Discovery Room

Alvaro Keding/© AMNH

This summer, visit to explore the cultural influence of sports around the world, part of the World Cup, World Cultures series.

 

Wonders await in the Discovery Room, an engaging, hands-on learning space for children that offers an introduction to the Museum's science and a gateway to its exhibition galleries. From anthropology to zoology, every major field of Museum science and research is represented.

  • The Discovery Room is designed for children ages 4-12, but children of all ages are welcome when accompanied by an adult.
  • The Discovery Room has weekday morning hours for pre-K (ages 0-4) family drop-in. View all hours.
  • Activities for older children (ages 8 and up) are located on the upper level.
Discover Room educator explains a fossil skeleton mount to a visiting adult and child. Take apart a life-sized cast skeleton of Prestosuchus.
Alvaro Keding/© AMNH
Discover Room educator holds a live animal in her hand and squats down so that a visiting child view it more closely. Spot a variety of species, including live animals.
Alvaro Keding/© AMNH

What You Can Do in the Discovery Room

  • Spot animals in a majestic two-story replica of an African baobab tree filled with specimens of birds, insects, reptiles, and small mammals.
  • Explore a cabinet of fascinating specimens to create your own collection of minerals or arthropods.
  • See a Kwakwaka’wakw carving made at the Museum in 1992.
  • Learn about cultures in locations from Manhattan to Mumbai by examining traditional and contemporary objects from around the world.
  • Assemble a life-sized cast skeleton of Prestosuchus, a 14-foot-long reptile from the late Triassic Period, handle real fossils, and unearth an Oviraptor nest in a re-creation of a paleontology field site.
  • On the upper level, track real-time earthquakes anywhere in the world on our digital seismographic display, explore the natural world with sophisticated microscopes, and more.

Plan Your Visit

  • The Discovery Room is located on Floor 1, between the Ellen V. Futter Gallery and the Felix M. Warburg Hall of New York State Environment.
  • Admission is included with any admission to the Museum.
  • Free 40-minute timed passes are available at the Discovery Room entrance.
  • Capacity is limited, and passes are first-come, first served.
  • The Discovery Room is closed on Tuesdays.

Hours

School Year Hours: Labor Day–June 30

Saturdays, Sundays, and school holidays 

  • 10:30 am–1:25 pm
  • 2:15 pm–5:10 pm

Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays (closed Tuesdays)

  • 10:30 am–11:55 am (Pre-K only)
  • 1:30–5:10 (all ages)

Summer Hours: July 1–Labor Day

Daily, except Tuesdays (closed Tuesdays) 

  • 10:30 am–1:25 pm
  • 2:15 pm–5:10 pm

Learn More

To stay up to date on new programs in the Discovery Room, sign up for our Family Programs Newsletter.

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The Discovery Room was made possible by a grant from the Edward John Noble Foundation.

Additional support has been provided by The Cestone Family Foundation; and the Ducommun and Gross Family Foundation.

Proudly sponsored by the Eileen P. Bernard Exhibition Fund.