Pacific Science Center
Encyclopedia
The Pacific Science Center is a science museum
in Seattle, Washington
.
.
A satellite campus in Bellevue, Washington
, the Mercer Slough Environmental Center, teaches children and adults about environmental stewardship, wetland
ecology and nature awareness. Like many museums, the Pacific Science Center creates, builds and rents many traveling exhibits.
The Pacific Science Center also has a fleet of vans that provide science education to schools all across the state of Washington. The center also has a division of staff workers whose purpose is to assist teachers in teaching science to their students.
The center's original buildings were the United States Science Pavilion, part of the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle
. The fountains located at the entrance of the center appeared in the movie It Happened at the World's Fair
with Elvis Presley
. After the World's Fair closed, 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 the Pacific Science Center Foundation officially took ownership.
The Pacific Science Center complex was designed by Minoru Yamasaki
. Yamasaki was later the architect of the World Trade Center
in New York City
. The walls of each building, composed of many pre-cast concrete slabs, form an arch motif used by Yamasaki in a number of other buildings he has designed.
exhibition, though only a few of these original exhibits remain. Currently, exhibits remaining from the World's Fair are the Lens and Mirror Machine and a suspended model of the Earth's moon. One of the more notable science exhibits during the World's Fair was a ramp where the buildings were built at a tilt (the "illusion ramp"); this exhibit was reproduced in the late 1990s. The domed Spacerium, now known as the Seattle Laser Dome and used for laser light show, was designed for a wide-angle movie journey through space. Before IMAX
, a previous movie theater there showed films such as NASA's Apollo 8
(to the soundtrack of Yellow Submarine) and the 21st Century with Walter Cronkite. Before being elected governor of the state of Washington, Dixy Lee Ray
, Ph.D. served as Science Center director for many years. Ray helped promote the Science Center amongst school children by hosting a school-age geared science program televised on Seattle PBS station KCTS-9
.
s and showed audiences how the stylish new Chevrolet Chevette
was paving the way for the quick adoption of the Metric system
. Upstairs, a giant apparatus known as the probability machine would ring an alarm before emptying out a bin of balls. This machine was orinally designed as an exhibit for the IBM Pavillion at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair http://nywf64.com/ibm06.shtml. An aerospace building contained a full-sized lunar module mockup from which suited astronaut
s would climb out. The Life Building contained the Sea monster house
, a replica of a First Nations
longhouse, as well as a working hydraulic model http://exhibits.pacsci.org/puget_sound/PSSummary.html of Puget Sound
and the Mount Baker
volcanic exhibit. With the physical sciences, the physics witch on Halloween
would ask "Would you like to boil blood in a paper cup?" or Groucho Marx
would dump liquid 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 http://sexton.ucdavis.edu/CondMatt/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 for Science Center tour guides and visitor assistants). The program consisted of 24 work study students, whose leader in the late 1970s and early 1980s, 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-screen IBM
movie for the World Fair. It was later converted into an IMAX
screen in 1979, the first of two IMAX theaters at the center.
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 tropical butterfly
house, a planetarium
, 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", "Discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls
", and most recently "Harry Potter The Exhibition
". Up next is "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination" on exhibition March 19-May 8, 2011. In 2012 they are scheduled to host "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs".
Science museum
A science museum or a science centre is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of...
in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
.
Organization
Pacific Science Center is an independent, non-profit science museum based in Seattle, Washington. It sits on 7.1 acres (28,732.7 m²) of land located on the south side of the Seattle CenterSeattle Center
Seattle Center is a park and arts and entertainment center in Seattle, Washington. The campus is the site used in 1962 by the Century 21 Exposition. It is located just north of Belltown in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood.-Attractions:...
.
A satellite campus in Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...
, the Mercer Slough Environmental Center, teaches children and adults about environmental stewardship, wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
ecology and nature awareness. Like many museums, the Pacific Science Center creates, builds and rents many traveling exhibits.
The Pacific Science Center also has a fleet of vans that provide science education to schools all across the state of Washington. The center also has a division of staff workers whose purpose is to assist teachers in teaching science to their students.
History
Century 21 Exposition
The Century 21 Exposition was a World's Fair held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962 in Seattle, Washington.Nearly 10 million people attended the fair...
. The fountains located at the entrance of the center appeared in the movie It Happened at the World's Fair
It Happened at the World's Fair
It Happened at the World's Fair is a 1963 musical film starring Elvis Presley as a cropdusting pilot.The motion picture was filmed in Seattle, Washington, site of the Century 21 Exposition, the 1962 World's Fair. The governor of Washington at the time, Albert Rosellini, suggested the setting to...
with Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
. After the World's Fair closed, 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 the Pacific Science Center Foundation officially took ownership.
