Experience The Tech Museum

The Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San José is chock-full of fascinating activities for everyone in the family, from little kids to teens—plus plenty of stuff to amaze moms and dads.

As you enter the building, prepare to be astonished by the giant ball maze. Each child receives a “Tech Tag” (a bar code on their ticket), which allows kids to store their customized information and the designs they’ll create at the various exhibits.

Starting on the bottom floor, you’ll find interactive, supervised activities that revolve around inventions, gadgets and alternative energy. These hands-on activities teach you about energy—where it comes from, how we use it, and how it can be conserved. The kids get to build neat contraptions and interact in virtual games. The bottom floor also has regularly scheduled shows that incorporate science and technology.

On the top floor, kids dive into more activities and exhibits. They can engineer safe rollercoasters and simulate riding them, design bikes, get their heads scanned in 3-D, learn about DNA and genetics, and participate in a wet lab where they can grow their own strand of jellyfish DNA and see it glow (they can even check the results at home, online). Kids can also race each other in wheelchairs, create music by pressing on lights, play a virtual marble maze tilt game, interact with robots, collect virtual activity cards, and play at being biochemists.

A mere two hours from Sacramento, and located right off Interstate 280 and Highway 87, you can’t miss the brightly colored Tech Museum building. There is a parking garage just two short blocks away, and The Tech validates parking. Tickets are a reasonable $8 each and include a movie at the attached IMAX Theater.

Each entertaining, educational IMAX film runs about 45 minutes. Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk begins playing at The Tech January 16. Other films playing this month include the very popular Sea Monsters and Adrenaline Rush, which dives into the physics of human flight, including footage of a modern experiment with Leonardo Da Vinci's parachute. It’s the perfect accompaniment to The Tech’s current featured exhibit on Da Vinci and his Renaissance contemporaries.

Leonardo: 500 Years into the Future is the most comprehensive collection of Da Vinci’s art, science and engineering works ever gathered together, with models, artifacts, drawings, and paintings by the master—and The Tech boasts the exclusive U.S. showing! Extended by popular demand through January 25, Leonardo is a rare glimpse at how the greatest minds of the Renaissance influenced and inspired much of today’s technology. Admission to The Tech and Leonardo: 500 Years into the Future is $25 for adults and $15 for children and youths (ages 3-17).

The Tech provides a big indoor area to eat, so you can save a few dollars by packing a lunch for your family or opt for convenience by ordering from the cafeteria. Need a change of scenery at lunch time? No problem. Cesar Chavez Park is right across the street and is an excellent place to picnic and people watch. Allow your family a full day to learn, explore and have fun!

Nito Labrado is the coordinator for a school-age program in Sunnyvale; he takes his energetic group to The Tech each year. A graduate of San Jose State, Nito has worked with children for the past seven years.