THE EXPLORATORIUM: A MUSEUM OF SCIENCE, ART AND HUMAN PERCEPTION

History

Housed within the walls of the Palace of Fine Arts, the Exploratorium is a collage of 650 interactive exhibits in the areas of science, art, and human perception. The Exploratorium stands in the vanguard of the movement of the "museum as educational center." It provides access to, and information about, science, nature, art and technology.

This unique museum was founded in 1969 by noted physicist and educator Dr. Frank Oppenheimer, who devoted his efforts to it -- and was its director -- until his death in 1985. Dr. Goery Delacote, a renowned French scientist, science educator and public servant, was named executive director of the Exploratorium in February 1991.

Informal Science Education through The Center for Public Exhibition

The Exploratorium's educational approach provides a maximum exposure to the phenomena of science in an environment with a minimum of apparent structure. What seems like the random excitement of blinking and beckoning exhibits is actually a very carefully devised science curriculum, appropriate for the informal and formal teaching of science.

Three dimensional exhibits within the Exploratorium offer the kind of experiential learning that is difficult, if not virtually impossible, to obtain through any other medium, whether it be the classroom, books or television. The exhibits fall within thirteen broad subject areas. These include: Light, color, sound music, motion, animal behavior, electricity, heat and temperature, language, patterns, hearing, touch, vision, waves and resonance, and weather.

The Exploratorium is also known for its unconventional approach to "culture" in a scientific and technological age. Each year, the Exploratorium invites from four to six visual artists and four to six performing artists to create works while in residence at the Exploratorium.

Since the Exploratorium's inception, the museum's exhibits and programs have focused on human perception: how do we see, hear, smell, feel and otherwise experience the world around us? In the future we will expand that focus, going beyond perception to include all of cognition--in other words, using the mind to understand the very workings of the mind itself.

Formal Science Education through The Center for Teaching and Learning

The formal teaching of science at the Exploratorium is through its Center for Teaching and Learning. More than 500 elementary, middle and high school science and mathematics teachers annually attend institutes that use the Exploratorium's exhibit collection as a basis for hands-on teacher education in various sciences. The Center for Teaching and Learning's programs for the in-service training of teachers and other educators stresses the interplay between informal and formal approaches to science. Plans for pre-service training are underway.

Each year, 60,000 school children visit the museum with their teachers through the Field Trips Program. Self-paced student exhibit guides, called Pathways, direct their exploration into specific subject areas of the museum. The Explainer Program trains 100 high school students a year in the science behind the exhibit collection, giving them the knowledge to act as "guides" for the public and proving the age-old adage that 'The best way to learn is by teaching."

Science Teaching through The Center of Media and Communication

The Center for Media and Communication is dedicated to the discovery of science through communication, since the next step in any learning process is to communicate one's findings to others. The Center has already produced books and other publications which extend the Exploratorium learning experience to audiences beyond its walls. In the near future, the use of all forms of video, CD-ROM, and other new media for communication, and a refreshing 1owtech program bringing eminent scientists and school students together to communicate about science one on one.

International Impact and Influence

The Exploratorium is one of San Francisco's most prominent museums, drawing visitors from across the country and around the globe. In any given year, representatives from some 35 museums in 18 different countries personally visit the Exploratorium for the express purpose of planning a new science museum or enhancing an old one. At least 90 percent of the nation's science museums, and 70 percent of the museums worldwide, have borrowed ideas from Exploratorium exhibits or programs.

The Exploratorium's annual attendance is 625,000. The museum's impact is extended to approximately 50 million to 60 million people per year through the dissemination of its exhibits and programs to other museums.

The Exploratorium's contribution is especially significant in light of the growing importance of science museums and science centers in general. They are more popular than all other museums combined and, in many metropolitan areas, more popular than any other form of public "infotainment."