The Pacific Science Center complex was designed by Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki
was a Japanese-American architect, best known for his design of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, buildings 1 and 2. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century...
. Yamasaki was later the architect of the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The walls of each building, composed of many pre-cast concrete slabs, form an arch motif used by Yamasaki in a number of other buildings he has designed.
1960s
During the 1960s, many of the center's exhibits were carried over from the original World's FairWorld's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
exhibition, though only a few of these original exhibits remain. Currently, exhibits remaining from the World's Fair are the Lens and Mirror Machine and a suspended model of the Earth's moon. One of the more notable science exhibits during the World's Fair was a ramp where the buildings were built at a tilt (the "illusion ramp"); this exhibit was reproduced in the late 1990s. The domed Spacerium, now known as the Seattle Laser Dome and used for laser light show, was designed for a wide-angle movie journey through space. Before IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
, a previous movie theater there showed films such as NASA's Apollo 8
Apollo 8
Apollo 8, the second manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial...
(to the soundtrack of Yellow Submarine) and the 21st Century with Walter Cronkite. Before being elected governor of the state of Washington, Dixy Lee Ray
Dixy Lee Ray
Dixy Lee Ray was the 17th Governor of the U.S. State of Washington. She was Washington's first female governor.-Early years:...
, Ph.D. served as Science Center director for many years. Ray helped promote the Science Center amongst school children by hosting a school-age geared science program televised on Seattle PBS station KCTS-9
KCTS-TV
KCTS-TV is a public television station in Seattle, Washington, that is a member of the Public Broadcasting Service , that broadcasts on digital channel 9. Its offices and broadcasting center are located at the northeast corner of Seattle Center...
.
1970s
In the mid 1970s, the lower-level math area was dominated by the IBM Mathematica exhibit where demonstrators in orange jackets (known as "OJ"s) made soap bubbleSoap bubble
A soap bubble is a thin film of soapy water enclosing air, that forms a hollow sphere with an iridescent surface. Soap bubbles usually last for only a few seconds before bursting, either on their own or on contact with another object. They are often used for children's enjoyment, but they are also...
s and showed audiences how the stylish new Chevrolet Chevette
Chevrolet Chevette
The Chevrolet Chevette was introduced in September, 1975 and manufactured for model years 1976-1987 based on GM's worldwide T platform and superseding the Vega as Chevrolet's entry-level subcompact...
was paving the way for the quick adoption of the Metric system
Metric system
The metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...
. Upstairs, a giant apparatus known as the probability machine would ring an alarm before emptying out a bin of balls. This machine was orinally designed as an exhibit for the IBM Pavillion at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair http://nywf64.com/ibm06.shtml. An aerospace building contained a full-sized lunar module mockup from which suited astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
s would climb out. The Life Building contained the Sea monster house
Sea monster house
The Sea Monster House that was on display at Pacific Science Center was a combination of two separate houses owned by the Scow family. The houses were originally created and constructed on Gilford Island, near Vancouver Island in the early 1900s. The shell of the house and front design are replicas...
, a replica of a First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
longhouse, as well as a working hydraulic model http://exhibits.pacsci.org/puget_sound/PSSummary.html of Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
and the Mount Baker
Mount Baker
Mount Baker , also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States. It is the second-most active volcano in the range after Mount Saint Helens...
volcanic exhibit. With the physical sciences, the physics witch on Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
would ask "Would you like to boil blood in a paper cup?" or Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
would dump liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen in a liquid state at a very low temperature. It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. Liquid nitrogen is a colourless clear liquid with density of 0.807 g/mL at its boiling point and a dielectric constant of 1.4...
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 http://sexton.ucdavis.edu/CondMatt/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 for Science Center tour guides and visitor assistants). The program consisted of 24 work study students, whose leader in the late 1970s and early 1980s, 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-screen IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
movie for the World Fair. It was later converted into an IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
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 IMAXIMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
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 tropical butterfly
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
house, a planetarium
Planetarium
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
, 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
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
: 7,000 Years of Discovery", "Titanic: the Artifacts Exhibit", "Discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
", and most recently "Harry Potter The Exhibition
Harry Potter The Exhibition
-Harry Potter: The Exhibition:- Overview :Harry Potter: The Exhibition is a traveling exhibition featuring hundreds of authentic props, costumes, artifacts, and set dressings from all of the Harry Potter films...
". Up next is "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination" on exhibition March 19-May 8, 2011. In 2012 they are scheduled to host "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs".