Happy fall! The leaves are golden and falling in the San Francisco Bay Area. The days are crisp and beautiful. And the rains have come.

Contents

1 - LISTEN: MAKING SENSE OF SOUND
2 - THE PORTABLE EXPLORATORIUM: EXPLORATOPIA
3 - EXPLORATORIUM IN SECOND LIFE
4 - NEW EXPLORATORIUM INQUIRY RESOURCES FOR SCIENCE EDUCATORS

1 - LISTEN: MAKING SENSE OF SOUND
http://www.exploratorium.edu/listen/index.php
Dive into the sonic soup. Listen: Making Sense of Sound, a major new 5000-square- foot Exploratorium exhibition, three years in the making, features over fifty-five interactive exhibits, forty of them brand new. It opened at the Exploratorium on October 21, 2006, and runs through December 31, 2007.

Even if you can't visit the museum, there's plenty to learn from the Listen Web site. Check out the interactive Listening Guides where you can do everything from listen to bird calls to building your own instrument to discovering how car mechanics use their listening skills to fix cars. Find out how a cochlear implant helped one man regain the ability to hear. There are movies and activities with downloadable materials.

2 - THE PORTABLE EXPLORATORIUM: EXPLORATOPIA
http://www.exploratoriumstore.com/exploratopia.html
Bring the Exploratorium to your kids -- whether they're in your classroom or your Home -- with our latest book, Exploratopia. You can't learn to swim without getting in the water, and you can't learn about science just by reading facts. Whether they're looking into their own eyes, hunting for snails in the backyard, or building a stripped-down motor, Exploratopia shows kids how to explore the world around them, how to ask questions, and how to experiment to find the answers. This full-color, 384-page book for children eight and older contains more than 400 activities using simple, readily available materials, making it ideal for teachers on a budget, homeschoolers, or families. For Exploratorium members, there's a 15 percent discount on this unique book. For more information, go to http://www.exploratoriumstore.com/exploratopia.html.

3 - EXPLORATORIUM IN SECOND LIFE
https://secondlife.com/
Check out the Exploratorium, known as the 'Splo, in Second Life. (Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents.) If you are already a Second Life member, go to the Midnight City (coordinates = 178,54,26) to find the 'Splo. If you are new to Second Life, sign up for the FREE membership (you do not need to give your credit card info nor buy any Linden dollars) at: https://secondlife.com/

Click on the Join Now button and follow the directions. Be sure to read all the directions along the way and go through Orientation Island BEFORE going to Midnight City. (Orientation Island is where you become familiar with all the features of Second Life.)

4 - NEW EXPLORATORIUM INQUIRY RESOURCES FOR SCIENCE EDUCATORS
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi
Log on to the Institute for Inquiry's new Web site at http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi and you'll find a wealth of free online resources, including:

• Over 50 hours of professional development curricula
• A library of inquiry and education resources selected for the field
• Tools for teachers and teacher-educators
• Access to a community of education practitioners and programs
• Information about Institute for Inquiry workshops
• And much more!

For more than 30 years, the Exploratorium's Institute for Inquiry has been helping education professionals introduce inquiry to classroom teachers across the country. Now, with major funding from the National Science Foundation, we've made many of our most successful workshops available for professional developers to use in their own districts.

Ten new Facilitator's Guides -- five that introduce teachers to science inquiry, and five that investigate the use of formative assessment in the classroom -- are now available, free online. These workshop designs have been used by our Institute graduates in more than 39 states.