THE CENTER FOR MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION

The Exploratorium's Center for Media and Communication is a newly formed part of the museum which will focus on the use of media to extend the Exploratorium's approach to learning to audiences both within and outside of the museum. As well as producing traditional educational products, such as books and videos, the center is interested in using whatever communication tools it can to promote the Exploratorium's special educational process to teachers, students and the general public.

To achieve this goal, the Center for Media and Communication will make use of both mass media and one-on-one forms of communication. Our aim is to create a multimedia laboratory designed to foster the development of new learning tools that combine computer, video, and audio technology. The Exploratorium library will be expanded into a media-rich information center, providing resources for the Exploratorium community as well as for the public at large. A learning studio, where visitors will be able to extend their learning through focussed exploration, will also be developed. Other future plans include public television programming, an international workshop focusing on new media for communication, and a series in which middle-school and high- school students will create media productions based on meetings with eminent scientists, educators, and artists.

To realize these ambitious goals, the Center for Media and Communication will build on the creative talents of the staff in the four departments - Editorial, Graphics, Library and Media - which currently make up the center .

Media Lab

Library and Learning Studio

In the near future the library will incorporate the development of a learning studio. This will be a semi-public space in which people may learn to use the emerging multimedia technologies to produce their own educational projects based on Exploratorium exhibits for the museum floor.

Exhibits/Exhibitions

Educational Publications

• Exploratorium Cookbooks: Exhibit design workbooks that help other museums and educational institutions duplicate Exploratorium exhibits.

• Exploratorium Quarterly: A single-topic magazine which communicates to a broad audience of members, teachers, and students.

• Exploratorium Science Snackbook: Complete instructions on how to build 107 classroom science exhibits for science teachers.

• Pathways: Activities and information that help classroom teachers prepare their classes for a visit to the Exploratorium and supply a structured path through a portion of our exhibit collection.

• Working Prototypes: A 32-page booklet that describes the Exploratorium's exhibit design philosophy and process.

Consumer Products

• English Alphabet Chart: A popular reference chart.

• Explorabook - A Kids' Science Museum in a Book: A book that includes all the tools kids need to do dozens of science activities, published by Klutz Press.

• Exploratorium Calendars: In 1991, the Exploratorium produced Exploring Light and Color - A 1992 Calendar, working in collaboration with Golden Turtle Press. This calendar offers a year's worth of science experiments. Each month includes an activity that lets the reader experiment with light and color and is illustrated with a beautiful color photo. The 1993 calendar, again in collaboration with Golden Turtle Press, will be on patterns in nature.

In addition to working on its own projects, the Center for Media and Communication supports the other two centers of the Exploratorium, the Center for Public Exhibition and the Center for Teaching and Learning, by writing and producing exhibit graphics, catalogs, etc. and providing video, audio, and photographic documentation of museum exhibits, programs, and events.

Copyright 1993, The Exploratorium

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