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While classical Science Museum s trace their history as far back as the 19th Century and before, the science center is largely a product of the 1960s and 1970s, a time of social ferment in the United States and Europe . Against a backdrop of the Cold War and its "space race," student uprisings, anti-war protests, and voter registration campaigns, curriculum reform efforts engaged scientists like Frank Oppenheimer . The hands-on approach to science education they were pioneering, and the populist spirit of the times, soon gave rise to visions of a new-style museum. The Pacific Science Center (one of the first to call itself a "science center" rather than a museum) opened in a Seattle World's Fair building in 1962. The first "science center" in the United State was the Science Center Of Pinellas County, founded in 1959. The Smithsonian Institution invited visitors into a new Discovery Room in its National Museum Of Natural History in Washington, DC , where they could touch and handle formerly off-limits specimens. In 1969, Oppenheimer's Exploratorium opened in San Francisco , California , and the Ontario Science Centre opened outside of Toronto , Canada . By the early 1970s, COSI Columbus , then known as the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio , had run its first "camp-in." It did not take long for these new-style museums to band together for mutual support. In 1971, 16 museum directors gathered to discuss the possibility of starting a new association — one more specifically tailored to their needs than the existing American Association Of Museums . The Association Of Science-Technology Centers ( ASTC ) was formally established in 1973. SEE ALSO
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