TexNET partners the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and the Exploratorium with three smaller science museums that have strong connections to rural and Spanish-speaking populations in Texas—Discovery Science Place, Laredo Children’s Museum, and Science Spectrum. TexNET, a four-year project modeled on the Exploratorium Network for Exhibit-based Teaching (ExNET), of which Fort Worth is a lead member, builds on lessons learned from past exhibit outreach models and addresses the needs of small, rural partners for exhibits, teaching resources, and staff development.

TexNET pairs annually rotating exhibit sets with professional development and capacity-building workshops. Each small museum partner hosts a set of ten exhibits for one year. Exhibit topics are Motion, Weather, and Sound. Workshops focus on inquiry learning techniques, science content, program and workshop design, as well as the institutional needs of each partner.

TexNET Project website
http://www.exploratorium.edu/texnet/

Featured exhibits include:

MOTION set:
Balancing Ball
Bicycle wheel Gyro
Bouncing Ball
Fluttering Bridge
Gravity Well
Hold the Phone
Magic Wand
Marble Accelerator
Motion Theater
Pendulum Snake
Rope Squirter
Spinning Eraser
Square Wheels
Strobe Flower
Turntable
Wave Machine
Window on the Weird

WEATHER set:
Aeolian Landscape
Chaotic Pendulum
Circling Wave Umbrella
Confused Sea
Convection Cells
Dust Storm
Fog Chamber
Hold the Phone
Sea of Clouds
Soap Bubbles
Tray Space
Weather Station
Tornado
Turbulent Orb
Weather Station
Weather Theater

SOUND set:
Alien Voices
Animation Workstation
Big Tuning Fork
Delayed Speech
Echo Tube
Gaussian Melody
Hold the Phone
Jukebox Memories
Oscylinder Scope
Pipes of Pan
Science of Music Kiosk
Singing Coach
Sound Theater
Vocal Vowels