MOSI's funding is provided from private donations, corporate sponsors, and support from Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa.

MOSI began in 1962 when Hillsborough County first approved funding for a youth museum in Sulphur Springs.

[1] In 1995 the construction of the 190,000 square foot science center with Florida's only IMAX Dome Theatre, extensive permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, a planetarium and a public library was completed.

[3] In 2022 it was announced that there were talks about building a new facility in downtown Tampa, but those plans were scrapped due to financial concerns.

Instead, MOSI will focus on expanding its current location in North Tampa and adding new exhibits and programs.

MOSI offers S.T.E.A.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) programs for preschool through high school students.

These camps cover various scientific topics such as snorkeling in a natural spring, using DNA to solve crimes, and video game design.

The premise is that it is built near the south pole of the Moon where there is believed to be large reservoirs of frozen water reasonably available within the rocks, and where some highlands can experience long periods of sunlight.

Wooden Wonders of the World is a temporary art installation exhibit featuring model sculptures of famous buildings hand made out of toothpicks.

It includes PaleoLab investigations, crawl-through challenges, dino-themed animation in Fossil Films, and an opportunity to touch actual dino poop.

The Bio-Works Butterfly Garden and Alternate Waste Treatment exhibit was added to the Museum of Science and Industry in 1996.

This fish, named Amigo, was born on John Glenn's last space mission, STS-95, and was returned to earth so that its reproduction could be observed.

The exhibit informs about developmental milestones, what it takes to stay healthy at each stage, and how to return to wellness after an illness, surgery or a disability.

The exhibition covers nine disaster genres: floods, hail storms, hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, wildfires, volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis.