Inspiring innovation for sustainability

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, science and technology are of paramount importance to our innovation economy and have helped carve a region-wide landscape of science-rich educational institutions. In the Moore Foundation’s Bay Area Program, we support work to help preserve the defining elements of the area’s character. An important part of that work is ensuring that children and families have continued opportunities to engage in productive, hands-on, science-rich learning in and out-of-school settings that inspire curiosity, spark interest, and lead to an understanding and appreciation of science.

The Tech Museum of Innovation

Within this work, we have been honored to include The Tech Museum of Innovation for many years among our Bay Area grantees. A welcoming interactive science and technology center located in the heart of downtown San Jose, California, The Tech is dedicated to developing tomorrow’s innovators. A  recipient of the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, The Tech is a local point of pride and community resource for education and invention. With its mission “to inspire the innovator in everyone,” The Tech creates unique and engaging experiences that motivate people to see themselves, their world, and their problem-solving potential differently. It empowers educators to build problem-solving skills among the next generation in classrooms, afterschool programs, libraries and community centers. 

Technological innovation to make life in the Bay Area, and on Earth, sustainable

With an eye to daunting global challenges, The Tech has been dreaming up some hefty inspiration for the sake of the planet. For the next decade, they have set their sights on empowering people—those who visit the museum and those who learn from educators around the globe—to roll up their sleeves and become active, creative problem solvers as they explore challenges from individual choices to systemic change. 

“Our Technology and Sustainability initiative highlights the power of technology to help us live sustainability on earth. The featured innovations will help build confidence that real solutions are at hand and inspire all of us—wherever we are—to take action,” reflected President and CEO Tim Ritchie. “And here at home, Silicon Valley can lead the nation as the most sustainable community in the world.”

A new exhibit

Within The Tech’s walls, an 8,000-square-foot expanse will host dynamic content through featured exhibitions that include:

• Immersive Vision Lab. An interactive wall covered in futuristic ideas that respond to the visitors’ every touch.
• Sustainable Bay Area. Interconnected, locally themed experiences that encourage a systems-thinking approach to finding solutions in transportation, food security, energy, water and biodiversity. The experience includes Sustainable Cities, a large-scale model of the Bay Area that challenges each visitor to build a sustainable miniature city with smart buildings that rise and fall in response to decisions about high-density housing, public transit, autonomous vehicles, and other city-planning scenarios.
• Community Action Center. A collection of citizen-science activities that invite visitors of all ages to be real-life data scientists by contributing to ongoing projects. Visitors can also choose to participate in volunteer opportunities with local environmental groups.