- Pacific Science Center
The Pacific Science Center is a
science museum inSeattle, Washington .Organization
Pacific Science Center is an independent,
non-profit science museum based in Seattle, Washington. It sits on convert|7.1|acre|m2 of land located on the south side of theSeattle Center . A satellite campus inBellevue, Washington , the Mercer Slough Environmental Center, teaches children and adults about environmental stewardship,wetland ecology and nature awareness. Like many museums, Pacific Science Center creates, builds and rents many traveling exhibits. Pacific Science Center also has a fleet of vans that provide science education to schools all across the state. A division of staff workers show teachers in the state how to teach science.History
Its original buildings were the United States Science Pavilion, part of the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle.
The fountains appeared in the movie "
It Happened at the World's Fair " withElvis Presley . After the fair ended, the museum was re-opened as the Pacific Science Center. The land and buildings were leased for $1.00 a year until 2004 when the title deed was signed over and Pacific Science Center Foundation officially took ownership.Pacific Science Center is located within walking distance of the
Space Needle , and is next to theSeattle Center . It is housed in what was the United States Science Pavilion for theCentury 21 Exposition in 1962. The complex was designed byMinoru Yamasaki , who also was the architect of theWorld Trade Center in New York. The walls of each building, composed of many pre-cast concrete slabs, form an arch motif used by Yamasaki in a number of buildings.1960s
In the 1960s, many exhibits were carried over from the original
World's Fair exhibition, though only a few of these original exhibits remain, such as the Lens and Mirror machine and a suspended moon. Many current parents and engineers fondly remember their parents taking them there. [' [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/67034_fairmemories19.shtml Recalling the time of their lives] ", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 19, 2002] One of the most notable exhibits at the time was a ramp where the buildings were built at a tilt. This exhibit was reproduced in the late 1990s. The domed Spacerium, now used forlaser show s, was designed for a wide-angle movie journey through space. BeforeIMAX , a previous movie theater there showed films like NASA'sApollo 8 (to the soundtrack of Yellow Submarine) and the21st Century with Walter Cronkite . Future governorDixy Lee Ray would head the Science Center for many years.1970s
In the mid 1970s, the lower-level math area was dominated by the IBM Mathematica exhibit where demonstrators in orange jackets ("OJ"s) made
soap bubble s and showed audiences how the stylish newChevrolet Chevette was paving the way for the quick adoption of theMetric system . Upstairs, a giantnormal curve Pachinko machine would ring an alarm before emptying out its balls. An aerospace building contained a full-sizedlunar module mockup from which suitedastronaut s would climb out. The Life building contained theSea monster house , aKwakiutl long house , and a working hydraulic model [http://exhibits.pacsci.org/puget_sound/PSSummary.html] ofPuget Sound . With the physical sciences, the physicswitch onHalloween would ask "Would you like to boil "blood" in a paper cup?" orGroucho Marx would dumpliquid nitrogen on the ponds after a demo. The presenters in question here were Janie Mann, who did dynamic combustion shows dressed as a witch circa 1977-78, and Dan Cox, who did physics demos as Groucho Marx in the same era. Cox would later go on to become a professor of physics. These staff were part of the "OJ" program (short for "Orange Jacket," the uniform of the time). The program consisted of 24 work study students, whose leader in the late 1970s, Carl Linde, set a format for the program that would last into the late 1990s. The Eames theater was originally created for a special multi-screenIBM movie for the World Fair. It was later converted into anIMAX screen in 1979, the first of two IMAX theaters at the center.1980s
Pacific Science Center grew dramatically in the 1980s. A key step in its evolution was the hiring of George Moynihan as Executive Director in 1980. Moynihan, from the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, would run the center for the next two decades. His leadership team in the 1980s included Diane Carlson in public programs, Dennis Schatz in education and exhibits, and Dave Taylor in exhibits. In 1984 the science center took a gamble on hosting the exhibit "China: 7000 Years of Discovery." The success of the exhibit helped put PSC on the map as a leading science center. Other notable successes later in the decade were several iterations of a traveling robotic dinosaur exhibit, which led to the center eventually installing a permanent dinosaur display in the 1990s. Pacific Science Center hosted the annual Association of Science and Technology Centers conference in October 1987 and opened several major exhibits in the same period, including Kids Works, Body Works, an animal area and a tide pool.
IMAX and past exhibits
Today the museum is composed of eight buildings, including two
IMAX theaters (one of only a few places in the world with more than one IMAX theater), one of the world's largest Laser Dome theaters, a tropicalbutterfly house, aplanetarium , and hundreds of hands-on science exhibits. In addition to the many permanent exhibits, Pacific Science Center has offered a constant rotation of traveling exhibits, including notable exhibits such as "China : 7,000 Years of Discovery", "Titanic: the Artifacts Exhibit", and "Discovering theDead Sea Scrolls ".References
External links
* [http://www.pacsci.org/ Pacific Science Center]
* [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/ae/317094_fam25.html Colossal Fossils: Dinosaurs Around the World]
* [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2003722346_dinosaurs26.html Colossal Fossils: Dinosaurs Around the World]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3559190349320257024&hl=en Google home video: Danger Science water explosion finale]
* [http://www.pacificsciencecenter.org/events/ Calendar of Events]
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