Fall 2007 - Subscribe here.

The days here are getting shorter and we're enjoying the San Francisco fall--when the fog tends to stay offshore and the sun shines, but the air is cool. The trees are showing off their autumn colors, and we're enjoying the beautiful days.


CONTENTS
1- TECHLEARNING.COM AND EXPLORATORIUM-TO-GO
2- THE EXPLORATORIUM IN SECOND LIFE
3- EXPLO.TV
4- SCIENCE OF COOKING: TURKEY


1-TECHLEARNING.COM AND EXPLORATORIUM-TO-GO
http://www.techlearning.com/teacher/exploratorium.php
Beginning in January 2007, the Exploratorium and TechLearning.com partnered to bring teachers a weekly listing of Exploratorium activities in the Exploratorium-To-Go section of the TechLearning.com.

TechLearning.com is designed to provide information and resources to, for, and by the educational technology community. Each month readers get the complete contents of TechLearning's print publication, Technology & Learning, as well as
the companion Educators' eZine, which contains articles written by technology coordinators, teachers, administrators, and others involved in ed tech implementation. The TechLearning blog offers timely, interesting, and sometimes controversial ideas for readers to comment on. The Question of the Week invites readers to vote and comment on topical issues. Soon there will be an interactive wiki on Web 2.0.

In addition, daily and weekly features provide information. For example, Site of the Day has a new Web site for teaching and learning every day. How To QuickFlicks has weekly tutorials on software use. News, IT Guy, Leaders' Edge, and Professional Development QuickTips also have valuable information for readers once a week. In addition, the Teacher Page spotlights activities not only from the Exploratorium, but the Library of Congress weekly.

2- THE EXPLORATORIUM IN SECOND LIFE
http://www.exploratorium.edu/worlds/secondlife/
What can a museum do in a virtual world that would be difficult--or impossible--to do in the real world? Exploratorium media creators and educators have been exploring this question by experimenting in Second Life (SL), a large, multiuser, three-dimensional online virtual world.

For over a year, our staff has been exploring the possibilities provided by Second Life and has done some amazing things. On March 29, 2006, we mixed real- and virtual-world experiences when we presented a live Webcast of our solar eclipse coverage from Side, Turkey, in three virtual SL amphitheaters. Our eclipse program was also shown on the Web and at the museum, but the experience was different in Second Life. People from around the world, represented by their avatars, gathered at the amphitheaters and shared the unique experience by chatting with each other and with Exploratorium (avatar) staff.

In the future, we plan to do a lot more in this online world. We've purchased an island in SL where we are creating an Exploratorium museum, full of exhibits impossible to create on the floor of the museum. We'll continue to experiment and expand the social, contextual, and educational possibilities of SL through more live
events, plus offer other features still in the planning stage.

3- EXPLO.TV
http://www.exploratorium.edu/webcasts/index.php
The Exploratorium has archived Webcasts from 1996 to the present. We provide
video in multiple formats, including RealVideo, Windows Media, Flash, Quicktime, and streaming MPEG video of Webcasts into Second Life (though you need to have the
Second Life client to view these). We do about 20 live events per year and offer streaming video in bitrates from 56 to 1.2 Mbit.

Some recent Webcasts have included The Science of Yo-Yo, Making Your Own Kind of Music, The Science of Humor, and Making Hyperbolic Crochet with Margaret Werthelm. Upcoming Webcasts include Ice Stories in November and December in celebration of the International Polar Year (2007-2009).

We also offer podcasts for download for different Exploratorium projects.

RSS feeds of upcoming and recent Webcasts are available from our Webcasting portal http://www.exploratorium.edu/webcasts/webcasts_recent.xml

4- SCIENCE OF COOKING: TURKEY
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/turkey/
Yes, it's holiday time again and many of us will cook a turkey. How long do you cook your turkey? Since a 20-pound turkey is twice the size of a 10-pound bird, at first the answer might seem obvious: simply double the cooking time suggested for a 10-pound turkey. But is that really the right thing to do? Find out as you explore the physics of cooking.