Exploratorium - Education

Education

The Exploratorium seeks to brings hands-on inquiry to the educational system by training teachers in the teaching of science. Among the education-based programs are:

• The Teacher Institute works with novice, middle and high school science teachers to increase science teacher effectiveness and keep teachers in the profession
• The Institute for Inquiry provides inquiry-based workshops and online resources for a national community of K-5 education reform leaders and Bay-Area elementary school districts.
• The Center for Informal Learning and Schools furthers the impact museums and science centers can have on teacher education and school reform. The Center also offers professional certificates for museum educators.
• The Educational Outreach Program partners with more than 30 community organizations to bring free hands-on art and science programs to schools, community centers, children's hospitals, and after-school programs.
• The Explainer Program hires and trains up to 120 high school students annually. The program combines on-the-job experience and academic instruction to encourage them to explore, teach, and learn.
• The Making Collaborative creates playful and inventive educational activities using science, art, and technology for the public and shares ideas with a larger audience of educators in museums and other kinds of informal learning environments. Their development lab is the Learning Studio at the Exploratorium. Their public learning space is the Exploratorium's Tinkering Studio.
• The Field Trip Program provides online resources for teachers, and on-site Explainers to facilitate visits and conduct demonstrations.
• Learning Tools has over 18 titles in print and annually sells 25,000 copies of Exploratorium-developed publications.
• explo.tv produces 75 educational Webcasts from the museum and locations around the world annually.
• The Iron Science Teacher is a national competition that celebrates innovation and creativity in science teaching, and originated at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Parodying the cult Japanese TV program, “Iron Chef,” this competition showcases science teachers as they devise classroom activities using a particular ingredient — an everyday item such as a plastic bag, milk carton, or nail. Contestants are currently or formally part of the Exploratorium's Teacher Institute and compete before a live audience for the title of "Iron Science Teacher." Shows are also archived on the Exploratorium's site.