Let first floor learning experiences and activities guide you through the collective history of California, chronicling its rich heritage of diversity. Through interactive exhibits and instructive displays, you will learn about ordinary people who have shaped the State of California through their quests for social change.

What’s Your Story?

Share your personal stories and reflections on your experience in the Center in the Oral History Alcove. The alcove will be used to record brief commentary from daily visitors as well as to conduct oral interviews that can be used for media productions, exhibits, and other programmatic and scholarly purposes.

The “Key” to an Enriched Experience

On your first visit you will receive a “key”—a clear piece of acrylic embedded with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. This technology will allow you to store information about your visit to a remote database through a network of radio frequency receivers embedded in interactive exhibits. At home, access the CUC web site and your personalized profile with details about your visit and links to other resources. Use this key for every visit.

Examples of California Revealed Experiences

In the Protest learning experience, find out about the impact and effectiveness of non-violent protest.

• Through audio-based histories, quotes and messages, get to know individuals and organizations that have used protest as a starting point for changing the status quo.
• March along a set of footprints that activate videos of historic footage of significant protests in California history.
• Learn about everyday heroes such as Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American from Oakland who protested the internment camp policy enacted during World War II and Ed Roberts, an educator and leader in the civil rights movement for persons with disabilities.

In the Organize exhibit, realize the value of coming together with others who share ideas and concerns.

• Gather together people to activate a multimedia wall in a real life experience of the power of organizing.
• Cesar Chavez, National Farm Workers founder, and Harry Hay, a civil rights activist for people who are gay, might be profiled.

The California Revealed programs are organized according to the same model—learn from one set and apply that experience to the remaining activities. Each learning experience consists of five building blocks:

1. Hero Stories Video Database
   a touchscreen monitor for selecting a heroes stories about a wide range of social justice.
2. Using the Tool: On the Stage
   an interactive stage to practice what you learn.
3. Points of View: Where do You Stand?
   an interactive screen that asks you to consider a controversial question and then presents four different points of view about the subject. Use your “key” to register your opinion. A tally shows you how others have voted.
4. Discussion Board/Contemporary Issues
   a low-tech, but interactive, area where Center staff will post current articles, introduce recent events and pose questions in an ongoing dialogue about relevant issues.
5. Artifacts
   a display case with historical and contemporary objects that help you connect the concept of each tool with reality.
Also included in the California Revealed Gallery are two instructive programs—one that introduces the issues of discrimination and civil rights and another that provides a database of laws pertaining to legally protected groups.