Franklin Institute Science Museum is a science education institution in Philadelphia. It has exhibits on a wide variety of subjects, including machines, the human body, aviation, astronomy, trains, electricity, and Earth. The museum includes the Fels Planetarium, the Tuttleman IMAX Theater, the Franklin Theater, and the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.
The Franklin Institute Science Museum was one of the first museums to develop exhibits involving the participation of visitors. In some of these exhibits, visitors pull levers and press buttons to learn fundamental scientific principles. In others, a visitor may ride a bike across the museum on a high wire or fly a jet in a flight simulator. Today, the museum also has an interactive computer network that asks visitors questions and explains basic scientific themes.
The museum is part of the Franklin Institute, an organization in Philadelphia that promotes science and technology education. The institute was founded in 1824 as the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts. It was named after the American statesman Benjamin Franklin. Its Journal of The Franklin Institute, first published in 1826, is one of the oldest continuously published scholarly journals in the United States. The science museum opened in 1934.
