Check out what is going on at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, inside is the Exploratorium. The Exploratorium’s summer is devoted to tinkering! Through October 3, 2004

CABARET MECHANICAL Theater’s US Premier Exhibition
Funny, whimsical Mechanical Automata, formerly of Covent Garden, London, now at the Exploratorium. There aren’t many exhibitions where you can see a man, eating spaghetti in the bath, a creature brushing its teeth, or meet the last Dodo. Uniformly humorous, this exhibition traces its traditions back to 2nd-century-BC Egypt, and brings the unexpected to life. It is a wild and whimsical collection of mechanical automata, large and small sculpture, that are moved by turning a crank or pushing a button. The show is free with admission to the Exploratorium.

Other Events at the place were learning and fun go together.
Tinkering! Take-It-Apart Day - Saturday, August 7, noon-4pm
Join your two-year old to take apart toasters, vacuum cleaners and more.

Tinkering! Sunday Workshops - Sundays, August 1-29
Construct windmills and whirligigs (wind-powered, kinetic art sculptures); take photographs with a camera mounted on a wind-blown kite; make your own moving toys or build Rube-Goldberg-inspired obstacle courses for racing marbles.

Tinkering! Film Series - Sunday, August 1st, Sunday, August 22nd at the McBean Theater, 2pm. The Exploratorium continues its whimsical series of films that celebrate tinkering, and that document everything from a French fry collection to tinkering with sound by “playing” the city of New York.

Listen While You Work - Listen: A Sonic Series #5 - Sunday, August 28, noon-3pm. How do the pro’s, doctors, mechanics, and locksmiths, for example, understand non-musical sounds of beating hearts, squealing brakes, and clicking locks? Find out at the next in the series of ‘listening’ events that run through September at the Exploratorium.

Iron Science Teacher
An Offbeat Science Competition for Teachers Continues in August - Fridays, August 6 and 13, noon-1pm. Iron Science Teacher is a wacky, science experiment cook-off, where teachers compete live at the Exploratorium and are simultaneously Webcast around the world at http://www.exploratorium.edu Science teachers have ten minutes to concoct a science activity that can be used in the classroom competing for the title, ‘Iron Science Teacher.’

Physics of Toys - Tinker with Flight this Summer - Saturday, August 21, noon-4pm. At Physics of Toys: To Infinity and Beyond, visitors can take off! Join the Physics of Toys team as they take flight with things that fly. Using everyday materials, create your own stomp rockets, helicopters, come-back cups, and the mysterious hoopster. Test how high and far you can make things fly. Make and take home the incredible flying machines.

Go to http://www.exploratorium.edu to learn more and see pictures of these fun attractions