This study serves three purposes. The first is as my primary dissertation research. Since starting graduate school I have had an interest in exploring the connection science centers have to providing phenomenon-based experiences. I am interested in this from several angles: 1) that of a learning theorist – What is the relationship between learning and physically experiencing something? 2) from a socio-political standpoint – How and why did the idea that science learning is best done through physical, open-ended exploration arise, proliferate, take the shape it takes in the Exploratorium? 3) from a phenomenological stance – how is it that such experiences yield meaning for different people? This study is also part of a larger project Molly Loomis and Rod Ogawa have been involved in for a couple of years that seeks to construct a conceptual and empirical bridge that links the immediate contexts where learning occurs (i.e. the exhibit floor) to their organizational settings. Our previous years work have been largely devoted to understanding the organizational setting of the Exploratorium through an institutional history, while this current work, seeks to detail the immediate contexts where learning occurs.