About
W5 (whowhatwherewhenwhy) is Northern Ireland's award-winning interactive science and discovery centre, inspiring curiosity and learning through over 250 hands-on exhibits spread across four innovative floors. Located in Belfast's Titanic Quarter beside the iconic Odyssey complex, W5 opened in 2001 and has since welcomed over 2.5 million visitors who come to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through play and experimentation.
The centre takes an entirely interactive approach where touching, testing, and investigating are not just permitted but essential. Exhibits span diverse scientific topics from physics and mechanics to human biology, space exploration, digital technology, and environmental science. Highlights include the Climbit climbing zone testing physical skills, START exhib it space for younger children aged 3-7, and GO gallery featuring robotics, coding, and digital innovation.
W5's mission is making science accessible, engaging, and fun for all ages, with particular emphasis on inspiring young people to pursue STEM careers. The centre hosts regular workshops, science shows, school programs, and special events bringing science to life through demonstrations, experiments, and expert-led activities. Recent additions include virtual reality experiences and climate change exhibits reflecting contemporary scientific challenges.
With its location in the regenerated Titanic Quarter, W5 complements Belfast's industrial heritage attractions while focusing on future technologies and scientific literacy. Free admission for under 3s, family tickets, and annual memberships make science education accessible to Northern Ireland communities. The centre represents a vital educational resource promoting scientific literacy and inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators.
Categories:
Annual Visitors (2019)
150,000
Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Busiest: Saturday, Sunday
💡 Weekday mornings during school term time for quietest experience. Avoid weekends and school holidays for smaller crowds.
💡 Visitor Tips
- Visit on weekday mornings during school term for quietest experience. Weekends and school holidays get very busy with families and school groups. First hour after opening (10:00-11:00) tends to be quieter.
- Allow 2-3 hours minimum to explore all floors and try key exhibits. Enthusiastic families easily spend 4+ hours engaging with the 250+ interactive displays. Everything is hands-on so expect active participation.
- The Climbit climbing zone is extremely popular and can develop queues during busy periods. Try climbing early in your visit or near closing time to avoid longest waits. Height restrictions apply (typically 110cm minimum for upper levels).
- START area for ages 3-7 provides perfect space for younger children to explore safely while older siblings enjoy more challenging exhibits. Families with mixed ages will find something engaging for everyone.
- Science shows in the Discovery Theatre run throughout the day (check schedule at entrance). These live demonstrations are excellent - dramatic, educational, and highly entertaining for all ages. Well worth catching at least one show.
- Photography is encouraged throughout - capture your experiments, Climbit achievements, and fun moments. Share on social media with W5's hashtags. No flash restrictions as exhibits are designed for bright lighting.
- The on-site café provides good food including healthy children's options. However, adjacent Odyssey Pavilion offers wider dining choices if you want more variety. Re-entry permitted with same-day ticket.
- Annual membership (£55) pays for itself after just 5 visits and includes discounts on workshops, birthday parties, and shop purchases. Excellent value for Northern Ireland families who will visit regularly.
Highlights
Climbit - Interactive Climbing Zone
Unique multi-level climbing structure testing physical skills, problem-solving, and courage as visitors navigate suspended walkways, rope bridges, climbing walls, and aerial challenges. This three-story adventure zone challenges participants to climb, balance, and explore at varying heights while learning about forces, motion, and the human body's capabilities.
The structure features different difficulty levels suitable for various ages and abilities, from easy ground-level challenges to more demanding elevated obstacles requiring nerve and coordination.
Safety equipment ensures secure exploration while visitors experience concepts like gravity, balance, friction, and momentum firsthand. The Climbit zone demonstrates physics principles through active engagement, making abstract concepts tangible through physical experience. Popular with families and school groups, this exhibit combines fitness, fun, and learning.
The climbing challenges build confidence, develop motor skills, and teach risk assessment in controlled environment. Height restrictions apply for safety, typically requiring minimum height of 110cm for upper levels.
START - Exploration Space for Young Children
Dedicated discovery area designed specifically for children aged 3-7 years, offering age-appropriate interactive exhibits and hands-on activities introducing scientific concepts through play. The space features oversized building blocks for exploring construction and engineering, water play areas demonstrating flow and forces, light and shadow exhibits, simple machines, and sensory experiences.
