A Day at Life Science Centre Newcastle

When we were up north over Easter we went on so many lovely days out and the most educational of those was our day at Life Science Centre. It was somewhere that all the children – aged 9 to 13 – enjoyed and somewhere we would happily visit again.

What is Life Science Centre?

Part of the International Centre for Life, the Life Science Centre opened 25 years ago and since then it has been a place where people can go to discover the wonders of science, inspiring everyone to explore and enjoy science, discover amazing things about the world and have loads of fun whilst doing it. 

Getting to Life Science Centre

We drove to the Life Science Centre and parked easily in the Times Square car park over the road. The centre is also just a two minute walk from the Newcastle Central train and metro station and there are also bike racks outside if you want to cycle.

Life is a charity organisation and when you buy tickets you also have the option of adding a donation. Tickets for our family – two adults and two children – were around £50 including the donation. Compared to other, similar attractions, this feels like great value and a price we’d happily pay again.

The centre isn’t open as long as we would like – from 10am throughout the week and to 3pm on weekdays and 5pm on weekends. We visited during the week and would have loved those extra couple of hours to play and explore but we still managed to cram so much in to our day.

Life Science Centre facilities

As soon as we arrived at the Life Science Centre we saw how bright and colourful it was, instantly attractive to children. Push chairs and buggies are welcome throughout the centre and there are plenty of baby changing facilities and toilets. There are also plenty of lockers and storage crates available for hire for a refundable deposit and we appreciated being able to leave our picnic in a locker before going back to get it later in the day!

The Life Science Centre have a packed lunch area to eat any food you take with you and bottle and food warming facilities. There is also a cafe bar that sells food and drinks during the centre opening times.

The Life Science Centre shows

When we arrived at the centre we were told about all the shows that were taking place throughout the day and the suggested age suitability of them. We decided that we wanted to go to see the main live science show and also a show in the planetarium – the North’s largest planatarium!

We basically times our day around the shows, exploring the rest of the centre and having lunch before and after each one. The Live Science Show was fun and interactive – with audience members being able to go on stage to help with experiments and everyone in the audience being able to vote for which experiment to see next.

Like with all science experiments, sometimes things do not go to plan and there were a couple that didn’t work but the whole of the audience found things to oooh and aaah at throughout the show. It was fun, engaging and the children loved it.

We saw the planetarium show late in the day and saw the Sky Tonight Hercules show. Sadly for us there was a badly behaved school trip in the planetarium at the same time – talking loudly, laughing, joking, throwing things and just being disruptive. This did spoil much of the show for us but the actual planetarium is a great size and a really nice place to watch a show – we just wish other people were a little more considerate.

Our Life Science Centre experience

There are so many different zones to explore in the Life Science Centre. We started off right in front of the entrance in the Creativity Zone where we all got hands on with science! This was a great introduction to the centre, with so many engaging, interactive exhibits. It was great fun!

The kids all split up to try out different activities across the Creativity Zone and it was great seeing them enjoying science in such a hands on, fun way. There was so much to do and we could have spent hours in this section alone.

We then moved on to the Brain Zone that had even more hands on exhibits to explore. This whole section is dedicated to how the brain works, optical illusions and whether what your brain is telling you is correct or not. It was so interesting but fun too.

After we’d seen the Live Science Show we had a break for lunch and then explored one of the pop up play areas where we worked together to make giant marble runs out of crates, tubes and more. It was a great team activity that the children really enjoyed.

One of our favourite parts of the centre was the Wow Zone where we got to bend beams, create circuits, ride on pulley chairs and operate the Big Machine! This was such a fun space and one the children would have spent much longer in if we’d had time. We all loved getting hands on with the different exhibits.

The last part we explored was the Space Zone which explores how space technology is used in every day life, what life is like in space and so much more. We love space so this was a fantastic section to explore.

We tried to visit the Experiment Zone to do real life experiments in the centre but sadly we had left it too late and there wasn’t time. If this is something you’d like to do on your visit definitely visit earlier in the day – we had tried to but there were no staff there when we arrived. We’ll try again next time!

Since our visit a new Lightbox attraction has opened which looks amazing – and definitely a reason to visit again in the future. The Life Science Centre is a great day out, with so much to do and it just keeps getting better!

There were also play areas and attractions aimed at younger children that we didn’t explore as our children were too old for them – but it’s definitely an attraction for all ages. Plus, children under two get in free.

We finished our visit with a trip to the Life Science Centre shop that sells all sorts of science toys and games, activities and plenty of souvenirs! We left with the obligatory magnet.

We had a great time at Life Science Centre and will definitely visit again if we are ever up that way. If you’re heading to the North East at any point definitely add it to your itinerary!

You can find out more about Life Science Centre over on their website and for reference the address is: Times Square, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4EP