The Tech Museum

The Tech Museum fits San Jose as snugly as the Louvre fits Paris. The Silicon Valley, after all, is the geographical heart of tech culture. And fortunately the museum’s curators have ensured that the exhibits are understandable to almost anyone. Even older adults—those of us routinely befuddled by computers—can comprehend enough of it to be intrigued.

Located at the center of downtown San Jose, the nonprofit Tech Museum of Innovation is housed in an appropriately innovative building: a three-story, blue-and-gold structure topped by a bubble skylight and filled with futuristic design flourishes. Up the escalator from the entrance you immediately encounter the Virtual Tech zone, where kids use 3D technology to design a rollercoaster ride and then become part of the ride simulation on a big screen. Or they can create 3D self-portraits after having their heads scanned with lasers. (It sounds edgy, but it’s perfectly safe.) Adults can do any of this too, but kids comprise the Tech’s target audience.

Like many of the innovation zones at the Tech, these interactive exhibits involve using computer or video screens; there are hundreds museum-wide. Two more examples: Kids learn how multimedia art is created and how gene therapy works. And in the new Tech Awards Gallery, they see how innovations can benefit humanity, with affordable and durable pedal-powered pumps and artificial limbs in Africa; solar-powered schools and ferries in Asia; and DNA testing that’s used to verify guilty verdicts in the U.S. It’s all part of the Tech’s focus on technology’s role in the world.

Kids can also race a hand-crank-powered racecar against an opponent and inspect several generations of solar panels—the newest can be stripped on like tape—in the Green Design area. And in the Exploration Gallery, they’ll see how NASA projects like Hubble and Voyager explore space. Other cool stuff? Kids flock to the virtual view of a human body; the two-person simulated wheelchair and bobsled races; a jet-pack simulator using compressed air; an earthquake simulation on a shaking platform; and a mini-sub that you can squirm into to explore the virtual ocean on a computer screen.

When it’s all over, you and your kids can catch one of the films showing in the eight-story IMAX Dome Theater. Educational films are shown hourly and one feature-length film is shown in the early evening.

HelloSanJose tip: Arrive at about 2 p.m., when the field-trip kids start boarding their buses, if you prefer avoiding chaos and waits.

- by Bob Cooper, San Jose Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Bob Cooper

Bob Cooper is a full-time freelance writer (www.bob-cooper.com) who writes about travel, outdoor sports and health. He is a monthly contributor to Runner's World and has written recent articles for other national magazines such as Continental, Ladies' Home Journal and Inc.