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Please Touch Everything: A History of the Ontario Science Centre
The story of the revolutionary Ontario Science Centre, its iconic exhibits, and the people who made it all happen.
A Centennial project announced by Premier John Robarts in 1964, the Ontario Science Centre upended the traditional museum instruction ― Don’t Touch ― and created a whole new category of visitor attraction. Its designers, scientists, and craftspeople developed a way to explain science to the public by building mechanical devices for visitors to touch. Exhibits like the bicycle generator, and iconic demonstrations like the electricity show that made your hair stand on end, even those long escalators in that landmark building beside a Toronto ravine inspired generations of young people to pursue careers in science.
The Ontario Science Centre also changed the way that traditional museums and art galleries now interpret their collections to the public, and helped create an industry around this thing called interactivity. Its legacy is the contribution that it made to the public understanding of science. That work is even more remarkable when you consider that it was created inside a government institution, under a cloud of senior managers of varying competencies, and politicians with changing agendas who closed its doors in the summer of 2024.
A Centennial project announced by Premier John Robarts in 1964, the Ontario Science Centre upended the traditional museum instruction ― Don’t Touch ― and created a whole new category of visitor attraction. Its designers, scientists, and craftspeople developed a way to explain science to the public by building mechanical devices for visitors to touch. Exhibits like the bicycle generator, and iconic demonstrations like the electricity show that made your hair stand on end, even those long escalators in that landmark building beside a Toronto ravine inspired generations of young people to pursue careers in science.
The Ontario Science Centre also changed the way that traditional museums and art galleries now interpret their collections to the public, and helped create an industry around this thing called interactivity. Its legacy is the contribution that it made to the public understanding of science. That work is even more remarkable when you consider that it was created inside a government institution, under a cloud of senior managers of varying competencies, and politicians with changing agendas who closed its doors in the summer of 2024.
- GenresNonfictionCanada
288 pages, Paperback
Published July 14, 2026
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July 25, 2026All this book has done is make me reminiscence. Every year my elementary school would take us on one field trip, and we went to the OSC. Being there made science feel so easy and acessible. We would watch an IMAX movie, attend a lecture and then get to go explore. There were so many things we got to do that we would have never been able to expeirence in our small town classroom. Even eating lunch in the conversation pits felt so unique and cool. OSC being at the waterfront would have probably prevented us from ever going, due to the distance. Which then makes me feel sad because there are so many kids from my area who will probably never get to go and live these same expierences or even have simillar ones. Then, I started to feel shame and defat because I wonder how we let it get to this point.
August 20, 2026
i was an extremely lucky child, because i got to experience the ontario science centre. the osc has always been something special, and following the journey of the pioneers who launched the place into stardom felt just as special, as if i was in the exhibit space all over again.
the only reason i couldn't give this a full count is a bit of a lack of focus within chapters, where it seemed joan francuz would write down things she remembered while deep in another train of thought. this tended to take me out of it, but there were times where it felt like a real conversation, which was pleasant.
if you were a kid in ontario between 1969 and 2020, this book is required reading. it will equally heal you and radicalize you.
the only reason i couldn't give this a full count is a bit of a lack of focus within chapters, where it seemed joan francuz would write down things she remembered while deep in another train of thought. this tended to take me out of it, but there were times where it felt like a real conversation, which was pleasant.
if you were a kid in ontario between 1969 and 2020, this book is required reading. it will equally heal you and radicalize you.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
The rise and tragic, neglectful fall of a beloved institution, told in poured concrete.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews