The Tech Museum - San Jose California

When we were on the other side of this lovely continent this summer, hanging out in San Jose and surrounding area, we took a day and spent it at the Tech Museum. I was a little unsure about it. Was it going to be dry and boring? Was it going to be a lot of displays about the history of computers or were they going to have some hands-on stuff? Well, we had exhausted most of the other one day options in the area, so we went to check it out.

I couldn’t have been more happy and surprised! This is probably the best museum experience we have ever had. We had no agenda, and so just went through it at our own pace. We spent the entire day and still didn’t quite manage to see and do everything. After a point, it’s all just too much to take in anyway, but boy did we take in a lot!

If you are ever hanging out in the area of San Jose, CA and have a day, and kids between the ages of 5 and 20, I highly recommend it. The cost was $12 for adults and $9 for kids, and it is money well spent. 

Here is a sampling of what is there:

Putting small circuits together with a power source to run a fan or a light.

Optical illusions.

Design your own roller coaster and try it out!

There is a section on deep sea exploration. You can drive a deep sea submersible...

Learn about earthquakes and be in one...

and then learn about space exploration and try out a "jet pack". It's surprisingly hard to maneuver the chair under a red dot exactly.

Upstairs was a section on new technology. 

You could have your face photographed and taken apart and put with other people's...

Have a robot draw your portrait...

Have a robot find blocks and spell out just about anything you want it to...

Dance inside of colored bubbles and bump into other people and trade and mix colors. This was a favorite. It was supposed to be about connectivity and how people interact on the internet these days.

You can use blocks and light to make music. I was so entranced by this. If you turn the blocks over and connect them in different ways they change the music.

There was so much more. Creating music, art, computer characters, blog pages... it goes on. There was a whole genetics and biotechnology section that we didn't even go into. All around are quotes like this last one. 

We came out exhausted but happy and my son was already asking if we could go back sometime. It's now officially his favorite museum ever.

Anyway, if you ever have the chance, check it out!