Wave Workshop

The Museum’s science lab re-creates the dynamic environment under the Golden Gate Bridge and teaches visitors how organisms adapt to live within such an environment through hands-on experiments and dramatic play.

Lookout Cove

This popular 2.5-acre outdoor, interactive exploration area features natural, cultural and built icons of the Bay Area including a rocky shore and sea cave, a shipwreck with clues to dig up and discover, the Golden Gate Bridge under construction, real water tidal pools, native animal homes to build, and more. The space also features five site-specific artistic works commissioned for the Cove.

San Francisco Bay Hall

A playful simulation of the Bay Area with an “underwater” tunnel, 300-gallon sea star tank, fishing boat, Fisherman’s Wharf and shipping port.

Art Studios

Studio 5 (for younger children) and Studio 10 (for older children) offer opportunities to experience the process of using a wide variety of visual arts media. Children love to paint on our special windows, dabble in sculpture and add their own artwork to our studio walls. Drop-in programs and themes change throughout the year.

Outdoor tot Spot

Tot Spot outdoor exploration area allows toddlers to explore animal habitats of the woodland, creek and meadow and make the connection between their home and the homes around them.

Indoor Tot Spot

Tot Spot offers crawlers, early walkers, toddlers and preschoolers a multi-sensory experience as they explore exhibitions themed around animal homes and habitats.

Discovery Theatre

Permanent Exhibitions Discovery Theatre: This 180-seat performing arts theatre greatly enhances the performing arts curriculum and permits a full range of educational and cultural offering