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Juicy Questions
How to Exploratorium
The Exploratorium is about discovering things for yourself. That’s why you won’t find explanations at every exhibit. Facts and explanations are important, but finding things out by experimenting, playing around, asking questions, and using inquiry is what science is all about. The Juicy Questions activity helps you use inquiry as a way to deeply engage with any exhibit here at the Exploratorium and out in the world. Download as PDF.
A juicy question is one that
- no one in your group knows the answer to.
- your group can answer by exploring the exhibit further.
- asks things such as “what happens if . . . ?”
1. Explore
Choose an exhibit and play with it for a minute or two. Press buttons, turn knobs, flip cards, touch, and notice. Pause before going further.
2. Brainstorm
What are you curious about? Everyone in the group should come up with a question or two (there are no bad questions). “I wonder . . . ” or “what if . . . ?” (“I wonder how that works.” “What if I close one eye?” “Or move faster?”)
3. Inquire
Choose one juicy question to explore.
4. Investigate
Explore the exhibit further using the question your group chose.
5. Explain
As a group, discuss your discoveries and observations and try to explain what happened.
At the Exploratorium, we believe there are different ways of learning and knowing: through experience, art, dialogue, and making. We see learning as a joyful process. Through research and evaluation we can improve our exhibits and programs to better engage you so you can . . .
- Ask more questions.
- Propose more actions and more complex actions.
- Make more discoveries.
- Make more linked experiments and linked discoveries.
