Photo by Martha Blanchfield / Renegade Sailing

Spy visits. That’s what I called my frequent trips to the Exploratorium after committing to go forward with the Sailing Science Center. I took pictures and notes, paced off distances, timed people’s engagement with exhibits, and spoke with staff. I was sure the folks monitoring the security cameras would be escorting me out of the building at any moment. Two years later we were meeting with the Exploratorium’s Head of Volunteer Engagement to help shape our own program. The Exploratorium was of such keen interest because, to a large extent, they had created the category of interactive science museum, and that’s what the Sailing Science Center was striving to be.

Founded by Frank Oppenheimer, younger brother to atomic bomb developer, Robert Oppenheimer, the Exploratorium opened to the public in 1969, through a $50,000 grant from the San Francisco Foundation. They got along by paying nominal rent to the City of San Francisco for 90,000 sq ft in the Palace of Fine Arts. By 1972, the Exploratorium had about 200 exhibits, and a ratio of visitors from the general public to student visitors of a little over three-to-one (more visitors from the general public). The average stay was about an hour. Much of the early emphasis of the museum was on sensory perception, an aspect that shows through to this day.

Oppenheimer was interested in different modes of learning, putting a high value on play, as is the case with the Sailing Science Center. He also put a high value on student involvement, using student Explainers in the place of traditional docents. This also aligns with the SSC values of students helping to make the soup. The Explainers program remains a key aspect of the Exploratorium today.

If you visited the Exploratorium at its original location, you know how funky it was. It was rough-hewn, eclectic, and with wide open space. But when you looked closer, it beckoned to your curiosity. It reflected Oppenheimer's character. Oppenheimer served as the Exploratorium’s director until his death in 1985. The Exploratorium has had five other directors since that time, serving an average of seven years each.

In 2013, the Exploratorium moved to a strategic location at San Francisco’s Piers 15 & 17, along what I have described as San Francisco’s Tourist Highway. The new campus boasts 330,000 sq ft of space and houses more than 650 exhibits. Their pre-COVID visitor count topped 800,000. Their website, launched in 1992, was one of the first 600 websites online, now hosting over 35,000 pages of content. Going abroad, their Global Collaborations team now has ongoing projects in Nebraska, Kuwait, and Brazil.

The SSC was privileged to participate in the Ocean Education Day held by NOAA and the Exploratorium on December 9^th, as you will read below. During a brief address to the group, I opened with saying “When the Sailing Science Center grows up, we want to be like the Exploratorium.” Indeed!

The Sailing Science Center's most notable activity in December was participating in the Ocean Education Day at the Exploratorium, alongside other organizations dedicated to ocean education. It was a great end to 2023.

– T. S. Eliot, Nobel Prize winning poet & playwright

The SSC needs volunteers! We especially need volunteers who can staff one-day exhibitions as docents. Training, lunch, and SSC logo polo shirts are provided.

Direct your inquiries to info@sailingscience.org.

We have legs for locomotion, arms and hands for manipulation, senses for experiencing the environment, and sexual organs for reproducing. Our digestive system seems to exist to provide the energy that serves these other systems, pleasing our brains and giving rise to a happy life. But is that really how it works? Read more…

AI Notice: Generative Artificial Intelligence was used in the photography above. Images should be considered artistic representations, as opposed to precise depictions of fact.