THis is a great place to take kids. I actually go here quite often. It deserves 3-3.5 stars but I give 4 because somehow find it worth visiting on any given Saturday.
Pros: interesting activities in a spacious, beautiful building. The wind turbine and solar panels are symbolic of a nice green use of energy and are showcased well.
Open and unstructured atmosphere allows for parental interaction with kids. An iMax theater - although I have never been in it.
The location is nice- right on the lake and right near downtown and the Rock Hall.
Cons:
Some of the activities are goofy and / or not taken care of. I think they need some upgrades.
They have employees that seem to know rules like "no kids over 7 can play in this area" so they will not let cousins from out of town participate with their family (yes this happened to us) but then they don't monitor kids that appear out of control and interfering with the good fun that many other kids are having. Of course one could argue that parents should be watching and I agree -but it just seems goofy to enforce rules arbitrarily.
Overall, I think this is a place worth visiting. But once you've been there a few times, it gets kind of old. THis is probably common among Science centers - yes they do have special exhibits all the time to freshen things up but i usually don't partake because the extra cost isn't worth it since my kids generally have fun regardless. Myself on the other hand could probably sleep through it ;)