[1] The science and technology branch was headed by its own director, David McCurdy Baird, and had a small collection of artifacts transferred under its care by the National Museum of Canada.

[6] In April 1967, the former bakery and distribution centre for Morrison Lamothe in the outskirts of Ottawa was selected for use by the science and technology branch.

A number of larger artifacts were installed outside the museum, including an Atlas long-range rocket in 1973, and a pre-fabricated iron lighthouse in 1980.

[8][9] In 2012, the museum was prompted to modify a travelling exhibition on human sexuality after receiving criticism from select groups and James Moore, the minister of Canadian Heritage.

[10][11][12] The museum was forced to close its doors to the public in September 2014 after it found high levels of airborne mould in the building, and its southern wall risked collapse.

[14] During the closure, several larger artifacts displayed outside, including the Atlas rocket and a pumpjack originally from Saskatchewan were dismantled.

[16] As a result of the renovations, portraits of Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame inductees were removed from the museum and relocated online.

[17] In 2018, the museum announced it had suspended large-scale collecting efforts, until new storage facilities at the Ingenium Centre were completed, and its excess items were moved inside it.

[5] The building was later renovated and expanded to 13,458 square metres (144,860 sq ft) from 2014 to 2017, with designs by Canadian architecture firm NORR.

[21][23] The 2014 to 2017 renovations also saw a number of improvements added to the building, including seismic upgrades to the facility, and a complete replacement of the roof which also supports photovoltaic panels.

[21] A new mechanical room was also built, allowing staff to more precisely control the temperature in the building, and better host fragile artifacts susceptible to damage.

In total, approximately 2,025.2 square metres (21,799 sq ft) of ceramic material was used throughout the building's façade.

Use of the Neolith slabs also allowed NORR to incorporate sharp angles and smooth expanses into their building designs.

[27] A three-minute looping video is played on the LED surface, with a second phase of the film projected on the flat ceramic wall facing St. Laurent Boulevard during the evenings.

[31] The medical exhibition occupies 330 square metres (3,500 sq ft) of space, and includes nearly 100 pieces from the museum's collection.

Crazy Kitchen and the locomotives installed inside are the only remaining exhibits that date back to the museum's opening in 1967.

[32] In 2021, the museum started a COVID-19 pandemic collection, whose earliest items includes the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, and the 10-millionth face mask produced at CAMI Automotive.

[37] Notable artifacts related to transportation include the last spike for the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway;[47] a McLaughlin-Buick and railway car used during the 1939 royal tour of Canada; the Bras d'Or prototype hydrofoil;[9] two nocturnals dating back to 17th century;[48] a Popemobile, donated to the museum in 1985 by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops;[49] and a Henry Seth Taylor steam buggy, the first automobile produced in Canada.

[52] Other notable artifacts in the museum's collection includes an electronic sackbut; the first electron microscope produced in North America;[17] the country's largest refracting telescope, from the Dominion Observatory;[5] the original hitchBOT that travelled across Canada;[53] and George Klein's prototype for the world's first motorized wheelchair.

A shift towards public history and exploring the cultural role these technologies played in society did not emerge until the 1980s.