Wiktionary
n. A museum or similar institution that encourages visitors to explore the exhibits in a hands-on manner.
Wikipedia
Exploratorium is a 1974 American short documentary film about the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco, produced by Jon Boorstin. The film explores the museum through imagery and sound, without voice-over. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
The Exploratorium is a public learning laboratory in San Francisco exploring the world through science, art, and human perception. Its mission is to create inquiry-based experiences that transform learning worldwide. It has been described by the New York Times as the most important science museum to have opened since the mid-20th century, an achievement attributed to "the nature of its exhibits, its wide-ranging influence and its sophisticated teacher training program". Characterized as "a mad scientist's penny arcade, a scientific funhouse, and an experimental laboratory all rolled into one", the participatory nature of its exhibits and its self-identification as a center for informal learning has led to it being cited as the prototype for participatory museums around the world.
The Exploratorium was founded by physicist and educator Frank Oppenheimer and opened in 1969 at the Palace of Fine Arts, its home until January 2, 2013. On April 17, 2013, the Exploratorium reopened at Piers 15 and 17 on San Francisco's Embarcadero. The historic interior and exterior of Pier 15 was renovated extensively prior to the move, and is divided into several galleries mainly separated by content, including the physics of seeing and listening (Light and Sound), Human Behavior, Living Systems, Tinkering (including electricity and magnetism), the Outdoor Gallery, and the Bay Observatory Gallery, which focuses on local environment, weather, and landscape.
Since the museum's founding, over 1,000 participatory exhibits have been created, approximately 600 of which are on the floor at any given time. The exhibit-building workshop space is contained within the museum and is open to view. In addition to the public exhibition space, the Exploratorium has been engaged in the professional development of teachers, science education reform, and the promotion of museums as informal education centers since its founding. Since Oppenheimer's death in 1985, the Exploratorium has expanded into other domains, including its 50,000-page website and two iPad apps on sound and color. It has also inspired an international network of participatory museums working to engage the public with general science education. The new Exploratorium building is also working to showcase environmental sustainability efforts as part of its goal to become the largest net-zero museum in the country.
The Exploratorium offers visitors a variety of ways—including exhibits, webcasts, websites and events—to explore and understand the world around them. In 2011, the Exploratorium received the National Science Board 2011 Public Service Science Award for its contributions to public understanding of science and engineering.
Usage examples of "exploratorium".
We thought those of you who missed the opportunity at the Exploratorium might like some instructions on how to experience aspects of the Martian environment in the comfort of your own home.
Each Mars Rover carries a sundial, and images of those sundials are among those on the Exploratorium Website.
Our friend Eric Muller, a teacher at the Exploratorium, can make a fire that burns quite well in a carbon dioxide atmosphere.
The Exploratorium has only a small piece because Martian meteorites are among the rarest rocks on Earth.
Twenty years from now, the Exploratorium will be hosting a party on a planet orbiting Epsilon Eridani.
Klages has collaborated with science columnist Pat Murphy and others on four books of hands-on science activities for the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco.
Pat came to work at the Exploratorium that she found out that drifting horse shape was a bit of junk floating in the liquid in front of her retina.
Pat has worked for years at the Exploratorium, a wonderful hands-on science museum in San Francisco.
MIT who also works at the Exploratorium, in addition to teaching and writing many science activity books.
Murphy and Paul Doherty work at the Exploratorium, a San Francisco museum of science, art, and human perception.
The answer is simple--you probably knew it immediately--but as one learns around the Exploratorium, simple answers can be as tricky as mirrors.
On this lovely Saturday in the early afternoon, the tourists and even what appeared to be some locals were out in droves, enjoying the Marina district, escorting hordes of children through the Exploratorium, eating gourmet picnic items and feeding the ducks in the lake with the leftovers.
She followed the Firebird down Divisadero, and turned left behind the Exploratorium and the Palace of Fine Arts until the street ran into Doyle Drive.
She has co-written four books of hands-on science activities for children for the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco.
She works in the Bay Area for the Exploratorium and coauthors one of our regular science columns (we expect to have a new column from her and Paul Doherty next month on surfing).