CuriOdyssey, Science museum and wildlife center in San Mateo, United States.
CuriOdyssey is a science museum and wildlife center in San Mateo housing around 70 rescued animals and aquariums. The facility sits within a larger recreation area and provides interactive exhibits focused on physics, biology, and environmental topics.
CuriOdyssey was founded in 1954 as the San Mateo County Junior Museum, housed in a Quonset hut at Coyote Point. It was renamed the Coyote Point Museum for Environmental Education in 1974, and its main building opened in 1981. Wildlife exhibits with live animals representing San Mateo County ecosystems opened in 1991. In 2006 a fundraising campaign led by 776 donors saved the museum from closure, and it took the name CuriOdyssey in 2011.
The facility connects physics principles, natural sciences, and wildlife conservation through hands-on exhibits designed for visitors to explore. Many displays focus on motion, energy, and animals living in local habitats.
The museum sits within a park featuring multiple pathways and outdoor areas to explore. Comfortable shoes are helpful since you will move between indoor exhibits and outdoor spaces throughout your visit.
The exhibit station in the photo, labelled "Gears & Gadgets", is one of more than 50 hands-on science exhibits built for young visitors, letting children crank gears and handles to test gravity, light, perception and lift. Two public art pieces went up outside in 2013: over 200 pinwheels by Eric Maschwitz showing wind currents at Coyote Point, and more than 100 weather vanes by Mark Brest van Kempen.
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