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Date: December 18, 2009
Museum expands visiting hours during holiday weeks


Looking for something fun to do with the kids and out-of-town guests during winter break? How about visiting Explorit? A two-week run of special holiday hours begins Monday at the hands-on museum, 2801 Second St.

Normally the museum is closed on Mondays, but it will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both this coming week and the following week. Doors will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Tuesdays. Next Wednesday the center will be open from 11-3, and on Wednesday, Dec. 30, hours are 11-5. It will be closed Thursday for Christmas as well as Thursday, Jan. 1. Finally, the center will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. next Friday, Dec. 26, and the following Friday, Jan. 2.

Too much to remember? Just check our holiday schedule at http://www.explorit.org.

Visiting during the next two weeks will allow you to explore our new space and astronomy exhibition, "What's Out There? Exploring Our Universe," upstairs in the Gumerlock Gallery.
If you like paper airplanes, you'll love one of the exhibition activities: a rocket-building station. First you make a rocket out of paper, then you get to launch it on a gizmo that resembles a stomp rocket. See how you well you can make it fly!

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Explorit received a $5,000 grant this week from Genentech, a biotechnology company headquartered in South San Francisco. The grant is to provide Explorit Family Science Nights at schools in Solano County, where the company has a manufacturing facility.

The Family Science Night program was Explorit's first outreach effort, developed in the early 1980s. It involves transporting a vanload of hands-on science exhibits to a school multipurpose room, effectively turning the space into a temporary science museum for schoolchildren and their families.

Founded more than 30 years ago, Genentech is a leading biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes medicines to treat patients with serious or life-threatening medical conditions. It provides support to a wide variety of organizations and initiatives through its corporate giving programs, including independent medical education grants, charitable contributions and sponsorships, and clinical research and development support. For additional information about the company, please visit http://www.gene.com.

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Explorit also recently received a $3,000 grant from the Thornton S. Glide, Jr. and Katrina D. Glide Foundation. Based in Davis, the foundation provide benefits for nonprofit organizations committed to animal protection, other land and wildlife conservancy groups, agricultural purposes, preservation of land in its natural state, and opera, symphony, and other similar civic organizations.

The grant to Explorit will allow the center to upgrade its animal enclosures in both the museum on Second Street and the Explorit Nature Center on Fifth Street. The upgrades will provide a safe and enhanced home for ExploritÕs current animals and will provide space for additional animals as well.

Explorit's animals are introduced to museum guests during visiting hours and are used in classroom programs for preschool through 6th graders in the region. Among the most popular are a blue-tongued skink and a 6-foot ball python snake.

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Admission to Explorit Science Center is $4. Members, teachers with school ID and children ages 3 and under are free. For more information: (530) 756-0191 or http://www.explorit.org.