Family Investigation Workshops
January-March 2009

Here’s another reason to become a member of the Exploratorium. Join us for a series of hands-on explorations and learn skills to use at home! Each workshop features tools and activities from our award-winning book Exploratopia. Workshops are open to member families with children ages 6 and up. Only 2 children per adult, please. Prices, listed below, are per family of up to 4 people; each additional family member is $15. Workshops are available to anyone who becomes a member of the Exploratorium. For membership information, go to www.exploratorium.edu/membership.

Workshop only: $55
Workshop and a copy of Exploratopia: $75
For details, please call Chelsea Murray in the Membership office at (415) 561-0376.

The family workshop schedule is as follows:

Fruit and Flower Dissections
Saturday, January 24, 1-3pm
Find out how some plants reproduce by dissecting colorful, fragrant fruits and flowers. Look for clues with a magnifying glass and microscope to uncover the different stages of their reproductive cycles. This workshop includes a guided dissection, independent and small group explorations, and time to share your discoveries with the entire group. Parents and children practice exploring together for further investigations at home.

Exploring the Sounds Around You
Saturday, February 21, 1-3pm
Close your eyes and imagine you’re at the grocery store — what sounds do you hear? In this workshop, learn about vibrations from ordinary objects and find out what a sound spectrograph can teach us about sound. By focusing on everyday noises we hear, but may not notice, we’ll play creative games to identify, re-create and record these singable, tappable, clickable sounds.

Light and Optics Investigation
Saturday, March 17, 1-3pm
What happens if you shine a laser through Jell-O? In this workshop, we tinker with lenses, lasers, colored lights, filters, diffraction gratings, gelatin and other materials to uncover the fundamental behaviors of light. Families can make observations and predictions, then invent experiments to test their bright ideas.