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

Learn how to bridge the digital generation gap

This clay building activity shows that when you make things bigger, weight increases faster than strength.

Activities and History

Uncover the everyday origins of some extraordinary instruments.

A window on regeneration

Get outside and explore geometry (and other math) all around you.

A drop of water makes a fine magnifying lens.

Take a microscopic tour of the staff of life.

Learn more about the process of making Champagne.

A trash-filled median blossoms into a community oasis.

Search a geological map of Ethiopia for fossils.

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

Uncover the everyday origins of some extraordinary instruments.

Scientific knowledge and a few chemical concoctions can get you through a Bad Hair Day.

Check out top mountain biker, Ruthie Matthes. Learn about frames and materials from a custom bike maker. Try interactive javascripts that calculate braking distances and energy consumption.

The nearly ice-free Dry Valleys are an Antarctic anomaly, and Earth's closest equivalent to Mars.

Art/science teams explore the underlying systems that give the San Francisco Bay Area its unique character.

Explore mechanical elements such as cams, levers, and linkages to create your own moving sculpture.

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

This stuff can't make up its mind -- is it a liquid or a solid?

Four times over 100-plus years, major initiatives have brought together scientists from around the globe to collaboratively study the poles.

The common ground between pickles, cheese, bread, wine, and many other foods.

For most of us, science arrives in our lives packaged neatly as fact. But how did it get that way?

This stuff can't make up its mind -- is it a liquid or a solid?

The lure of Terra Australis Incognita begins with the Ancient Greeks and ends with modern cruise ships.

Stories about science, art, and human perception—from 1998. 

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

A model for heart development

Watch Venus travel in front of the sun. 

Study ultraviolet radiation from the sun and other sources using UV beads.

What does it take to block gamma radiation?

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

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

Build a mirrored tube that lets you see around corners and over walls.

Art/science teams explore the underlying systems that give the San Francisco Bay Area its unique character.

Recycle some cans to make after-dinner music!

Not all bubbles are made with soap!

Turn your phone into a pocket science laboratory with tools to measure light, motion, sound, and more.

Watch tiny blue, green, and white molds grow on leftover food.

A Scribbling Machine is a motorized contraption that moves in unusual ways and leaves a mark to trace it's path.

Show yourself how a pinch of salt can take the bitter taste away.

A brief history of Chichen Itza.

Learn about scale and structure with eight great activities designed for the elementary classroom.

See living stem cells and find out why they are the "stem" from which all other cells develop.

See why these beautiful flowers have attracted generations of admirers.

Test your memory and compare it with your friends'.

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?