Science Education

We had a blast when we attended the California Academy of Sciences' Penguins + Pajamas sleepover—it's a fantastic family experience that's both fun and educational. The next Penguins+Pajamas sleepover is scheduled for Friday, May 10, 2013, and we're giving away a pair of tickets to a lucky Marin Mommies reader!

Experience your own "night at the museum" as you explore the exhibits after-hours, stargaze at a planetarium show, and enjoy a special live animal presentation. Before bedtime, settle in for story time with cookies and milk to learn about Pierre—the Academy’s famous wetsuit-wearing penguin.

When the lights go out, unroll your sleeping bag in African Hall, next to the swaying kelp of the aquarium's California Coast tank, or even at the Swamp window, face-to-face with Claude, the albino alligator. In the morning, rise and shine, then head over to the Academy Café for a continental breakfast.

We had a blast at the California Academy of Sciences' Penguins + Pajamas sleepover when we attended last summer—it's a fantastic family experience that's both fun and educational. The next Penguins+Pajamas sleepover is scheduled for Sunday, December 30, 2012, and we're giving away a pair of tickets to a lucky Marin Mommies reader! This special 'Tis the Season for Science sleepover will include live reindeer, snow flurries, winter-themed programming, and live music and games from Radio Disney!

Experience your own "night at the museum" as you explore the exhibits after-hours, stargaze at a planetarium show, and enjoy a special live animal presentation. Before bedtime, settle in for story time with cookies and milk to learn about Pierre—the Academy’s famous wetsuit-wearing penguin.

When the lights go out, unroll your sleeping bag in African Hall, next to the swaying kelp of the aquarium's California Coast tank, or even at the Swamp window, face-to-face with Claude, the albino alligator. In the morning, rise and shine, then head over to the Academy Café for a continental breakfast.

We a blast at the California Academy of Sciences' Penguins + Pajamas sleepover when we attended last summer—it's a fantastic family experience that's both fun and educational. The next Penguins+Pajamas sleepover is scheduled for Friday, October 12, 2012, and we're giving away a pair of tickets to a lucky Marin Mommies reader!

Experience your own "night at the museum" as you explore the exhibits after-hours, stargaze at a planetarium show, and enjoy a special live animal presentation. Before bedtime, settle in for story time with cookies and milk to learn about Pierre—the Academy’s famous wetsuit-wearing penguin.

When the lights go out, unroll your sleeping bag in African Hall, next to the swaying kelp of the aquarium's California Coast tank, or even at the Swamp window, face-to-face with Claude, the albino alligator. In the morning, rise and shine, then head over to the Academy Café for a continental breakfast.

Celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing at the 2012 Novato Space Festival at the Space Station Museum in Pacheco Plaza shopping center. This free event takes place Saturday, July 14 from 10 am to 4 pm at the museum and in Pacheco Plaza's Center Stage.

See artifacts and photographs from the 1969 moon landing; meet legendary astronaut Dan Bursch (who spent 227 days in space on the space shuttle and the International Space Station); sit in a Navy fighter jet cockpit from the USS Hornet Museum; participate in hands-on interactive exhibits from NASA, the Planetary Society, Cosmosphere, and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic; and more!

Kids can also build a snap-together space shuttle module, courtesy of HobbyTown USA, and a join the Space Book Club from Literacy Works.

Walking into Golden Gate Park's magnificent Victorian Conservatory of Flowers is always a bit like stepping back in time. But through October 21, 2012, the Conservatory will transport visitors even further back in time than the 19th century with their newest exhibit, Plantosaurus Rex. Visitors to Plantosaurus Rex will encounter realistic model dinosaurs lurking within the Conservatory and surrounded by the plants that they were familiar with back in prehistoric times.

The first sign that something's not quite business as usual is the sight of a Tyrannosaurus Rex's fearsome looking head popping out of the glass Conservatory roof! (Don't worry—it's not really breaking throught the roof, it's just a clever and fun illusion.)

