Located on the campus of Cal State Chico, the Gateway Science Museum is a child-centered learning attraction featuring interactive exhibits that touch on a number of topics, like technology, the natural world, and the wonders of space.The museum is a great place to spend a few hours out of the elements when the weather isn’t conducive to outdoor activities. Though it was designed with kids in mind, it usually ends up being an engaging and educational attraction for older children and adults.Though the museum is open year-round, it’s not open every day, so check online or give them a call before heading out.

Wonderful place to visit for children and adults. I love the rotating exhibits. Friendly staff and room attendants. I would love to see more outside when the weather improves. I come in about 3 times a year with my nieces and nephews. I also have my daughters birthday party here.

Our 11yo son wanted to go here as part of his birthday party. We had a lot of fun, lots of really cool, interesting things to do and learn about. The staff was wonderful, very helpful and knowledgeable. They answered a lot of questions, interacted with the kids and us parents. Well definitely come back. Thank you!

Small place but offered a lot of hands on activities for 10 year olds and under. Great guides and staff!

Always a great place to learn about the world around us. They offer both visual and hands on learning. Yesterday we learned a lot about birds.

Cool little place and very neat interactive exhibits. Staff is friendly and informative.My gf and I liked the Sabre Tooth and Flat Face Bear skeletons and the space exploration section was pretty cool with a globe that could change between Earth, Luna and Mars and exhibits showing household tech developed from space tech.

It is really fun for kids! Wish the hours were better so I could take my kid again. Very cute gifts for sale inside as well.

Love taking my daughter to this place every once in a while.Things always change and its a great way for her to interact with things as well as learning about nature.

$60 for a year membership (two parents and all children in that family). You really cant beat the price. If you plan to go once a week, thats about $1.20 per visit. They have kids activities and plenty of buttons to push. Plus, it is a great way for children to get out and explore.

Me and my nephew in he said it should only get three because it wasnt what he expected I feel the same and I gave a five because they got a lot of information on flowers and they got okay Garden but I love flowers so and they got a lot of them tell you where to find them they got some cool bugs and spiders if youre into that Im cool they got some cool what is it

This is a cool museum, the interactive parts are really fun! Yay science!

Clean open exhibits. Nice displays and interactive exhibits. Changes periodically. Bring the whole family and also do Bidwell Mansion tour of this State Historical Site. A great place to learn something new.

Worse rip-off of any museum Ive ever been to. Nothing to do or see here for any adult. $7 admission fee plus pay to park! You wont need a map: There are two small gallery rooms with nothing interesting. I confronted them and at first they seemed offended and not interested. I continued my complaint and finally was issued a refund and I gave more suggestions. Hopefully this place gets a lot more money / item donations to get stocked up enough to justify an admission fee for adults.

This place 8s the best, tons of hands on exhibits for the kids or anyone!

The museum has 3 rooms, all of which had different themes. We also thought quite neat was the Saber Tooth and Bear skeletons. We loved the hands on learning and activities in one of the rooms, the couple of animals in tanks in the other, and especially looking under the microscope in the third! Very friendly staff all around. We had a lovely conversation with the gift shop attendant during our visit, super friendly! We went on 3/18. This took us about 1.5 hours, which timing of this museum with the Bidwell Mansion Tour next door made for a great afternoon that wasnt too long. Make sure to check out the reciprocal program, they are in with the museum network that includes Turtle Bay and Humboldt State Universitys Natural History Museum!!

Heard a talk from John Law Muir. Not the best place to present but the subject was interesting

People and place very incormative about Butte county. Would recommend as a tourist site. Also a great place that teaches kids about nature and science!

Shark Teeth identification was a great idea! A good place for kids in Chico

Fun in so many different ways!

Glad to have a science museum but barely any of the experiments were functioning and the museum is mostly empty space

Very fun, relevant and informative!

Awesome and the staff was sk fun and knowledgeable!

Always a good place to take the kids for an air conditioned exploration. I love their partnership program with other museums as well, when we travel, we get into a partner museum for free. The staff here is friendly, the place is clean, and the exhibits are interactive for our two and four year olds.

A great place to visit and explore with my grandson.

What a great asset in Chico. The Gateway is a first rate science museum with awesome activities for children. There are permanent exhibits, including a cool saber cat skeleton but they also have rotating exhibits that change regularly. They always seem to have great hands-on activities and something new every weekend. So, its a good idea to get one of their very reasonable annual passes so you can visit multiple times through the year to check out what is new!

I brought my 6 year old and we travel full time. I would say compared to other museums like this, I was a bit disappointed. It is very small with only a few exhibits. Toy will only need an hour or less. Maybe its better when the outside section is open but, it was closed for renovation. I recommend using groupon if u go to save money. It did have allot of interesting facts about sharks and a cool digital globe feature. I would just like to see more activities.

The young man at the gift shop was helpfull and smart . Books were informative conglomeration of different subjects. And great with all he children questions . The entire staff assistance and participation with the children were safe educational knowledgeable.great place for entire family

Vary lacklust for adults, amazing for kids, was a nice addition to chico after not living in chico for 8 year

A fun place for kids. Our four year old loved the dinosaurs, building blocks, tree house and microscopes the best. Not too large of a museum, but enough to entertain young kids. Update:. We celebrated our sons 6 year birthday party here with his kindergarten class and it was a great program for the kids.

Great interactive stuff for kiddos.

This place is awesome, with a lot of interactive things to do, for the kiddos.

A beautiful museum to visit.

Super small, but very cool museum.

This is a sweet and interactive science museum for kids. Its near downtown and on the bus route. Reasonably priced and kept my 7 year old entertained for a couple hours.

Always fun! Rain or shine!

Love this place, visit all the time!!

Good exhibits. Lots of hands on. I feel like its geared to younger kids, k to 2nd. I wish they were open in mornings though. :( Must pat for paking. Hourly or $5 daily. Thats a minus star for sure.

Great atmosphere, clean, and the staff was amazing

Always a pleasure to visit. Great educational exhibits and awesome gift shop that has a mix of great toys, educational items and books.

IMPORTANT --- the GOOGLE POSTED HOURS for Gateway Science Museum are NOT CORRECT!The CORRECT OPEN HOURS ARE AS FOLLOWS:Wednesday through Sunday12 noon - 5pm

A very nice museum for a small town, especially within walking distance to downtown.

I recommend it. Its loads of fun.

Always interesting for both kids and adults

Did not care for the Climate Change. Very disappointed

Fun time!

We enjoyed it!

Great hands-on science experience for kids and adults! Exhibits change every few months.

Not worththe $7 entrance fee.

Wonderful family fun!!

Literally one display room and minimal interaction.

Very small. There isnt much here you couldnt do at home. I have high hopes for some events in the future. 4 stars is my optimism speaking!

Boring

Kids love this place

Fun

Very educational

Great for kids

Great place

Great hands on experience for kids.

The hours posted on Google are WRONG!Gateway is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5pm, and closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.