COSI (), officially the Center of Science and Industry, is a science museum and research center in Columbus, Ohio. COSI was opened to the public on 29 March 1964 and remained there for 35 years. In 1999, COSI was moved to a facility, designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki along a bend in the Scioto River in the Franklinton neighborhood. COSI features more than 300 interactive exhibits throughout themed exhibition areas.
Until the COVID-19 pandemic, COSI operated the largest outreach education program of any science museum in the United States. Anchored by COSI on Wheels – a whole-school outreach program traveling throughout Ohio and the surrounding Midwest – as well as local COSI on Wheels Workshops, Camp COSI on Wheels, and Interactive Videoconference programs reaching learners each year outside of the museum at their peak.
As a non-profit organization, COSI is supported by ticket sales, a network of community and statewide partnerships (including relationships with a variety of donors and sponsors), a volunteer program supported by volunteers annually, and nearly member households. In 2008, COSI was named the #1 science center in the United States for families by Parent Magazine. In 2020, it was named the #1 Science Museum in the United States by USA Today.
Exhibit areas
Upon relocating in 1999, COSI was developed with large, self-contained, themed atria, each dedicated to a single topic and designed as immersive theatrical learning worlds. As of 2018, COSI contains seven main exhibit areas: Ocean, Energy Explorers, Space, Progress, Gadgets, Life, and the American Museum of National History Dinosaur Gallery. Hallways between each learning world are filled with hands-on exhibits and displays.
Ocean Accessed via an underwater cave through a crashed shipwreck, the cavern path splits as guests pass to the right or left. The pathway to the right leads to a docked submarine laboratory where hands-on exhibits explore the realities of ocean research, submersibles, SCUBA, water pressure, and remote-operated vehicles. Lilypad Lab focuses on drainage basin and Central Ohio wildlife. The path forking left from the shipwreck leads to the Temple of Poseidon, an ancient stone chamber built around a 30-foot tall statue of Poseidon with waterfalls, fountains, and water jets. Another realm focuses on the properties of water and the stories it inspires – laminar flow, whirlpools, erosion, water bells, and mythology.
Energy Explorers Energy Explorers, which opened in 2013, allows visitors to choose an avatar character that follows the guest to the Home Zone, Transportation Zone, and Product Zone of a town, making decisions via computer kiosks to balance energy efficiency and cost.
Space The Space exhibit area features a replica space station pod to tour, a recreation of John Glenn's Friendship 7 spacecraft from the Mercury-Atlas 6, remote-operated vehicles, balance tests, and other hands-on experiments that deal with space flight trajectory, gravitational pull, and simulated rover landings. Space was originally located on Level 2 in its own enclosed atrium exhibit area, entered via a "black hole" spinning funhouse hallway meant to disorient guests. The exhibit itself was in a dark, immersive, themed area, stylized after the 1969 Moon landing of Apollo 11. Under starry skies, guests interacted with "retro" stylized monitors and exhibits with a matching wood-panel / brushed metal motif that was reminiscent of the era, even included a 1960s living room (including shag carpeting) where guests could watch the recorded landing.
When the south end of COSI's building was closed due to lost levies in 2004, the Space exhibit was relocated from Level 2 to an empty gallery on Level 1. In 2012, that area became Energy Explorers, necessitating yet another location switch. Some of the Space exhibits' displays moved to the Mezzanine Level while much remained in storage. With the re-opening of COSI's Planetarium in November 2014, the location of Space on the Mezzanine leading toward the Planetarium's lobby was reinforced by the return and refurbishment of the rest of Space's exhibits. However, Space remains the only one of COSI's seven learning worlds to not have its own dedicated, theatrical, immersive atrium, instead being located on the bright Mezzanine bridge. The original home of Space is now Gallery 3, available for traveling exhibits and special event rentals. Gallery 3 still contains the Galaxy Theater, fittingly still painted with murals of planets and stars leftover from its time as a live theater for Space.
Progress The Progress exhibit (modeled after the Streets of Yesteryear exhibit at COSI's original location) traces the hopes and fears of a small town called Progress in 1898, just as electricity, horseless carriages, and canned food become available. The recreated town (specifically, the shops, homes, and restaurants at the corner of Hope Street and Fear Street) includes a telegraph office, livery, stable, grocer, apothecary, and clothiers. After visitors walk through Progress in 1898, they turn the corner and enter the same intersection of the same town 64 years later in 1962, where a new set of hopes and fears have arisen.
In 1962, the town of Progress includes an appliance store, a working TV studio, a radio station (where the telegraph office was), a department store, a diner, and a gas station (replacing the livery). At the exit, the exhibit challenges guests to consider how the streets of the village of Progress might look today, and to question why the concept of progress deserves as much weight in the scientific study as that of oceans, space, or energy.
