1. S A N F R A N C I S C O M U S E U M
AT T H E PA L AC E
S T E M E D U C A T I O N
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T ECH N O LO G Y
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2. DISCOVERY DISRUPTORS
Philanthropic individuals and business organizations, historically, have made
education a top priority of their mission to better their communities by “giving
back.” Technology and venture capital entrepreneurs, in particular, have
focused on enhancing childhood education. Having found their success by
discovering something new–invention–or by revealing a new way of doing
things–innovation–they place a high priority on the value of creative thinking.
In the 21st-century with new demands on the future, our schools have been
charged with an increasingly complex task of providing kids a basic
education and giving them the tools, time and place necessary to develop
their creative powers.
The restored Palace of Fine Arts, Bernard Maybeck’s icon of innovation, will
be that place. The San Francisco Museum At The Palace (SFMAP) will make
the time and provide the tools to better prepare kids and adults in the San
Francisco Bay Area and all over America through distance learning programs
to become part of our ongoing story of invention and innovation. They can
interact with the past, the present, and the future–all at the same time.
THE UNTOLD STORY
SFMAP, as a storytelling museum sharing the San Francisco and the Bay Area
story with the City, the region, and the rest of the world, will tell the “I didn’t
know that” San Francisco and regional innovation stories through existing and
emerging technologies that have forever changed the way the world works–
and the way we can now tell stories.
At SFMAP visitors will interact with San Francisco and Bay Area stories
through social media, open content, mobile apps, Augmented Reality
(AR), Near Field Communication (NFC), Wearable technology, Natural User
Interfaces (NUI), Digital Printing, 3D Printing, Virtual Reality (VR), the Internet
of Things and likely a robot or two. The Cloud’s the limit. SFMAP will offer
21st-century technologies. Museumgoers will supply the artistic imaginations
and intellectual curiosity. Visitors will be encouraged to ask questions, share
information, and contribute ideas.

3. SFMAP LEARNING CENTER
The SFMAP LEARNING CENTER, upstairs at the Palace, is the “away from school” learning place for San Francisco and Bay Area
kids and their teachers.
In the Learning Center teachers have an opportunity to
expand their curriculum in a place that doesn’t look or feel like
school. Emphasizing science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM), the Learning Center provides interactive
and immersive experiences using materials that link to content
themes in the museum or to aspects of San Francisco and the
Bay Area stories outside the museum.
Dr. Bruce Alberts, professor of cell biology at UCSF, former
President of the National Academy of Sciences, and one of the
leading scientists in the country encouraging the expanded
study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics
in public schools, is the STEM advisor for the SFMAP youth
education program.
The centerpiece of the Learning Center is a total environment:
a large, water-filled model of San Francisco Bay complete
with natural surroundings. Kids will be able to access a
treasure chest filled with artifacts of people, animals, plant
life, geological features, architectural elements, bridges, and
transportation modes which they use to learn how the bay
“works” and to stimulate discussions about its future. Wet
aprons are in order. Splash!
Will Travis, longtime executive director of the Bay Conservation
and Development Commission (BCDC), will advise SFMAP on
environmental education.
COOKING WITH CODE
Another feature of the Learning Center is “Cooking With
Code”–a coding class for kids. Young coders can imagine that
digitized information (data) is like ingredients in a recipe that
they can use to create a new dish. A data set is merged with
another data set to reveal something new.
The ingredients are gathered; arranged in the order they will
be needed; processed in different ways; layered together in
certain amounts; “cooked,” and the end result tested to ensure
the desired result has been achieved–a new dish.
The United States is way behind other countries (Vietnam,
Estonia) in coding literacy for kids. The United Kingdom
is planning to launch a mandatory computing syllabus for
all students ages 5-16. Here in the United States, no state
currently requires students to take a computer science course
to graduate. Common Core standards do not include computer
science requirements.
In the SFMAP Learning Center, “Cooking With Code” will give
San Francisco and Bay Area kids a way to talk to computers
in the machine’s own language of zeroes and ones through a
familiar idea–a recipe for their original gastronomic creation.
Delicious!
QUAKE THEATER
Quake Theater is an immersive experience of San Francisco
Bay Area earthquakes - past, present and, likely, future as the
odds for the “big one” rise.
Visitors use contemporary technologies to make critical “life
and death” decisions about what to do in disastrous situations
like the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906.
HANDS ON! SFMAP GARAGE FOR KIDS
Here at SFMAP kids are the inventors and innovators in
a “garage” created just for their hands-on activities and
inspiration in their own maker space.
Employing all the technologies they have at their disposal
in the museum, they use not only their hands but the critical
thinking and decision-making required to successfully complete
a task, a project or a game.

4. TOWER OF INNOVATION
The Tower of Innovation is an homage to the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) and its Tower of Jewels.
But it is much more. The Tower of Innovation, a soaring structure
in the SFMAP atrium, literally sparkles with the jewels in San
Francisco’s crown–the original thinkers who changed and continue
to change the world. The iconic design of this central feature of
SFMAP evokes our San Francisco and Bay Area past, present,
and future.
The Tower of Innovation hosts a permanent – but constantly
evolving–exhibit, City On The Edge, that tells these innovator’s
stories to visitors from around the world–and around the
neighborhoods. From the “Instant City” of the Gold Rush that
began in 1848 to the “next big thing” just around the corner in
the City on the Edge, the San Francisco Bay Area has always
been, and continues to be, a center of creativity, risk-taking
and adventure.
Through storytelling and story sharing, City On The Edge engages
visitors in an enlightening creative process. When a visitor selects
a tower jewel–a physical manifestation of the light of an idea
“turning on”–it reveals the story of a San Francisco original thinker.
CROWN JEWEL GALLERY
Among multiple glittering San Francisco and Bay Area treasures, San Francisco Bay is the crown jewel. A crown jewel requires a perfect
setting. At SFMAP, a gallery dedicated to the story of San Francisco Bay will have a room with a view–a big room and a big view. In the
Crown Jewel gallery, visitors will be able to experience San Francisco Bay and its ongoing innovation story all at once.
San Francisco Bay is the mother of all innovators. It invents
and reinvents itself according to the necessities of nature. San
Francisco Bay has shaped our entire ever-changing human story.
Visitors to Crown Jewel will meet hunters and shamans,
fisherfolk and birders, soldiers and sailors, padres and prisoners,
ranchers and traders, merchants and miners, high-flying society
and lying-low ladies, nativists and imperialists, bridge builders and
bridge burners, developers and environmentalists, ship builders
and chip builders.
Just as the great bay has shaped human life, humans have
changed the bay. The bay’s surface area has diminished by
one third since the early days of Spanish exploration. And,
today, alarming sea level rise threatens the communities
surrounding the bay. In the Crown Jewel Gallery visitors explore
ideas to accommodate human needs and to preserve the
natural environment.
WE INVITE YOU TO FIND OUT MORE!
STORY GALLERY SPOTLIGHT
W W W. S A N F R A N C I S C O M U S E U M AT T H E PA L A C E . O R G
OTHER STORY GALLERIES INCLUDE:
Eureka!, Instant City, Rebirth: The Panama Pacific International
Exposition, The Big Story, Law And Disorder, Work(S), The Second
Gold Rush, Culture And Counterculture, The Third Gold Rush,
That’s Entertainment, San Francisco And The Movies, Politics Of (In)
Tolerance, City Of Dreams, What’s New?
VISITOR PARTICIPATION:
RAP: Resident Associate Program for Lifelong Learning
STORYLAB: Story sharing and Storytelling Place
LOCAL PRODUCE: Community Gallery for locally produced and
community sourced exhibits