.

They've tried to cater to everyone, science buffs, kids and other visitors. And they do a great job! The level of detail is as much as you want, there's a section to tell you how the diaramas were made, there's short films being shown throughout the day in an auditorium, as well as hands on exhibits for kids with insect experts to hand. The cafe is a great stop too, plenty of choice. The gift store had enough choice for all budgets.

A hidden gem of a museum. Drexel students get in free.

My three year old loved it: dinosaurs and animals. The outside in exhibit was fun with lots of hands on activities. Butterfly conservatory is cool

Great family fun didn't get through the full building but had fun none the less.

Dollar for dollar I think this is a great museum. It's run by Drexel university and I believe this is a better experience then the better known Franklin institute. Check out the new baby dinosaurs exhibit- my kids loved it. The docents are knowledgeable and host little interactive stands throughtout exhibit space. The food in the cafe is sub par so consider eating before or after your visit.

It was OK, but I was a bit underwhelmed actually. The staff were very helpful and friendly, but the exhibits themselves were nothing to write home about.

You can easily see everything in the museum in a couple of hours. I was here as an adult with no children and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Last Sunday we took our family which included our 6yr old son and 2 yr old daughter. No crowds but maybe its because people do not go back? Other than the "Outside In" area I was not very impressed with the place. Started off with the digging area where they give kids a rounded off chisel to hit a rocky area. Even as an adult I found it very difficult to chisel anything with just a rounded off chisel an no hammer. There were 35 diorama exhibits which were rather boring, why wouldn't you just go to the zoo and see real animals...they should make the dioramas interactive some how or add sound or motion. The Live animal center consisted of about 4 very common animals that were behind glass...we expected to see more. The butterfly exhibit is real nice but so hot & humid with an unpleasant odor that both our kids wanted out very quickly. If you have kids, take them to the "outside in" on top floor they will enjoy. Wish I could have given a better review but just my opinion, I was not real impressed.