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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.

Ladle Rat Rotten Hut
Ladle Rat Rotten Hut

Listen to the story of Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.

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.

Balancing Ball 2018

In Balancing Ball, high pressure keeps a beach ball aloft.

Saving Seeds, Saving Culture
Saving Seeds, Saving Culture

Saving seeds helps preserve the culture of Native American farmers in the American Southwest and northern Mexico.

Altamont Wind Farms

Visit the otherworldly wind turbines of the Altamont Pass.

Plate Tectonics
Plate Tectonics

See a map of recent earthquakes in the United States, and learn why earthquakes happen so frequently on the West Coast.

Seismic Slinky
Seismic Slinky

What goes on under the ground during an earthquake? Use a Slinky to model the various seismic waves that make the earth tremble.

Science of Baseball
Science of Baseball

What's the science behind a home run? Why do curveballs curve? Learn about the game from players from the S.F. Giants & Oakland A's.

Remarkable Feets
Remarkable Feets

Learn about the most important piece of equipment-- your feet!

Building the Exploratorium at Pier 15: Timelapse

The Exploratorium wasn't built in a day—watch it go up in a minute. 

Collecting soil for Winogradsky Column activity
Bacterial Terrarium

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

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.

Your Age on Other Worlds
Your Age on Other Worlds

Find out why people who love birthday parties should move to Mercury.

Cannucce e Spilli
Cannucce e Spilli
Zebrafish

A model for heart development

2011 Mission Highlights
Stow away on NOAA's expedition to the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
Off the Screen: Ondes Martenot demonstration by Geneviève Grenier

Get to know the early electronic instrument the ondes Martenot.

Strandbeest: Umerus Segundus

Watch Theo Jansen prepare to release a strandbeest on the beach.

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.

Theo Jansen in Conversation with Marina McDougall

Explore the creative process behind Theo Jansen's extraordinary strandbeests.

The Freddy McGuire Show: Performance

Join us for the music/cinema duo The Freddy McGuire Show.

Picture This
Picture This

Learn how Hubble Telescope scientists put together those lovely pictures.

Muddy Waters

by Eileen Campbell • February 15, 2017

Winter rains muddy the waters in the Bay.

Glitter Globe
Glitter Globe

Make a fantastic toy that shimmers when you shake it.

L'illusione del muro del caffé
L'illusione del muro del caffé

Sperimenta interattivamente l'illusione del muro del caffé.

Structures du Monde
Structures du Monde

Activités pour la classe élémentaire.

Seymour Papert Lecture
Seymour Papert Lecture

Learn how to bridge the digital generation gap

Bird in a Cage: Materials and assembly

Do the Bird in a Cage experiment with some basic materials.

Sunspots
Sunspots

Map sunspots and build an apparatus for safe sunspot viewing!

Hello Dahlia
Hello Dahlia

See why these beautiful flowers have attracted generations of admirers.

Science Explorer
Science Explorer

Get messy with ExploraGoo and Outrageous Ooze! Get airborne with the Fabulous Foam Flyer! Get loud with the Water Gong or Straw Oboe!

The Amazing Water Trick
The Amazing Water Trick

Do hot water and cold water mix?

Webcast Highlights
Watch highlights from the E/V Nautilus's adventures abroad.
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.

Meet the Artist: Kazu Harada

Get to know automata maker Kazu Harada's artistic journey.

Journey to Mars
Journey to Mars

Learn about the rovers that have been exploring Mars since 2004, and view the amazing images they've taken.

Collecting soil for Winogradsky Column activity
Bacterial Terrarium

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

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.

The Nose Knows
The Nose Knows (pdf)

Discover the difference between taste and smell.

Solar Views
Solar Views
Paul Clipson

Follow filmmaker Paul Clipson as he captures the Exploratorium's waterfront site.

Solar Tides
Solar Tides

It's not just the moon that causes ocean tides.

Antarctica: Scientific Journeys from McMurdo to the Pole
Antarctica: Scientific Journeys from McMurdo to the Pole

Follow our crew as they visit the Dry Valleys and hike the slopes of volcanic Mt. Erebus.

TV Dots
TV Dots

See how TV screens create images from many tiny colored dots of light.

How Old Is It?
How Old Is It?

How do scientists establish the age of artifacts, rocks, and settlements?

Colored Shadows: Introduction

Add and subtract colors to learn about human perception.

Skateboarding Glossary
Skateboarding Glossary

anatomy of a skateboard, skateboard tricks, types of skateboarding, physics glossary.

Transit of Venus: Sonification

Experience Wayne Grim's sonification of the transit of Venus.

Secret Bells
Secret Bells

An ordinary metal spoon can make some astounding sounds!

Solar Images
Solar Images

The more astronomy changes, the more it stays the same. This series of images juxtaposes ancient and modern study of the celestial bodies.

Remembering Loma Prieta
Remembering Loma Prieta

Read stories and see footage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Guillermo Galindo: Performance

Walk the border with Guillermo Galindo's boundary-breaking artistic work.

Black Sand | 2018

At Black Sand, see the shape of an invisible magnetic field.

The New Buchanan Mall

Follow the process of revitalizing the Buchanan Mall in the Western Addition.

Altamont Wind Farms

Visit the otherworldly wind turbines of the Altamont Pass.

Liquefaction
Liquefaction

What happens to sandy or fine-grained soils when an earthquake shakes them up? Try this simple activity to find out.

Why Save Seeds?
Why Save Seeds?

Find out why biodiversity benefits plants and people alike.

From Jungle to Lab: The Study of Life's Complexity
From Jungle to Lab: The Study of Life's Complexity

Visit Las Cuevas Research Station in Belize and the Natural History Museum in London to learn about the study of biodiversity.

Cafe Wall Illusion
Cafe Wall Illusion

Interact with the Cafe Wall Illusion.

Center of the Universe
Center of the Universe

Where is the Center of the Universe? Here, there, and everywhere.

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