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Science Playground
 It's 60,000 square feet of outdoor fun! Through dozens of playground elements like slides and seesaws, people of all ages and abilities explore the scientific principles of motion, balance, sound, sight and simple machines, as well as sun, wind and water.
The New York Hall of Science unveiled its outdoor Science Playground in 1997 to help the public experience aspects of science and technology through the sensations of their entire bodies. In 2007, the Hall doubled the size of the popular outdoor Science Playground with 30,000 square feet of exhibits designed for children ages 6 and younger.
Through playground elements, like slides and seesaws, people of all ages and abilities explore the scientific principles of motion, balance, sound, sight, simple machines and sun, wind and water. As the largest Science Playground in the United States, the Hall's playground fosters a better relationship with science through personal discovery and participation.
Designed by Hall staff and a team led by BKSK Architects, the 60,000 square-foot Science Playground includes over two-dozen playground elements, outdoor dining area, landscaped park and a colorful, inviting, resilient play surface made of six-inch thick ground rubber.
PLAYGROUND EXHIBITS
Adding to an array of over 400 hands-on indoor exhibits, the Hall introduces playground elements that encourage active participation. Parents and children of all ages and abilities can steer, yank and crank, use their own weight, reflexes and imagination to explore how things work.
The outdoor playground exhibits focus on principles of the physical and the mechanized world. Exhibits include:
Energy Wave - allows visitors to manipulate a 150-foot series of connected rods and balls in this classic demonstration of physics. Participants introduce energy at one end of this suspended structure by turning a disk. By supplying enough energy to move the first ball, the wave is carried rhythmically along the length of the structure and then returns. This exhibit illustrates energy propagated in a wave. Visitors can see how their actions can affect things at a distance.
Slides - show visitors how to convert the force of gravity into the force of motion. Visitors of all ages can race down two adjacent slides, one straight and one curved, which travel the same vertical distance. This exhibit focuses on teaching participants the conversion of potential into kinetic energy and answers the question: Which slide will get them to the bottom faster? A timer on the exhibit displays the result.
Standing Spinner - invites the public to examine how angular momentum stores energy. A visitor stands on a rotating disc and holds a handle in the center. By leaning in, the visitor spins faster, by leaning out, the visitor spins slower.
Giant Seesaw - takes the mystery out of understanding balance. This oversized wooden seesaw allows two or 20 people to participate. The Giant Seesaw encourages group cooperation to experience levers and leverage. Individuals move back and forth over the fulcrum. The variety of positions, sizes and number of people on the seesaw provide many variables with which to experiment.
Hanging Balance - invites children to pull on ropes attached to a giant lever arm at various distances from the pivot. The lever arm is balanced at the other end by a 200-pound weight. Participants explore the advantages of long lever arms.
Speaking Tubes - examine how tubes channel the energy of sound. Visitors speak softly into one end and are heard clearly at the other end, many yards away. The energy of sound typically spreads out in all directions, however, Speaking Tubes illustrate how the energy of one's voice can be channeled within a tube. This exhibit is made up of 200 feet of bendable tubes, three inches in diameter.
Whisper Dishes - demonstrate the reflection and focusing of sound by two large parabolic dishes. The reflectors in this exhibit face one another approximately 80 feet apart. When a visitor speaks or even whispers into the focal point of one of the dishes, the individual can be heard clearly by a person at the other dish.
Wind Pipes - illustrate how air pressure can be converted into sound. Participants step on three wooden beams that are mounted like a seesaw on ground level. The seesaw movement forces air through musical pipes creating a variety of sounds.
Octascope - offers visitors a look through a kaleidoscope. When the Octascope is moved, new symmetric shapes and arrangements are created by the turning of mirrors. 
Climbing Space Net - is made of flexible steel reinforced rope and resembles a "jungle gym" found in many playgrounds. Visitors are invited to climb the giant net and explore principles of a tensile structure. As visitors climb around this exhibit, they can feel how the structure responds to their weight. The Climbing Space Net demonstrates the use of force vectors, as force is spread out over the entire structure. The triangular configurations of the rope are strategically placed to give the net its structural integrity.
Windmill Seat - converts wind energy into vertical movement. A swing-like seat, attached to a small windmill, moves up and down when the wind blows. Participants can also turn the windmill with their own weight by simply sitting in the seat.
Whirlpool Column - lets visitors create a whirlpool in a column of water by turning a crank. Participants provide energy which turns propeller blades, transferring their energy into angular momentum in the column of water. The whirlpool shows the vortex at the top and how it becomes progressively slender on the bottom. This exhibit helps the public understand the phenomena of whirlpools and tornadoes.
Sun Catchers - allow visitors to use mirrors to direct sunbeams at targets on a Kinetic Sculpture. When redirected sunlight hits a photocell on the sculpture, the solar energy is converted to electrical energy that triggers propellers, whirligigs and a fog machine.
VISITOR INFORMATION
The Science Playground is open April 1 - December 31 for children of all ages with adult supervision, weather permitting. Fee: The price for the Science Playground is $4 per person, $3 for groups plus general admission; free to Hall members at the Family Plus and higher membership levels. | 