Gadgets The Gadgets exhibit area contains many classic science museum hands-on experiments, such as pulleys, wind tunnels, plasma globes, magnets, light bulbs, engines, and counterweights. As well, Gadgets contains the Gadgets Café, where families are seated and given a menu with quick science experiments to choose from. A take-apart menu allows visitors to disassemble donated phones, computers, clocks, and other electronic devices, which are recycled afterward.
Life Life explores humanity through three separate areas dedicated to the mind, body, and spirit. The Mind area contains optical illusions, physical illusions, an anechoic chamber, and a posable zoetrope. Spirit discusses the concept of birth and death and how human cultures understand them. Body features interactive health stations where visitors can record their weight, flexibility, and heart rate, then compare their statistics to that of COSI visitors and national averages. Life also contains the Labs in Life, three working research pods staffed by OSU students and staff.
Dinosaur Gallery On November 19 of 2017, COSI, in partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, opened a permanent Dinosaur Gallery. A traveling special exhibition gallery opened in the Spring of 2018. Together, they occupy 2000 m² in the first floor.
Much of the gallery uses elements from a retired AMNH touring exhibition titled Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries such as a diorama of feathered dinosaurs of the Yixian Formation.
Other features The building also contains an interactive "little kid space" area designed for children up through first grade, the National Geographic Giant Screen Theater (the largest digital screen in Ohio), and an outdoor Big Science Park. On November 22, 2014, COSI reopened its 60-foot diameter, 220-seat Planetarium (Ohio's largest) with all new digital projection. In addition, there is a History of COSI exhibit.
The building also includes three large galleries for traveling exhibits and special event hosting, a Dive Theater in Ocean, the Galaxy Theater in Gallery 3 (its name a remnant of when Gallery 3 was once the Space exhibit), the Gadgets Stage, the Atomic Cafe, the Science2Go! retail store, and five meeting rooms utilizing refurbished areas within the former Central High School, which the new COSI location was built around.
COSI Science Festival On May 1–4, 2019, COSI, joined by Battelle, NASA, businesses, organizations, universities, and STEM leaders, hosted over one hundred community events showcasing science across Central Ohio as part of the inaugural COSI Science Festival. The 2019 COSI Science Festival was among the largest science events in Ohio history and included four days of events at central Ohio businesses, community centers, libraries, schools, and more. As part of the COSI Science Festival, COSI, Battelle, NASA, and other Central Ohio STEM leaders formed an unprecedented partnership that impacted people.
In May 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an all-digital COSI Science Festival garnered 118,990 total online views of 39 separate virtual science events.
In 2021, the COSI Science Festival remained virtual, reaching over learners.
In 2022, the festival returned to a primarily in-person model.
2023 saw record breaking attendance with over visitors to the community event portion of the festival, and another attending the Big Science Celebration on the final day of the four day festival. After an extensive evaluation, the 91% Big Science Celebration attendees said the Big Science Celebration had a positive impact or reinforced their existing opinions of STEM, and the majority said it helped broaden their awareness of STEM jobs and career options.
The COSI Science Festival is the largest STEAM event in Ohio, and one of the largest in the Midwest. The sixth COSI Science Festival was held May 1 - 4, 2024.
History COSI opened on March 29, 1964, as a venture of the Franklin County Historical Society. COSI is a founding member of the Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative (SMEC) and a long-standing member of the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC).
From its 1964 opening, COSI was housed in Memorial Hall, a historic Columbus landmark constructed in 1906. COSI closed at the Memorial Hall location on East Broad Street on September 6, 1999, and re-opened two months later on November 6, 1999, at its new location on the Scioto riverfront on West Broad Street in downtown Columbus. The square foot facility was designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, who designed an elliptical, geometric, "blimp" shaped structure composed of 159 curved concrete panels. The museum is designed to appear progressively futuristic from the neighborhood of Franklinton, while from downtown Columbus it uses the exterior of the original Central High School to blend into the city.
In 1972, COSI originated the Camp-In overnight program for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts – a concept now commonplace in museums nationwide. Since 1964, COSI has engaged with nearly 30 million unique visitors through on-site and outreach programs.
Shortly after the move to the riverfront, the museum experienced a shortfall of funds. With an initial construction budget of over $210 million, high maintenance costs of the new facility, "six-figure" utility bills, and "lower-than-expected" ticket sales, COSI's reliance on admission revenue proved an unsuitable long term plan. In 2004, the museum spearheaded an effort to assess a property tax levy, chaired by former NASA astronaut John Glenn. The levy would have imposed a property tax on residents of Franklin County, who would receive free admission in return. The levy failed. As a result, the south wing of COSI's "blimp" structure was closed.
As part of the reconfiguration of the museum following the loss of the levy in 2004, COSI opened only five days per week instead of seven. Many of the museum's exhibits were announced to close permanently, along with the closure of half of the building (though many have re-opened in stages in the years since). Two of the original exhibit areas were closed permanently (called i|o and SimZone, the spaces they formerly occupied are now Gallery 1 and Energy Explorers, respectively).