Ariel W.
Yelp
What is today known as the Cox Science Center and Aquarium was founded as the Junior Museum of Palm Beach County in 1961 by the Junior League of the Palm Beaches. It was a modest 980 square feet upon opening. In 1964 the museum received an addition that housed a planetarium dedicated by and named after astronaut Buzz Aldrin. In the 1980's the name was changed to the South Florida Science Museum. On November 15, 2021 the museum's name was changed to the Cox Science Center and Aquarium in honor of the 20 million dollar donation made by Howard and Wendy Cox. Today the museum is 40,000 square feet, with an average annual attendance of over 375,000 visitors and an outreach to 175,000 public and private school children from Palm Beach, Martin, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties. Currently the museum is working to complete a 45 million dollar expansion project that is targeted to open in 2026 with expanded exhibit and programming spaces and one of Florida's largest aquariums.
On the first weekend of the month the museum is free to Bank of America account holders. All you have to do is show proof of your account and your ID. I took advantage of the Museums on Us program to visit the museum for the temporary Titanic: the Artifact Exhibition on display until April. Titanic the Artifact Exhibition uses 81 artifacts recovered from the wreck 2.5 miles below the oceans surface to tell the story of the doomed ship. You can pick up a boarding pass before you enter the exhibit and at the end you can scan it and see if your passenger survived the voyage.
Other exhibits in the museum include Journey Through the Human Brain, a neuroscience exhibit, the outdoor Fischer Family Science Trail with fifteen exhibits, including a Physics Forest, FPL SolarScape, splash pad, gem panning station, shark tooth dig pit, a dinosaur walk, and picnic areas, Aquariums of the Atlantic with sea life from Florida's diverse ecosystems of the Everglades, coral reefs, gulf stream, and the ocean, The Conservation Course, an 18 hole miniature golf course designed by Gary Nicklaus and Jim Fazio, the Marvin Deckelboum Planetarium, the only public planetarium in Palm Beach, the Observatory with one of the largest F/11 refractors in the state, The Hidden World of the Everglades which teaches about Florida's indigenous and invasive wildlife, Science on a Sphere hat uses computers and video projectors to display planetary data onto a six-foot diameter sphere, States of Matter with hands-on displays representing the states of matter, including solid, liquid, gas and plasma displays, Out of This World which features rare space artifacts and real rocks from space, and Brain Teasers which challenges your mind with puzzles.
I love how hands on this museum is which helps to capture children's interest and makes science come to life for them. Besides the Titanic exhibit I enjoyed seeing all of the ocean life in the aquarium. I really look forward to the expansion in this area. While walking around I was invited to come up and see the observatory where they had a telescope looking at the surface of the sun. It was such a cool and personalized experience. Although this museum is small I think they really nail the personalization aspect of your visit. There are people everywhere conducting experiments and offering to show you things and talk to you. Another great thing about this museum is that it is located in Dreher Park along with the Palm Beach Zoo. If you are a visitor to West Palm Beach it is very convenient to do both attractions in one day. I hadn't been here since they changed the name to the Cox Science Center and Aquarium and it was better than I expected. With all of the great improvements to come, the future of science education in West Palm Beach looks bright.