The New Outdoor Exploratorium at Fort Mason
20 Outdoor Interactive Artful Science Exhibits, 2 Years in the Making
Opens March 13, 2009—On Ongoing View

Media Preview — Tuesday, March 10, 10:30am
RSVP: rrosen@exploratorium.edu

Did you know that you can use the Golden Gate Bridge as a thermometer? Or that flags flying at different heights along the San Francisco skyline might double as a wind observatory? A new Outdoor Exploratorium features a collection of 20 brand-new outdoor

interactive science exhibits and artworks. Visitors can find the Outdoor Exploratorium at Fort Mason between San Francisco’s Aquatic Park and the Marina District, beginning on March 13, 2009. Dotted along the waterfront at Fort Mason Center and in the adjoining 55-acre National Park of Upper Ft. Mason, these exhibits harness the wind, the waves, marine life, and the man-made and natural environments in this urban waterfront site. The Outdoor Exploratorium is for noticing and learning, a place to deepen understanding of the natural world, and an opportunity to apply the scientific principles of observation and experimentation to the outdoors — all for free. Video below.

This installation, the Exploratorium’s first extended foray into the outdoors, is a long-term experiment as the staff of the popular hands-on museum seriously considers the environment and the San Francisco waterfront. The experiments have yielded subtle but startling outdoor exhibitry that capitalizes on the north-facing shoreline and its expansive views of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate Bridge, among other landmark sites.

The Outdoor Exploratorium project, under development in collaboration with Fort Mason since September 2006, was made possible by the National Science Foundation, and forged through an Exploratorium partnership with Fort Mason Center and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. One exhibit, Bay Model, will be located inside the Exploratorium itself.

Among the exhibits is Bridge Thermometer, in which a San Francisco icon, the Golden Gate Bridge, is transformed into an instrument that lets visitors measure changing temperature patterns. A calibrated telescope trained on the bridge shows changes in the structure’s changing height as its metal skeleton expands and contracts. In fact, the center span of the bridge is designed to move up and down as much as sixteen feet as the temperature fluctuates.

At Tasting the Tides, special low-flow drinking fountains invite visitors to taste a range of salt concentrations typical of water flowing from the Delta through the Bay to the Pacific. (The fountains don’t provide actual Bay water, of course, but their salinity varies dramatically — just as the Bay’s does.) And at Wind Arrows, the directions of waving flags at different heights and locations against the surrounding San Francisco architecture are highlighted to form a large-scale wind observatory.

The San Francisco shoreline has many grand attractions — spectacular views, marine wildlife, and historic architecture. The Outdoor Exploratorium goes deeper to reveal the more subtle phenomena surrounding us. Visitors are encouraged to examine pier pilings oscillating in response to incoming waves, interpret signs of geological change, and investigate the unique growth of plants adapted to colonizing the fractures in an asphalt parking lot. The Outdoor Exploratorium at Fort Mason is a place designed to involve the public in both overt and hidden wonders.

Maps are available at Fort Mason Center, Bldg A, open seven days a week.

See the Overview of Selected Exhibits and Partnership PR’s for further information.