Every year, on the first Tuesday of October, life changes at the Exploratorium. Beginning early in the morning, a steady line of cars and buses begins to arrive. Then the kids start streaming in. Lots of them. They're grinning. They're giggling. They're jiggling with anticipation. Even the adults are laughing and calling to each other, to the children. The excitement is palpable; the exuberance infectious. It's the first day of field trips.
At the front of the building, orange-jacketed Field Trip Explainers are engulfed by groups of eager children. It's the Explainer's job to introduce the museum to the visiting classes, and help them find their way through the maze of exhibits and experiences they're likely to find inside. "More than 60,000 students visit the Exploratorium for field trips every year," says Field Trip Director Ken Finn. "That's a lot of high-energy learning."
For a visiting school group, learning science has never been so easy, or so much fun. In the Life Sciences section, a class gathers at the Cow's Eye Dissection demonstration. "Oh, gross," says one young girl with her eyes squeezed shut. "Tell me when it's over." But curiosity and wonder eventually win out. She opens her eyes. little by little, then shyly reaches out to touch the lens of a real eye. Upstairs, a trio of young boys calls down over the railing to their friends below. "Hey! There's rainbows up here!" In the back of the museum, in the Sound and Music section, pint-sized pop stars play electronic guitars in sound-proofed booths.
Though the kids may not notice it, their experiences at the Exploratorium are more than just fun and games. The young girl at the Cow's Eye Dissection is being introduced to animal physiology; the boys on the mezzanine are playing with light and optics; the young musicians are learning about the nature of sound and hearing.
In addition to the new information and understanding the children take back with them, equally important is the experience itself. For many of the students, being involved in hands-on experimentation will help them develop a positive attitude toward learning about science. "It's really important that the kids not be intimidated by this stuff," Finn says. "For some kids, the message that science can be fun is the real breakthrough."
Teachers who bring their classes to the museum recognize the value of learning by doing. Many use specially developed exhibit guides called Pathways to help focus their students on a particular topic of study. Fifteen different Pathways cover a variety of exhibits in sound and hearing, electricity, light, vision, life sciences, and language.
In addition to the Pathways, many other resources are available to teachers. An information table set up near the Library during field trip hours offers curriculum ideas, descriptions of the museum's education programs, and information about our Lending Library of props for classroom use. Samples of Exploratorium publications are also available, including the new Exploratorium Science Snackbook , which contains instructions for building classroom-sized versions of more than one hundred Exploratorium exhibits.
Ongoing demonstrations on the museum's exhibit floor are also popular field-trip fare. Besides the Cow's Eye Dissection, visiting students can participate in a Lasers and Light demonstration, Electric Charge and Current activities, and the new Sound and Music demonstration, which is currently being developed. The Sound Column demonstration takes students out onto the museum grounds and inside one massive leg of the Rotunda, where they can experience the unusual sound characteristics of that structure. Some classes also arrange to spend time in the popular Tactile Dome as part of their field trip visit.
To arrange a field trip for your group or class, call weekdays, 415-561-0317 (TDD 415-567-0709). Advance reservations are required. A packet of three or four related Pathways is available free of charge when you make your reservations. New Spanish-language Pathways in Light and Sound are now also available. Reservations for the Tactile Dome must be made separately, well in advance of your visit, and before you make museum reservations for your group. Call 415-561-0362. An additional charge for the Tactile Dome includes admission to the museum.