Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose

CDM

Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose (CDM) is located on Woz Way in downtown San Jose, California. Woz Way is named after Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, whose nickname is "Woz," and who was the single largest private donor during the original capital campaign that funded the Museum.

Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose has been ranked by Child Magazine as one of the top 10 children’s museums in the U.S.^[1] and ranked by the London Observer as one of the top 5 science centers in the world.

The Museum opened its doors in 1990, and over 6 million visitors have attended. The Museum builds and displays interactive exhibits that they believe respond to children's diverse educational needs. The 52,000-square-foot (4,800 m²) purple building was designed by Mexico City-based architect Ricardo Legorreta.

The Museum’s signature programs such as BioSITE and Discovery Youth encompass the broad themes of community, connections and creativity. These programs are intended to provide facilitated, focused, and sustained learning. The Museum’s goal is to create interactive exhibits the invite self-directed, open-ended explorations.

In a redevelopment plan released in November 2008, the city of San José has stated its intentions to put forth five million dollars in funds, which will allow the museum to expand by 2013. Plans are to add a new baby mammoth exhibit.^[2]

Discovery Youth

Discovery Youth is a fun program were youth from grades 5 to 12 have fun learning and helping in the museum. They do many projects in computers with programs like Photoshop, Premiere Elements, Flash Creator and many more donated by the Adobe company. They make fun little arts and crafts in the museum on Saturday from 10am to 1pm for the museum visitors. They even have their own website: [1]

Summer Of Service (SOS)

The Summer of service program is a fun summer program were kids entering 5th to 10th grade help out the community. They do a lot of work at many sites like Sacred Heart Community Center, Resource Area For Teaching (RAFT), Second Harvest Food Bank, and many more. The program opened its doors on the summer of 1997 and it was led by Jessica Intrator, Brian Hames, Ryan Smith and David Chau. This program is split into five teams; all of which have their specialty.^{[verification needed]}

BioSITE

BioSITE was launched by the Museum in 1993 as a unique "action-science" education program. Currently the program engages 1,500 students each school year in the importance of environmental responsibility and inspires the love of science through authentic field research conducted biweekly in the Guadalupe Watershed. This program is intended to take science learning out of the classroom and moves it into the real world. The students are given the experiences of biologists, conducting research along the river. Their research is monitored at the Coyote Creek Ranger Station.

Architecture

The Discovery Museum was designed by the world famous Mexican Architect Ricardo Legorreta. The building exemplifies his use of color, light, shadows, and water. The violet colors change from light blues to dark purples, depending on the shadows, time of year, and angle of the sun through what seem to be stragetically placed windows. This building (and the nearby Tech Museum by Legorreta) give the City of San José two world-class structures of significant architectural importance. The Discovery Museum recently completed a remodel (2007), which removed the front entrance water feature. The City of San Jose allowed the remodel contractor to modify the existing architecture. Because it was originally built as a public works project it was built by the low bidder, who "value engineered" the water feature to the point of failure. Unfortunately, design flaws led to issues involving upkeep and repairs, which would require the eventual removal of the water feature.

See also

• The Tech Museum of Innovation

References

1. ^ Sangiorgio, Maureen (February 2002). "The 10 Best Children's Museums". Child magazine. Meredith Corporation. http://www.parents.com/family-life/travel/us-destinations/the-10-best-childrens-museums/. 
2. ^ Theriault, Denis (2008-11-17). "San Jose weighs ambitious redevelopment plan amid tough times". San Jose Mercury News. http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11008839?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com. Retrieved 2009-01-23. 

External links

• Children's Discovery Museum

37°19′36″N 121°53′30″W / 37.32668°N 121.89177°W / 37.32668; -121.89177