1969 was a significant year. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, the hippies came of age, the Beatles performed for the very last time and the Internet was invented. That same year the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto and the Exploratorium in San Francisco opened their doors. A product of the post-sputnik science education fervour and the open education movement of the times, these boundary-pushing organisations served to fuel by example the explosion of non-collections-based science centres worldwide.

Today, these two organisations have each undergone a significant strategic planning process that builds on their past strengths but points them in new directions for the next 50 years. This session will explore the roots of these institutions in the early history of the science centre movement and discuss their recent visioning process which shows how they have worked to adapt to a changing world.