California Academy of Sciences Opens Wowsabout in San Francisco, California on November 21: Five Interactive Pods and 60,000 Living Creatures, Through June 2027
SAN FRANCISCO, California — The California Academy of Sciences announced on November 5 that Wowsabout, a new original museum experience created in association with The Jim Henson Company, will open on Saturday, November 21, 2026, and run through June 2027. The experience follows Roxy the hedgehog and Ronald the pig, the newest Henson characters and stars of Wowsabout on PBS KIDS, on a journey into the imaginative and awe-inspiring side of science and nature.
According to the Academy, the experience begins at the main entrance, where a suspended hot air balloon featuring Roxy and Ronald welcomes guests, and centres on the museum's Piazza, which holds Roxy's solar-powered camper van and five seed cone-shaped "Wowsapods": Flower Power, a growing collective artwork of knitted, crocheted and felted flowers; Earth Beats, an interactive music experience blending nature sounds with musical interpretations of the movements of Claude, the Academy's albino alligator; Rainbow Reflection, with translucent walls of prismatic light; Planting Kindness, where visitors write down an act of kindness and "plant" it in a vertical field; and Time's a-Changin', with mechanical flipbooks turned by a crank. Musical bubble blizzards take place twice hourly, and in Hohfeld Hall visitors can pilot Ronald's spaceship across a panoramic projection of the universe, while Morrison Planetarium screens the Wowsabout PBS KIDS special twice daily.
The exhibit was created in close collaboration with Halle Stanford and Dorien Davies, co-creators, writers and executive producers of the PBS KIDS special; Davies also performs Roxy. The special was developed with guidance from Dr. Dacher Keltner, founder of UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, and explores the eight facets of awe. The Academy states that guests can discover their own "WOWs" among its 60,000 living creatures and continue the experience through a new Wowsabout Adventure web app. The Academy is at 55 Music Concourse Drive in Golden Gate Park, open Monday to Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; tickets and visiting information are at calacademy.org.
(Source: California Academy of Sciences)
Source: California Academy of Sciences
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于旧金山金门公园的加利福尼亚科学馆（资料图）。King of Hearts 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (file photo). Photo by King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
