Exploratorium Summer Camp

Campers get ready to launch their ziplines.

These campers have some great moves at the dance party.

Campers get their hands dirty while making and playing with oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid that behaves differently depending on the situation.

Oobleck does some surprising things.

Sal and some campers work together.

Campers learned about density and and why it is important when thinking about floating or sinking.

Sal tests out camper boats during the sink or float activity.

Campers test out their boats during the sink or float activity.

This camper enjoys using his newly made field journal.

Paul Doherty, a senior scientist at the museum, teaches the campers about magnetism.

This camper experiments with magnetism with some donut magnets and a pencil.

The campers learned about echolocation and tried it out in the Palace of Fine Arts rotunda.

This camper shows off his bridge.

Playing games between activities.

Rosa helps campers dye their fabric during the batik activity.

This camper made a 49ers football helmet out of cardboard.

Campers worked together to make forts in the classroom.

Campers constructed forts and learned about knot tying.

The campers were proud of their forts.

Another proud fort-building team.

This camper looks happy to have his hands in oobleck.

Ryan helps campers launch their stomp rockets.

Campers worked together to construct their string telephones.

Sal talks about pop-up cards and what it takes to make one.

Brave campers dissect a cow eyeball to learn more about eyes and how they work.

Campers programmed and constructed their own toys using a Cricket microcontroller and some teamwork.

This camper concentrates to make an unbreakable secret code.

This camper tries to plan his wooden sculpture.

These campers are in the Tinkering Studio. Always a good time!

Jack and a camper make some changes to a pinhole viewer.

The goofy goggles make walking difficult, but this camper makes it look easy.

The campers laugh as Ryan does magic tricks.

A haiku written by the campers about an exhibit. Can you guess which one?

Sock puppets! Need I say more?

Campers get their pop-rockets ready to launch outside the museum.

Campers prepare to launch their zipline.

Ryoko leads the campers in plastic bag fusing.

It’s important to stretch before the dance party.

The campers use their newly constructed string telephones. The campers learned that sound is vibration that travels through the string.

More campers talking on the string telephones. Yes, folks, they’re mobile…we’re outside now.

Campers catch crabs on the rocks at the beach. What a beauty!

Crab catching and hanging out on the rocks was a popular lunchtime pastime.

Campers show off their field journals.

A camper concentrating on a field journal entry. Observing and recording are important duties of a scientist.

Before using the goofy goggles, campers experiment with bottles full of water.

This camper makes the goofy goggles look easy. Trust me, they’re not. The goggles force you to look through prisms and alter the way the light comes into the eye.

Campers dissect a cow eyeball. This is a camper favorite!

This camper is making some beautiful leaf rubbings.

The campers are trying to find cool stuff to check out under the microscope. Biologists, Caitlin and Karli, came by to show the campers how much life is in a log. It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood!

Looking at the microscope after finding some specimens in the log. Campers found centipedes, termites and other creepy critters. The campers learned that although a log may be dead itself, it is full of life.

A camper saws some wood for his wooden sculpture.

Manpreet leads the campers in a batiking activity.

The campers finish up their batik designs.

One camper gets messy while playing with oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid.

Campers make cardboard creations with Dan.

Ryoko helps campers launch their stomp rockets.

Campers collaborated to make a giant fort.

One camper peeks his head from the fort.

Campers work on laptops to program and create their own toys using Cricket microcontrollers.

A camper team is all smiles when they show off their toy.

Making your own toys is fun! What would you make?

Campers hang out outside to get ready to launch their pop-rockets.

Campers experiment with their boats during the sink or float activity.

Campers experiment with sound in the Sound Column during the echolocation activity.

Fun in aftercare.