Inside, you'll see numerous examples of ancient plants from the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, including ferns, horsetails, gingkos, coast redwoods, and orchids, along with the dinosaurs that ate them, like a life-sized baby Stegosaurus. You'll also see models of fearsome carnivores that ate the plant-eating dinosaurs, like the T Rex (or the rest of it, anyhow) and an Allosaurus.

If you grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, you no doubt spent some time as a kid at the Exploratorium. This innovative and influential hands-on museum of science, art, and human perception has been educating and entertaining families for over 40 years.

Located at the iconic Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco's Marina District, the Exploratorium is a perfect place for an outing for families with children of all ages, from toddlers to teens. Parents, grandparents, and most other grownups will find it a lot of fun, too.

Founded by physicist and university professor Frank Oppenheimer, the younger brother of the Manhattan Project's J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Exploratorium is renowned for its hands-on experiments and demonstrations, which are facilitated by orange-vested "Explainers" who are on hand to teach and encourage visitors. Exhibits are created in the museum's own shop, and many are designed by artists-in-residence. Exhibits change frequently, so you may see some that you remember from when you were a kid as well as some that are totally new to you.

I grew up in Marin, but for some reason never visited the Bay Model in Sausalito until last Thursday. With their grand re-opening taking place this week, and with the kids having mid-winter break, I thought it would be a great time to check it out. It's also free to the public, so it's an inexpensive place for a fun and educational family outing. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but as it turns out we all really enjoyed our visit—it's definitely one of Marin's hidden treasures.

The Bay Model has been a Sausalito fixture since the 1950s, when it was constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers to allow scientists and researchers to study how water flows through San Francisco Bay and the Delta. The Bay Model has functioned solely as an educational facility since 2000, and visitors can marvel at the giant model itself, which is the size of two football fields, learn about the local ecosystem, and explore the history of the World War II-era Marinship shipyard that was once on the site.

The Bay Model has just undergone $15.5 million dollars worth of renovations and improvements, including a new roof with 2,500 solar panels, seismic retrofitting, and upgrades to the visitor center. They'll be holding a grand re-opening celebration today, Saturday, February 25, from 11 am to 4 pm.

Children visiting the Bay Area Discovery Museum can become young scientists at Science + Me, the museum's newest special exhibition. Developed by the Kohl Children's Museum in Chicago in conjunction with scientists at global health care company Abbott, this exhibition opened January 17 and runs through April 15, 2012.

Science + You offers a child-sized laboratory where children can explore how scientists impact health and wellness. Learn how science plays a vital role in keeping you and your body healthy through hands-on interactive exhibits and activities. On Saturday afternoons, meet scientists from Abbott Labs who will perform fun, interactive, and age-appropriate science experiments in the exhibition's demonstration area.

Children will enter the 1,200-square-foot exhibition as if they're entering a real laboratory, washing up and wiping their feet before they put on their white lab coats. Once inside, they'll learn about anitbodies, handle materials in a glove box, separate and and mix liquids and solids, view objects on video microscopes, and learn more about healthy foods and lifestyles.

We a lot of fun at the California Academy of Sciences' Penguins + Pajamas sleepover when we attended last summer—it's a fantastic experience. The next Penguis+Pajamas sleepover is scheduled for Saturday, February 11, 2012, and we're giving away tickets to a lucky Marin Mommies reader!

Experience your own "night at the museum" as you explore the exhibits after-hours, stargaze at the planetarium show, and enjoy a special live animal presentation. Before bedtime, settle in for story time with cookies and milk to learn about Pierre—the Academy’s famous wetsuit-wearing penguin.

When the lights go out, unroll your sleeping bag in African Hall, next to the swaying kelp of the California Coast tank, or even at the Swamp window, face-to-face with Claude, the albino alligator. In the morning, rise and shine, then head over to the Academy Café for breakfast.