south dakota discovery center

Great little science museum with plenty to keep your kiddo busy running around for at least an hour. So glad our hotel gave us comp passes! Family friendly. Interactive...loved the make your own asphalt snacks while learning about each layer and using chocolate to identify with;) We got a ton of great pics to ad to our family photo album. Very nice staff and happy to teach you and your kids!

Great stop for those coming to Pierre that have kids. Very entertaining and a good place to spend a couple of hours.

This is a lovely review, and we at the SD Discovery Center would love to think that you are speaking of our museum, but we are quite certain that you meant to review the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center. We do not cover the historical topics of which you spoke.Next time you do visit the SD Cultural Heritage Center, we sure hope you and your son stop by our place to enjoy our hands-on science exhibits.

First, I need to say that this is a great deal. Entry is like $4 for adults and $2 for kids or $40 a year for a family, which also allows you to visit MANY other science centers for free. Because of our membership, we've been able to visit both the Nashville, TN and Columbus, OH science centers free of charge. Secondly, the first thing you might notice is the size. Yes, it is smaller than most other discovery/science centers in bigger cities, but Pierre is not a big city. What it lacks in size, it makes up for with exhibits. Three, there are a lot of exhibits in a small area and they change several times a year. My kids (ages 1-9) find almost all of them interesting. They are also looking forward to the new Discovery Town coming soon. Fourth, this place has classes going on for kids Pre-K to 5th grade most of the year. They are all affordable too and interesting. My boys can't wait for Lego class again this summer. Fifth, their small 'store' has a lot of interesting and varied gadgets, toys, and other science related items. These are decently priced and sometimes they have them on sale as well. Overall, this is a great place year round for parents and young kids.

I am sorry for your disappointment regarding the aquarium. We are in the process of replacing it with something new. We are trying to find all the locations/flyers, etc where we still have "aquarium" in the name and get them out of circulation. New signs are on order. Thanks for reminding us that there are still more "& aquarium" items out there.We do advertise that we are for kids and families, it is true, so that is what all of our exhibits are geared for. I hope this review doesn't discourage those with children from coming to the SD Discovery Center. It really is alot of fun for kids.

I went expecting more, since it did say aquarium. There is the old display for it, but no tanks. There is not a whole lot to do and much of what they have seems a bit old. My son did enjoy it for a bit, but it got old kinda fast. Not a bad thing to do on a rainy day if you are camping in the area, but don't go expecting to see everything they advertise.

There were some things that I liked there and I played with them. However, it was quite evident that I wasn't going to enjoy it all that much without being significantly younger than I am or with a kid. Oh well.

The Discovery Center is a "must" place to visit when our grandchildren are here. They can easily spend an hour or two with the hands-on exhibits so there's none of the early "I'm ready to leave now."

My two toddlers entertained themselves here for one hour and then started getting antsy. The aquarium is nice but could have a little more variety in the fish. The upstairs part was the best, there are hands on activities with accompanying books, which is where we spent most of our time. The facility is very clean and neat!

A great place to keep the kids busy...and learning!...for an hour or two. A great resource for anybody who's got young kids visiting Pierre. A few repairs needed on some of the activities, but there's plenty to do and very little opportunity for kids to "get into trouble" :)! Reasonably priced.

Excellent for families. The Discovery Center has many exhibits and hands-on activities for kids of all ages to explore science, dinosaurs, aquatic life, and much much more.

Kids will enjoy this. Not a whole lot to do but a good place to stop for 30 minutes or so.

The SD Discovery Center has not experienced cutbacks and does have an aquarium. We have three 150 gallon tanks in which you can see fish from the Missouri River. We know this is small for aquarium standards nowadays, however kids and many adults do still enjoy looking at our fish. We also have a couple of box turtles and, in the summer, usually have a bullsnake on display.The rest of the SD Discovery Center is filled with hands-on exhibits that kids and their families do enjoy very much. We have more exhibits than ever. Our regular guests enjoy the fact that we try to change things every few months so that there are some new things to go along with their old favorites.

Great place for kids who like to learn! My boys (7 and 11) had a blast here with the interactive exhibits (my wife and I and our 18 year old also learned some stuff). Best family thing to do in Pierre.