With summer here, vacations are on my mind and I’ve had my eye out for fun places to visit. On of my most favorite places I ever visited is San Francisco’s Exploratorium. Hundreds of gadgets, experiments, and cool mind tricks break kids into the exciting elements of science. I also adore museums, especially of natural history. I think that if I were going to find a new place to visit that is a combination of the two, it’d be the Solar Ark.

Sanyo’s Solar Ark in Japan is a big building covered in PV panels, the inside of which is a huge museum of solar energy. One of the coolest aspects of this museum is that appeals to kids and the kid in adults with hands-on exhibits, art and light shows. Its purpose is to promote the goal of living in a clean energy society, and its method is to provide a fun experience that imprints the importance of solar on visitors. Walking visitors through different “zones” that teach them about solar power, the Solar Lab exhibit gets visitors energized and excited about how our energy use affects our ecosystems, and how solar power helps alleviate the pressure we put on our habitats.

So if you happen to be in, or will be visiting Japan any time soon either on your own or with your young ecogeeks in tow, this would be a great spot to hit. And, like any good museum, it has a café where you can learn even more just by sitting at the educationally decorated tables. Food tends to be my favorite part of any excursion…

Via GoodCleanTech, Solar Ark; Photo via Heroic Beer

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

Add Comment