The Exploratorium
The Exploratorium is one of the coolest outings for a kid of any age, a hands-on experiential learning environment full of activities based on both natural and social sciences. It would take forever to summarize all of the amazing exhibits that we saw throughout the day. Instead, I will include a couple highlights, and say that everyone had a really great time, and everyone slept very well that night. It was a very long day.
When we arrived, the class gathered outside the museum itself and waited for a docent to give us a rundown of the day ahead. Lucky for the students, there’s plenty to do outside as well as inside, the most notable being the fog bridge, a footbridge that spans a small inlet of bay water between piers 15 and 17. Every fifteen minutes or so, water is pumped at high pressure through nozzles that create fog and mist that crawls over and floods the bridge. Of course, as soon as the bridge became foggy and the kids went running through it, our docent showed up. This meant that we had to gather them all up while they are completely hidden by the fog, my job being to walk the bridge and find the laggers. As I walked, students emerged from the fog like an 80s film I still can’t watch.
Upon walking into the Exploratorium as a chaperone, one first has this thought: wow, there are literally a million places for a kid to hide in here. This is quickly followed up by: why is it that all kids look the same when you think you’ve lost one? (don’t worry, he’s right there behind you) And then the playing begins.
My favorite Exploratorium activity is to observe just how easily our young friends are entertained. The first to capture the attention of the fifth graders is simply and aptly called Red/Blue. There are several small podiums with a red button and a blue button, and there is a large screen that displays the tallies of how many times each color has been pressed. This is a social experiment that explores how being a part of a group will stimulate and amplify competition. There is no prize; there is no benefit to being on one team versus the other; there is almost no objective at all. It is purely pressing a button, as fast and as many times as possible, and this kept our kids wrapped for much longer than you might think pressing a button will entertain.
After lunch, while all the adults were starting to drag, the kids hit the museum floor again, eager to get their hands on whatever it was they’d missed earlier. But even they pooped out pretty quickly. Eventually we found ourselves at a huge three-sided pegboard, with enough dowels, funnels, tracks, hooks, plinko boards, rubber bands, pendulums, and pipes to jerry rig anything. The goal was to make a Rube Goldberg machine. This successfully kept the kids engrossed long enough for the adults to get coffees in shifts. And take a very much needed seat.
One of the best things about kids is that they are much more willing to try and fail than adults are. Kids don’t take the failure personally, they just try again. I thought about this while they unsuccessfully sent marbles down their Rube Goldberg machines, things falling off the walls with each attempt. They worked together. They were completely absorbed. They were quiet, a quiet I appreciated more than I’ve ever appreciated quiet before.