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  • Tinkering at Home

    Try this collection of prompts for tinkering at home.

  • Learning Toolbox: Engage in activities about the science of coronavirus and explore our online resources for learning at home.

  • Explore water's crucial role in food and cooking.

    Science of Water: Food   Explore water's crucial role in food and cooking.

  • Shadow Box exhibit

    Browse our growing online collection of interactive exhibits.

  • Global Climate Change Explorer • Discover how researchers study climate change and examine the latest scientific data.

  • Science Snacks

    Low-cost, teacher-tested activities for the classroom and the curious.

  • Wired Pier Environmental Field Station • Explore weather, air quality, and water conditions from San Francisco Bay

Explore, Play, Discover: Websites, Activities, and More

Dive into websites, activities, apps, and more.

A Dangerous Time
A Dangerous Time

Why do teens take risks, and what do our notions of risk tell us about the dangers of growing up?

Doctor Atomic: Commentary on an Opera
Doctor Atomic: Commentary on an Opera

Explore the scientific, historical, and cultural context behind a new opera about the first atomic bomb test.

Aerodynamics

How does drafting help a cyclist? What is skin friction?

Video: “Eclipse Chasers”
Video: “Eclipse Chasers”
Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System

Take an exclusive tour of the Hetch Hetchy water system. 

 
 
Ear Guitar
Ear Guitar

Share some secret sounds with a friend.

Iron Science Teacher
Iron Science Teacher

Each webcast, the Exploratorium staff and teachers demonstrate their science projects and compete for the title of IRON SCIENCE TEACHER!

Black Magic
Black Magic

Discover secret colors hidden in a black marker!

Meet the Artist: Carlos Zapata

Meet Carlos Zapata, an automata artist showcased at Curious Contraptions.

Soap Film on a Can: Materials and assembly

Prepare to experiment with soap film by getting the necessary materials.

Making Naked Eggs
Making Naked Eggs

A naked egg is an egg without a shell. Using vinegar, you can dissolve the eggshell without breaking the membrane that contains the egg.

The South Pole(s)
The South Pole(s)

Will the "real" South Pole please stand up?

ColorFest
ColorFest

Check out ColorFest, a two-month extravaganza celebrating color at the museum from July 1 to September 5.

Crystal Creations
Crystal Creations

Grow spikes of crystals in the sun.

MER Tools of the Trade
MER Tools of the Trade

The Instruments Aboard the Mars Exploration Rover

Science of Gardening
Science of Gardening

Dig into the succulent science of making things grow.

Divided Attention
Divided Attention

How many objects can you follow at once?

Visitor at After Dark : Get Surreal sampling an augmented reality Meta Cookie
Meta Cookie: Olfactory and Gustatory Augmented Reality

by Rob Rothfarb • February 11, 2011

Visitors experienced the sights and smells of "Meta Cookie', an augmented reality installation at After Dark: Get Surreal.

Whirling Watcher
Whirling Watcher

Make a spinning disc called a stroboscope, which lets you create your own animated cartoon.

Beyond Einstein: World Wide Webcast
Beyond Einstein: World Wide Webcast

In celebration of Albert Einstein's work in 1905, science laboratories and museum around the world (including the Exploratorium) participated in a twelve-hour webcast that explored Einstein's influence on current physics research.

Collecting soil for Winogradsky Column activity
Bacterial Terrarium

With just mud, paper and an egg, you can grow colonies of multi-hued microbes!

Mapping Sunspots
Mapping Sunspots

Gather and compare real data about sunspots and solar x-ray activity.

How to Build a Spectroscope
How to Build a Spectroscope

Using a spectroscope, you may see that what appears to be a single color of light is really a combination of colors called a spectrum.

Collisions on Ice
Collisions on Ice

What happens when two hockey players collide? Try our hockey collision calculator!

Science of Gardening: Control
Science of Gardening: Control

Make it grow . . . bigger, lusher, juicier.

Exploratorium at Pier 15: Green Machine

Get to know Pier 15, one of the greenest buildings around.

