Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

This museum, founded in 1812, combines the romance of global exploration with smart, appealing programming for curious minds. Though it has an impressive scientific collection of more than 18 million plant and animal specimens from donations and explorers, the museum’s biggest appeal to kid visitors may be the spectacular dinosaur skeletons in the front gallery or the “Big Dig” exhibit where little ones can search for dinosaur bones in a faux excavation site. Don’t miss the live butterflies that you can walk among or the charmingly nostalgic—and possibly terrifying for the preschool set—halls of dioramas mostly from the 1930s and 40s that showcase Kodiak bears, bison, moose, musk ox, zebra, gorillas, tigers, pandas and the passenger pigeon.