Soft play areas ensure safety while toddlers and young children explore, experiment, and learn through guided play.
The exhibits introduce fundamental concepts like cause and effect, patterns, shapes, colors, and simple problem-solving in engaging, non-threatening ways. Parent and carer seating areas allow supervision while children explore independently. The START space recognizes early childhood's importance for developing scientific curiosity and provides foundation for later STEM learning.
Regular story times, demonstrations, and facilitated activities enhance the self-directed exploration. This dedicated space ensures W5 welcomes families with young children, making science accessible from earliest ages.
GO - Technology and Innovation Gallery
Cutting-edge exhibition space exploring digital technology, robotics, coding, artificial intelligence, and technological innovation shaping modern life. Interactive exhibits allow visitors to program robots, experiment with coding concepts, explore virtual reality, understand algorithms, and investigate emerging technologies.
The gallery demystifies digital technologies by making underlying concepts visible and understandable through hands-on interaction.
Exhibits cover topics including computer programming basics, how robots sense and respond to environments, artificial intelligence decision-making, and data visualization. Visitors can design and race virtual vehicles, create digital art, experiment with sound synthesis, and control robotic systems.
The GO gallery emphasizes creative problem-solving and computational thinking skills essential for 21st-century careers.
Regular updates ensure exhibits reflect latest technological developments, from drone technology to augmented reality applications. The space aims to inspire young people, particularly girls and underrepresented groups, to pursue careers in technology sectors by demonstrating accessibility and relevance of digital skills.
SEE - Observation and Perception Exhibits
Fascinating gallery exploring human perception, optical illusions, light, color, and how our brains interpret visual information. Interactive exhibits demonstrate principles of optics, reveal how eyes process images, challenge assumptions about perception, and show how easily our senses can be deceived.
Exhibits include forced perspective installations creating optical illusions, mirror mazes, color mixing demonstrations, shadow play areas, and periscope systems.
Visitors learn about light waves, reflection, refraction, and the electromagnetic spectrum through experimentation.
The gallery explains why we see rainbows, how lenses work, what causes mirages, and why objects appear different colors under different lighting.
Hands-on activities allow visitors to create illusions, manipulate light beams, explore kaleidoscopes, and investigate how images form in cameras and eyes.
The SEE gallery connects physics concepts to everyday visual experiences, making abstract principles concrete through direct observation and interaction.
Collections
W5 maintains over 250 interactive exhibits across four floors, covering physics, engineering, digital technology, human biology, environmental science, and general scientific principles. Unlike traditional museums with static object collections, W5's collection consists primarily of interactive exhibits, hands-on experiments, and technological installations designed for visitor participation and manipulation.
The exhibits are regularly rotated, updated, and refreshed to maintain relevance and reflect scientific advances.
Permanent installations include the Climbit climbing structure, START early years area, and core galleries exploring forces, light, technology, and human body. Temporary exhibitions address contemporary scientific topics, emerging technologies, and current research areas. The collection emphasizes experiential learning over passive observation, making scientific principles accessible through direct experience rather than written description.
Educational resources include science show equipment, demonstration materials, workshop supplies, and digital learning resources supporting school visits and outreach programs.
START
Dedicated exploration space for children aged 3-7 featuring age-appropriate interactive exhibits introducing scientific concepts through play, building, water exploration, and sensory experiences.
📍 Floor 2
SEE
Gallery exploring vision, perception, light, color, and optical phenomena through illusions, mirrors, lenses, and visual experiments demonstrating how eyes and brain process information.
📍 Floor 1
GO
Technology-focused area featuring robotics, coding, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and digital innovation exhibits encouraging computational thinking and technological literacy.
📍 Floor 1
SPY
Dynamic space investigating forces, motion, energy, and mechanics through experiments with momentum, friction, simple machines, and energy transfer demonstrating physics principles.
📍 Floor 2
Climbit
Three-story climbing structure challenging physical abilities while teaching about forces, balance, and body mechanics through elevated walkways, bridges, and climbing obstacles.
📍 Floor 3
Themes
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.