Curveballs
One of the niftiest tricks up the pitcher's sleeve is the ability to make a ball curve.
External Content: The Amazing Adaptable Frog
The Amazing Adaptable Frog

A comprehensive tour through the weird and wonderful world of frogs.

Rock Candy Recipe
Rock Candy Recipe
Unnatural Selection
Unnatural Selection

Learn how changes in genes over generations created the modern goldfish.

Antarctic Geology

Remote sensing allows geologists to peek under the ice – and find a big surprise.

Circuit Boards
Circuit Boards

Tinker with electricity using common objects: batteries, lights, buzzers, motors, switches, etc.

Mapping Sunspots
Mapping Sunspots

Gather and compare real data about sunspots and solar x-ray activity.

Bird Call Quiz
Bird Call Quiz

Listen to bird songs and try to figure out which are songs, which are companion calls, and which are alarms.

Antarctica: Ice Gallery
Antarctica: Ice Gallery

Take an animated tour of Antarctica's variety of ice formations, which give it a beauty unrivaled anywhere on Earth.

Earth's atmosphere
Global Climate Change Explorer

Discover how researchers study climate change and examine the latest scientific data.

Look Inside a Tooth
Look Inside a Tooth (Interactive)

Zoom into a fossil chimp tooth.

Live Eye on the Earth
Live Eye on the Earth

Want to see where the biggest quakes have been this week? Follow a few of the links below to see what's shaking in your neighborhood and around the world.

The Nobel Prize: 100 Years of Creativity
The Nobel Prize: 100 Years of Creativity

Nobel Laureate Symposium

Body Conductivity
Body Conductivity

Complete an electrical circuit with your body and explore ways to control the flow of electricity.

Geiger Counter
Geiger Counter

What does it take to block gamma radiation?

Jumping to Conclusions

Your brain is always looking for blank spaces and filling them in. Sometimes, your brain leaps to the wrong conclusion. Then you get a surprise!

Indicating Electrolysis: Teaching tips

Got questions about electrolysis in the classroom? We've got answers.

The Great Satellite Search!
The Great Satellite Search!

Students become Internet researchers and learn about NASA satellites.

Why Save Seeds?
Why Save Seeds?

Find out why biodiversity benefits plants and people alike.

Comet Approach Maneuvers

How do you chase a comet—and how do you stop?

Earliest Memories
Earliest Memories

Enjoy the early memories of some of the visitors to this website.

Flipbooks
Flipbooks

Use printable images from our time-lapse movies to make flipbooks–handheld animations that you can make at home.

Science of Cooking
Science of Cooking Archive

Explore the science behind food and cooking with recipes, activities, and archived Webcasts.

Ancient Observatories
Ancient Observatories

Journey into Chaco Canyon, where ancient people built monuments to the cosmos. Journey to Chichén Itzá, where the Maya built monuments to the sun.

Make Your Own Rainstick
Make Your Own Rainstick

Listen to the sound of a rainstorm – anytime, anywhere.

Astrobiology: The Search for Life
Astrobiology: The Search for Life

Learn about the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

Total Solar Eclipse from Turkey: March 29, 2006
Total Solar Eclipse Turkey 2006
Human Power
Human Power

Why is the bicycle the most efficient way to travel? Explore bicycle science and culture.

Vocal Visualizer: Have fun

Two Vocal Visualizers are better than one.

Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System

Take an exclusive tour of the Hetch Hetchy water system. 

 
 
Braking & Steering
Braking & Steering

How do you stop and steer a bicycle? What forces keep the bicycle from falling over?

Better Hair through Chemistry
Better Hair through Chemistry

Learn the science behind bad hair days, and learn how hair increases its length when humidity increases, making curly hair frizz and straight hair go limp.

Diving into the Gene Pool
Diving into the Gene Pool

A multifaceted exhibition that explored genetics and the Human Genome Project from a variety of perspectives from April 8 to September 4, 1995.

Seismic San Francisco
Tour San Francisco's geologic past with Exploratorium Educator Ken Finn.

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