Exploratorium redefines what science museum can be

SAN FRANCISCO — Tucked along Pier 15 on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, the Exploratorium looks at first glance like an ordinary science museum.

However, when stepping inside the facility, the atmosphere quickly changes: Visitors twist, pull, balance, peer at and experiment with exhibits, discovering scientific principles not by reading explanations on a wall, but instead by experiencing them firsthand.

The world-renowned science museum has become a model for science and educational institutions around the globe — and now Hyundai Motor Group is also looking to bring its hands-on philosophy to Korea.

The group signed a strategic partnership with the Exploratorium in April to develop an interactive science museum in Korea, with the facility targeted to open in 2032.

The museum will serve as a flagship exhibition space within Hyundai Motor Group’s planned Global Business Complex new headquarters in Seoul, offering residents, international visitors and future generations opportunities to explore science and technology in new ways.

“You can see the Exploratorium as a place where people do gather, have a great, engaging, interactive experience with our not experts, but learners who are also consistent with that,” said Ken Finn, an educator at Exploratorium.

A visit to the Exploratorium provides a glimpse of what that future could look like.

Founded in 1969 by physicist Frank Oppenheimer, the Exploratorium pioneered the hands-on approach to science education, built around the idea that science should not simply be watched, but experienced.

That philosophy is evident throughout the museum. Hundreds of visitors — mostly children with parents and even couples — were seen touching exhibits, manipulating objects and conducting experiments, often discovering the underlying scientific principles through trial and error.

The approach has helped make the Exploratorium one of the world's most influential science education institutions, with more than 80 percent of science museums worldwide having been influenced by its interactive exhibition model.

Nearly 1 million people visit the museum each year, where about 650 exhibits spanning science, art and climate change are developed and built in-house. It also operates extensive educational programs for students, teachers and the general public, making the museum a hub for innovation in science education.

One of its distinctive features is a dedicated gallery where prototypes of new exhibits are tested and evaluated. Ideas are developed, experiments are conducted and visitor reactions are observed in a continuous cycle, allowing the museum to refine exhibits based on how people actually interact with them.

The Exploratorium has also expanded beyond traditional science disciplines into areas, such as social psychology and identity formation, continually broadening the definition of what a science museum can be.

That philosophy dovetails with Hyundai Motor Group’s push to cultivate talent for an increasingly technology-driven future.

The planned Korean museum will focus on emerging fields, including mobility, robotics and artificial intelligence, while moving away from the conventional model in which visitors passively look at exhibits and listen to explanations.

Instead, visitors will be encouraged to explore, experiment and reach conclusions on their own. Scientists, educators and artists will also participate in exhibition planning and research, while educational programs linking schools and local communities will be developed to establish the museum as a broader science community platform.

Before the permanent museum takes shape, Hyundai Motor Group plans to test the concept with the public.

From October through November, Hyundai Motorstudio Seoul will host a pop-up exhibition featuring interactive displays designed to allow visitors to apply basic scientific principles while exercising their creativity and building things themselves.

Various events and special programs for adults will also be offered during the exhibition, which will be free to all visitors.

For Hyundai Motor Group, the pop-up is more than a preview.

“It will provide an opportunity to listen directly to visitors, observe how they interact with exhibits and incorporate their experiences into the design of the science museum to come,” an official from the carmaker said.