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

Using baking soda and vinegar, you can pop a plastic bag with the power of fizz.

Does the sun rise in the east? Not exactly.

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

Get down and dirty with the surprising science of soil.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at activities and ideas we’re exploring.

Sometimes we can learn about outer space when space objects come to us.

Use dominoes to model a nerve cell's transmission of a signal

Explore new social science exhibits at San Francisco’s Civic Center.

Geometry Playground will change the way you think about geometry. This exhibition engages your hands, brain, and body in playful investigations of this most visible branch of math.

Learn how to find the histories and origins of words.

Geometry Playground will change the way you think about geometry. This exhibition engages your hands, brain, and body in playful investigations of this most visible branch of math.

Learn to throw a curveball, a slider, or even a screwball by throwing a Styrofoam ball.

There are about 500 dispatches from scientists working in the Arctic and Antarctica, along with original videos, photos, webcasts, and articles.

Most paper airplanes are flat, but these paper hoops can really fly!

Try your hand at explaining symbols both modern and ancient, and then make your own.

What kinds of candy are made and enjoyed in where you live?

This ancient temple holds a secret...can you reveal the mystery?

Visit an organic egg farm, and see the science behind raising those eggs.

Watch this timelapse video to see a zebrafish develop from a single cell into an embryo

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

Do hot water and cold water mix?

A series of talks celebrating both the historical and contemporary dimensions of the Eames design legacy.

Hear audio clips of the ambient sounds of the rain forest at night near Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

Introduce students to unique life science activities that let them work with our research-quality microscopic images and videos.

Exploring the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans

Visit the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, which studies what the universe is made of and how the universe works.

What do snowflakes look like on Mars?

By passing the winter frozen as solid as a holiday fruit cake, the wood frog breaks all rules. Scientists hoping to preserve human organs are paying close attention.

Search a geological map of Ethiopia for fossils.

Explore the ideas behind Science of Sharing with these Activities.

Imagine yourself in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean. You've been sailing for weeks, and there's no land in sight. Do you know where you are? Do you know which way to go?

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

On March 29, 2006, a total solar eclipse occurred when the new moon moved directly between the sun and the earth. The moon’s shadow fell on the eastern tip of Brazil, sped eastward across the Atlantic, through northern Africa, across the Mediterranean, an

On March 29, 2006, a total solar eclipse occurred when the new moon moved directly between the sun and the earth. The moon’s shadow fell on the eastern tip of Brazil, sped eastward across the Atlantic, through northern Africa, across the Mediterranean, an

Make very, very, very tiny lightning, anytime you want!

A physicist, a scientist, and a musician experiment with sound, music, and acoustics using instruments both real and found.

Discover the difference between taste and smell.

The only continent without any countries or government . . .

Explore the mysterious interactions between light and geography through the eyes and works of artists Charles Ross and James Turrell.

Design and build a musical instrument that responds to changing light.

Get a taste of how the earth's plates move.

Professional development resources for teacher educators.

A trash-filled median blossoms into a community oasis.

Learn about the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

Visit the Outdoor Exploratorium at Fort Mason to explore the science behind wind, waves, and more.

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

Try these low-cost, teacher-tested activities for the classroom and the curious.

Nobel Laureate Symposium

Technological developments have changed how we view Earth. See LandSat images and learn more about our home planet.