The museum opened in 1970 in Greenwood-Ashworth Park and was called the Des Moines Center of Science and Industry.

In 1965, fund raising began in earnest, with an anonymous $100,000 donation and $30,000 from the Junior League.

[4] The Junior League donated an additional $10,000 for the construction of a Foucault pendulum, suspended on a 65 foot long wire.

[3] The museum contained the Sargent Planetarium, which could seat 135 people under a 40 foot dome.

[15] On August 24, 2022 Curt Simmons, the president of the Science Center, announced that the IMAX theater would not be re-opened, and the space would be repurposed for other exhibits.