2008 California State Yo-Yo Championships
Saturday, September 6, 2008
10am-4pm

All wound up with nothing to do? Swing by the Exploratorium for the 2008 California State
Yo-Yo Championships. Meet National and World Yo-Yo Champions, watch daredevil tricks,
and learn basic techniques from yo-yo masters. This event is included in the price of admission
to the Exploratorium. Registration is open to the public and begins at 10am. Winners will
qualify for next year's regional tournament. For more information, go to
www.calstateyoyo.com.

In keeping with California's rich yo-yo heritage, this competition promises to be one of the best
venues to witness all that is yo-yo. Museum visitors can also participate in a Yo-Yo Tricks
Clinic, in which yo-yo novices can learn basic yo-yo techniques from experts. Enjoy contestants
performing tricks that might include "Walk the Dog," "Boingy Boingy," and "Atom Smasher."

Go to: http://www.exploratorium.edu/pr/documents/08-9Yo-Yo.html

Halloween at the Exploratorium

Phantasmagorium
Halloween Night at the Palace of Frights
Friday, October 31, 2008
6-9pm

Experience Halloween -- Exploratorium style. Join in-costume for a ghoulish grab-bag of tricks and treats as the Exploratorium transforms into a Phantasmagorium of spooky science and frightful fun. In the first annual October 31st Halloween fright night, the Exploratorium digs six feet under the cultural and scientific phenomena behind Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, and death. Find out how nature deals with death and regeneration with a decomposing snake at the Energy from Death exhibit. Get sucked into the finer points of leech science with nurses (in costume, but for real) from the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN). Walk through a "graveyard" dedicated to debunked science ideas, including the recently entombed Pluto is a Planet (1930 - 2006). Witness the Iron Science Teacher competition where teachers compete before a live audience -- with Halloween candy as the "secret" ingredient underlying their experiments. Or, catch a sugar skull candy-making demonstration with master confectioner Irma Ortiz, among other events. Included in the price of admission to the Exploratorium.

Go to: http://www.exploratorium.edu/pr/documents/08-10Phantasmagorium.html

Physics of Toys: Frightful Fun
Saturday, October 18, 11am-3pm

The Physics of Toys team gets into the spooky spirit with toys that ooze, screech, and scare! Make slime, screeching balloons, and other gruesome gadgets. Physics of Toys is included in the price of admission to the Exploratorium. Take home what you make. All materials provided.

Go to: http://www.exploratorium.edu/pr/documents/08-10Physics.html

Halloween Heroes
Monday, October 27, 6:30pm

The Exploratorium partners with the Wender Weis Foundation for Children (WWFC)
for their annual Halloween Heroes event. Last year's highlights included arts and crafts, face painting, pumpkin decorating, trick-or-treat stations, a silent auction, costumed characters, team mascots, sports celebrities, and Beach Blanket Babylon. Halloween Heroes supports low-income, disadvantaged children in the Bay Area. Proceeds will benefit the Exploratorium's Children's Outreach Program as well as the Junior Giants Baseball Program. Exploratorium members receive a discount on tickets. For more details, and to buy tickets, go to www.wenderweis.org/halloween.html

Go to: http://www.exploratorium.edu/pr/documents/08-10Halloween.html