There are now more than 500 exhibits that cover nature and science, and 20 to 25 new exhibits are built each year to add to the collection. Ideas for these exhibits come from the Exploratorium's staff of scientists and artists, but also from visiting teachers and other interested members of the public. Each year, the Exploratorium welcomes more than 600,000 visitors, and some of the most popular exhibits with students, Semper notes, seem to be those that deal with light and color. Sample exhibits on images and light deal with the nature of light and creating images, how light gets perceived, and some aspects of animal vision. One way students can physically experiment with light and color is to shine a light through a prism and different color filters and observe how the light is spread out in a colored spectrum.
Students explore together.
This tactile interaction with the exhibits is a key element in giving students a good grasp of what goes on in science and nature. You have to be an active participant-you manipulate things and try them out for yourself to really satisfy your own questions. At one exhibit, for example, students can see how nerve cells work by stimulating actual nerve cells and watching the electrical response. At another, they learn about DNA by manipulating models that illustrate the double-helix construction. A staff of Explainers, mostly high school students from San Francisco, is on hand to help people interact with the exhibits, asking and answering questions.