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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.

Mars Links
Mars Links

Find links relevant to Mars and space exploration.

Hoopster
Hoopster

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

Feeling Pressured

Feel the weight of the atmosphere—plus a little extra.

Double Trouble
Doubling Pennies

It's easy to fold a sheet of paper in half. But can you fold a sheet of paper in half ten times?

Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Bernie Krause: Performance

Get mesmerized by choreographer Alonzo King and soundscape artist Bernie Krause.

The Sky Is Falling
The Sky Is Falling

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

Build a Light Island
Light Island
How to build a shop version of an Exploratorium exhibit for investigating light
Getting Started with Science Journal
Getting Started with Science Journal

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

The Mayan Calendar Round
The Mayan Calendar Round

Did you know the Maya used two calendars? How did they know when to plan their big New Year's parties?

Zebrafish

A model for heart development

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.

Girls of Summer
Girls of Summer

In the 1870s, an American woman could not vote. She could not own property in her own name after marriage. But she could play ball. . .

How Old Is It?
How Old Is It?

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

Getting Started with Sound
Getting Started with Sound

Use the Science Journal mobile app to investigate the sound around you.

Structures du Monde
Structures du Monde

Activités pour la classe élémentaire.

Traits of Life: Related Links
Traits of Life: Related Links

See links relevant to the themes presented in the Traits of Life exhibition.

Garden Variety
Garden Variety

Discover the uncommon stories behind the most common fruits and vegetables.

Magritte Me at After Dark: Get Surreal
Mobile AR at After Dark

by Rob Rothfarb • February 15, 2011

Take a peek at a set of mobile augmented reality installations that were exhibited at an early After Dark program.

Balloon Blow-Up
Balloon Blow-Up

Not all bubbles are made with soap!

Oren Ambarchi: Performance

Oren Ambarchi shares his sound-world of deep guitar abstraction and light-as-air textures.

Illusion Songs
Illusion Songs

A collection of auditory illusions found in indigenous folk practices, popular music, and scientific research.

Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know?
Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know?

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

Conductivity Explorer
Conductivity Explorer

See how well various materials conduct electricity and use Science Journal to explore your data.

Make Your Own Rainstick
Make Your Own Rainstick

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

Reel Movies
Get a last-chance look at 35 mm film projection.
Make Your Own Petroglyph
Make Your Own Petroglyph

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

Why Save Seeds?
Why Save Seeds?

Find out why biodiversity benefits plants and people alike.

Water Bottle Membranophone
Water Bottle Membranophone

Staff member Vivian Altmann presents the "Snack" Water-Bottle Membranophone." Make some noise with simple materials.

The thrill of natural phenomena

by Sebastian • August 16, 2019

Total Solar Eclipse Android App
Total Solar Eclipse Android App
X-Ray Simulation
X-Ray Simulation

Here's how you can model the use of X rays for medical examinations with some sand and a piece of screen.

Clay Beams
Clay Beams

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

Microclimates in Fogtown
Investigate why San Francisco has so many microclimates.
Pringles Pinhole
Pringles Pinhole

Recycle a potato chip can into a simple camera.

Chain Reaction
Chain Reaction

Rube Goldberg-inspired cause and effect contraptions using everyday materials and found objects.

Jem Finer: Original Soundtracks #5 and Starfield

Join us for this performance by UK-based artist Jem Finer.

Up Periscope!
Up Periscope!

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

The Science of Wine
The Science of Wine

An evening of wine, food, and talk.

Bernie Lubell
Bernie Lubell

Meet a kinetic sculptor.

Exhibitizing Cooperation

“No way! I lost a lot of cows last year!” is not something you’d expect to hear on the floor of a science museum.

Sport! Science Q&A
Sport! Science Q&A

Find the answers to common Sport! Science questions.

Black Magic
Black Magic

Discover secret colors hidden in a black marker!

The thrill of natural phenomena

by Sebastian • August 16, 2019

Sparkling Science: Champagne
Sparkling Science: Champagne

Learn how sparkling wine is made, what makes it different from still wine, and where all those little bubbles come from!

Moon to the Eclipse:
7/30/17 Quarter Moon

by Eileen Campbell • July 29, 2017

Watch the moon pass through its phases as we count down to the total solar eclipse. Today: a quarter moon (waxing).

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.

Bottle Blast-Off
Bottle Blast-Off

Make a simple rocket and a rocket launcher, and watch a demonstration of how the finished rocket will fly.

Indicating Electrolysis: Teaching tips

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

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!

Light Walk
Light Walk

Artist Bob Miller's Light Walk at the Exploratorium will change the way you look at light, shadow, and images.

Scratch Film (pdf)
Scratch Film (pdf)

Scratch Film, also known as Direct Animation, is the process of drawing and scratching designs directly onto film.

Antarctic Exploration
Antarctic Exploration

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

Overview of the Rosetta Mission
Revisit NASA's Rosetta mission to study a comet in space.
Pi Day
Pi Day

Activities and History

Never Lost: Polynesian Navigation
Never Lost: Polynesian Navigation

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?

Any Little Patch of Dirt
Any Little Patch of Dirt

A trash-filled median blossoms into a community oasis.

How fast are you?
How fast are you?

You can measure your reaction time with just a yardstick and some help from a friend.

Transit of Venus: The Rarest Eclipse
Transit of Venus 2012 & 2004

Watch Venus travel in front of the sun. 

Stem Cells
Stem Cells

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

Any Little Patch of Dirt
Any Little Patch of Dirt

A trash-filled median blossoms into a community oasis.

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