Ellis: Reflections

Science Museum: Reflections

           For our first trip, we went to the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. Its exhibits are of general sciences but they are mostly about life. We rode transit to the edge of the park, and then walked to Shakespeare’s Garden, a remnant of the old park that used to occupy the area. We entered the museum, and even though I had been there, it was still as awe inspiring as the first time I went. When you walk in, there is a huge replica of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and many other eye catching exhibits, like the fountains that spit to each other simultaneously. We walked from each exhibit, first the shallow pool of cartilage fish, the Filipino Coral reef, and the flooded amazon forest. Others along the way, most of which were great, came in vast numbers. My only disappointment was that they wouldn’t let us into planetarium, as we were a school group.

            On Tuesday, we ventured to the Exploratorium, a large science museum in the Palace of Fine Arts. The exhibits in this museum are even more random than the academy’s. None are specifically large, but there are hundreds of them. My favorites were the xylophone room, a room of xylophones, the response computer, a conversation machine that recycled your own vocabulary, and the game of chance, a probability machine that explained how chances affect outcomes. We also went into a sound column, inside the palace. Inside, sounds in good pitches reverberated off the walls. The middle of the palace also reverberated sound, causing echoes to be sent back to their source.

            Next we travelled to the Aquarium of the Bay, located on Pier 39. At first we just walked around the pier, one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city. We had little time before we had to go to the aquarium. The aquarium was small but had a good amount of exhibits. Although most were about marine life, there were still many exhibits about land creatures. My favorites were the tunnel aquariums, filled with sharks and sturgeons, and the touch pools, which had tons of baby rays. After finishing the museum, we walked around pier 39 some more, enjoying clam chowder and the local shops.

            Lastly, we went to the San Francisco Zoo adjacent to the Great Highway. The zoo is a very casual attraction, but has tons of animals in areas that combine their native and local environments. For example, the storks and kangaroos lived in enclosures with native trees. As we walked around we saw penguins, lions, lemurs, and tons of other animals. My favorite exhibits were the lemurs. Each lemur looked straight out of a cartoon or a weird dream. They were all diverse and extremely crazy. They also caused a huge commotion for ten minutes, which was actually quite amusing. We also rode the old carousel and petted tons of goats. It was one of the better days of the trip.