Mission
Inspire science learning for life!
Vision
Create prosperity in our community that enhances lives.
Orlando Science Center is Central Florida’s award-winning, hands-on science museum. For more than 60 years, our exhibits and programming have brought science to life for not just residents of Central Florida, but also visitors from around the world.
With four floors of interactive exhibit halls, labs and workshops, theaters, an observatory, and experiences that change with the seasons, there is always something exciting for our 670,000 annual visitors to see and do at Orlando Science Center. We also reach 153,000 students and educators each year through our STEM Discovery Center educational programs, both onsite at the Science Center and offsite at schools and community organizations.
The Science Center was incorporated in 1955 as the Central Florida Museum and opened in Orlando Loch Haven Park in 1960. The existing facility opened in 1997 and has undergone numerous major renovations to keep content current and engaging.
Accreditations
American Alliance of Museums (AAM)
The American Alliance of Museums (formerly the American Association of Museums) is the one organization that supports all museums. Through advocacy and excellence, the Alliance strengthens the museum community.
Orlando Science Center has achieved subsequent accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the highest national recognition for a museum. Accreditation signifies excellence to the museum community, to governments, funders, outside agencies, and to the museum-going public.
American Camp Association (ACA)
The American Camp Association is a community of camp professionals who, for over 100 years, have joined together to share knowledge and experience and to ensure the quality of camp programs.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is committed to transforming how our buildings are designed, constructed and operated through LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. Available for virtually all building, community and home project types, LEED provides a framework to create healthy, highly efficient and cost-saving green buildings.
LEED certification is a globally recognized symbol of sustainability achievement. Through their community network, continuous collaboration with industry experts, market research publications and LEED professional credentials, their global staff is working every day to help advance spaces that are brighter and healthier for us to live, work and play in.
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
Orlando Science Center’s STEM Preschool has earned accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) – the world's largest organization working on behalf of young children. NAEYC accreditation is a rigorous and transformative quality-improvement system that uses a set of 10 research-based standards to collaborate with early education programs to recognize and drive quality-improvement in high-quality early learning environments.
To earn NAEYC Accreditation, Orlando Science Center’s STEM preschool went through an extensive self-study and quality-improvement process, followed by an on-site visit by NAEYC assessors to verify and ensure that the program met each of the ten program standards, and hundreds of corresponding individual criteria. NAEYC-accredited programs are always prepared for unannounced quality-assurance visits during their accreditation term, which lasts for five years.
In the 30 years since NAEYC Accreditation was established, it has become a widely recognized sign of high-quality early childhood education. More than 6,000 programs are currently accredited by NAEYC—less than 10 percent of all childcare centers, preschools, and kindergartens nationally achieve this recognition.
Red Tails Monument
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in the United States armed forces. The Allies called these airmen “Red Tails” because of the distinctive crimson paint predominantly applied on the tail section of the unit’s aircraft.
The Red Tails Monument stands outside of the Loch Haven Park entrance to Orlando Science Center and was the first national monument honoring the Red Tail Pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen. It offers the community a symbol of courage and triumph over adversity that will inspire future generations in their pursuit of academic success and careers in STEM fields, such as aviation.