Tall Birch

It may not be a secret (lord knows I rarely discover things of worth quickly), but if you have young kids, you need to consider purchasing a membership to your local or favorite ASTC museum. The ASTC, or Association of Science Technology Centers, is simply an organization of science museums across the country, and memberships to an ASTC location can be more beneficial than you might think.

We live about 120 miles from Boston, but we are members of the Boston Museum of Science. We did so mainly due to the cost of going to such a museum. For a family of four, it was essentially cheaper to buy the membership simply for going twice … easy enough because the museum is phenomenal.

What does a membership bring? Generally it brings

• Free basic admission to the museum for the length of the membership — usually a year
• Discounts to the gift shop and cafeterias
• Discounts on tickets to museum extras (IMAX, planetariums, etc.)

But the greatest benefit is the ability to participate in the reciprocal admission that all ASTC member institutions share. The reciprocal program in short allows you to go to other participating ASTC museums and enter for free. There are some exceptions (like museums close to your ‘home membership museum’ will not honor you discount), but it is truly valuable. In addition, a unique benefit of the Boston MOS is that they are also an AZA member, so we have reciprocal opportunities there as well.

To date, we have likely seen 4-5 free sky shows at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium and a couple of times at the Squam Lakes Science Center … not to mention 3 trips to the MOS and at least one more this summer and a trip to Chicago … The Museum of Science and Industry, Field Museum, and Adler Planetarium await …

Learn more about Boston MOS memberships
Search for ASTC reciprocal members
Search for AZA reciprocal members