Exploratorium
The Exploratorium is a museum of science, art, and human perception located in San Francisco, California. Online since 1993, the Exploratorium was one of the first science museums to build a site on the World Wide Web. Included in our award-winning site are more than 18 thousand Web pages and many sound and video files, exploring hundreds of different topics. We currently serve 20 million visitors a year on the site—more than thirty times the number of visitors who come to the museum in San Francisco. That makes us one of the most visited museum Web sites in the world.
The Exploratorium's Web site is designed to extend the kinds of experiences our visitors have beyond the museum's floor. Today, the medium of the Internet makes it possible for the museum to reach homes and schools all over the world. This has changed the way formal and informal learning takes place, both in the classroom and in the home. The Exploratorium online, and the resources it provides, are available 24 hours a day, worldwide, to anyone with an Internet connection.
Many of the resources on our Web site are examples of very simple uses of information technology, but thoughtfully implemented. For example, the site contains instructions for over 500 simple experiments, all of which may be viewed on any type of Web browser, with even the slowest connection, and easily printed out.
Other types of content have required more creative use of existing or new technologies. In order to demonstrate certain phenomena, for instance, we have created a variety of online exhibits using Shockwave, Flash, QuickTime VR, and other technologies. Many of these online exhibits are patterned after real exhibits on the museum floor, providing equally rich experiences.
Our newest experiments with information technology have revolved around Webcasting and podcasting, in which we broadcast live video and/or audio directly from the museum floor (or from satellite feeds in the field) onto the Internet. Webcasts provide access to events, scientists, artists, educators, and other museum resources for audiences on the Web. Using video and audio with information and images lets a visitor choose among different methods of learning about a particular topic. Video and audio also provide the ability to hear or view interviews with scientists, "meet" interesting people, or tour unusual locations, from factories to rainforests.
Our Web audience has given us very positive feedback on our use of new technology. This may be because we don't use technology for its own sake -- we use it when it's the best or the only way to provide information. We are very careful whenever we implement a new technology. We try to make sure that whatever we do or create online is as accessible to our visitors as possible.
But more than the use of technology, what makes the Exploratorium's site unique is its approach to developing content. Our focus is on investigating the science behind the ordinary subjects and experiences of people's lives. The topics themselves provide "hooks" that get people excited about science. Then, when we investigate these topics, we can also look at the historical and social issues surrounding them, thus providing a context for scientific exploration.
The Exploratorium's Web site, like the museum itself, is a work in progress, continuing to grow and provide our visitors with meaningful, revealing experiences.
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The Exploratorium
3601 Lyon Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) EXP-LORE
http://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/index.html
Exploratorium Main Office:
(415) 563-7337
General Information Line:
(415) 561-0360
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