The Exploratorium

Being from the Bay Area, talk of interactive and unconventional museums immediately makes me think of The Exploratorium in San Francisco. An extremely interactive science museum, The Exploratorium is fun for all ages and definitely defies the conventional structure of a museum. Though it is comprised of mostly permanent exhibits and activities, The Exploratorium does feature a few traveling exhibitions and always has the most current and entertaining scientific discoveries and applications on display. There is no real structure to the museum, instead encouraging its visitors to wander around and "explore" (clever, huh?). A few of the awesome activities there include: the Tactile Dome, where visitors crawl through an obstacle course in complete darkness, forcing them to use their sense of touch to guide them, a special camera that takes pictures of shadows on a colorful background, a gigantic bubble machine, and many other activities that challenge the brain to stretch in new and innovative ways. An interesting note is that the Exploratorium is located right next to remnants from 1915 World's Fair, commemorating the opening of the Panama Canal, a connection to the topic of empire discussed earlier in this class.