The Tech Museum of Innovation

I’ve been to several tech museums in my life time and this one was just okay. The museum had a lot of things for the space but few things to look at overall. There are some cool things but most of the displays weren’t up to date. I felt like SV needs a great tech museum since its the Tech capital of the world. Really disappointed in general but understandable i guess. Nice to come by for a quick view.

We were in San Jose for Memorial Day weekend, and since we’re Discovery Cube members, we decided to check out The Tech Museum of Innovation (free admission for us). It’s a great place with many hands-​on activities for the kids. If we lived in the area, we’d be coming here pretty often. The boys were able to create their own airplane and test it out. They were also able to ride a jet-​pack simulator, create their own roller coaster, and pedal a bicycle to generate electricity. I don’t think we were able to see the entire museum since we were hungry for lunch.
The only downside was that it was difficult for us to find parking. I’m not sure if they have their own parking garage, but we had to drive around a few minutes to find another garage close by. There was a huge animé convention going on that weekend, so maybe parking was harder than usual.

If you have young children, come. If not, don’t even bother. Maybe because I had high expectation. Tech museum in a tech city… Yeah… This place is so not for adults.

Bought a FULL priced student ticket for the museum with only HALF of its exhibits functioning. The staff was really nice and the exhibits that did work were definitely interesting but I was extremely disappointed to find that every other station or exhibit I went to had broken equipment. I think that with that much of the museum out of order, people should not have to pay full price for admission.

We came here for my daughter friends birthday party. The party rooms was very big and nice and clean as in for the tech museum it very nice and exciting lots of things to see and experiments to do as making your name in blocks, having your picture on the screen jumping on the big letters upstairs that have colors so many things to do. And so much more, I can’t wait to take my kids back for another day there. You will have to come here and check it out for yourself. Parking is tough either street parking or the parking garages .Next time we will be taking light rail.

When I went to the Tech Museum in 2003, I thought it was great. Unfortunately my visit this year was quite a disappointment. About 10% of the exhibits didn’t work properly or were out of order. For the rather exorbitant prices they charge, you would think that they’d maintain their equipment. I understand that electronic stuff breaks but let’s get real; this is SUPPOSED TO BE THE TECH MUSEUM.

This place is nice for kids older than 6. My littles, ages 1 and 4, had absolutely nothing to do. My 5 year old hung in there mostly because we made it interesting for him. My 7 year old was very intrigued at all the different things available, but it fell flat for him in the end. My kids like to delve deep into the hands on aspects of museums and this gave them a glimpse of interesting things, but then seemed to always fall short. For instance, the roller coaster attraction. My son is obsessed with roller coasters. There are computers where you can «build your own coaster» and at first my son was sooo thrilled and then frustrated because you could only build one specific coaster, just with two or three different options. In his head, he wanted to see all his crazy, scary coasters that he has dreamed up come to life, so this was a let down. You do get to see your creation on a big screen, but he wasn’t excited about seeing this pre made coaster.
Building a robot was pretty fun for the older two, but naturally, our robot was not functioning properly.
They also liked the flight exhibit, they had lots of fun there, but I was upset that some lady ruthlessly cut in front of me while in line, and the young, sweet looking helper/​volunteer just sheepishly smiled at me.
They also need to crank the A/​C up, I was sweating!

Place makes for an awesome day trip with the kids. They have a ton of stuff to see and interact with.
The place seems huge but is actually a bit smaller than it looks but there is still a lot to do. The had a really cool earthquake exhibit when we went last. I really like this place because it gets my kids fascinated with learning. They had an awesome star wars exhibit there too with a ton of costumes and props. Really cool stuff.
They also have a huge IMAX theatre there and i heard they were playing star wars! I wish i would have known sooner or i would have tried to get tickets.

It is a neat place to take kids. Also, if you are an adult and shy about computer tech, its a great place to interact with a variety of concepts and young docents that can get you acquainted with the basics — no need to take some lame powerpoint for winners class.
I’m not sure how frequently they rotate exhibits, but I could see this place getting old quick — however, that’s just me. They do have an IMAX where I’ve saw the screening for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice — outstanding experience. Worth the drive up from Monterey. For that, I will continue to go to screenings at this location.

I came here with my mom on a Sunday around 2 pm to see «National Parks Adventure» in IMAX. The movie was pretty weak, but it was exacerbated by how blurry the IMAX resolution was — granted the domed-​screen experience has potential to be really awesome.
The location is well-​positioned in the middle of downtown SJ, and there are lots of families trickling through the museum, which I haven’t visited. It looks like a great rainy day activity if you have a kid between 5 – 8 years old. It’s not very large, so it shouldn’t take terribly long to get through.
IMAX tickets cost $ 10 for an adult and $ 8.50 for seniors. Full-​length features (like The Force Awakens) are $ 16. I wouldn’t recommend a full-​length film on that screen — I’d probably puke if I’d watched anything longer than 40 minutes! Definitely go to the Metreon in SF for the real deal.
Worth a stop if you’re in the mood for a relaxed day, but don’t get your hopes up.

Once or twice every five years everybody loves the tech museum. It’s spacious has innovative interactive teaching tools for children and adults! All my children’s classes have gone over the years and I enjoyed being one of the volunteer parents who go!

They have renewed half the museum experiences in the last 3 years. Great new Bio Design Studio experience opens tomorrow. Today’s preview was fantastic. Well worth the visit that will inspire the innovator in everyone.

La Clase de Maestra Gomez de la Escuela Laurel visitó el Museo de Tecnología de San Jose y ¡NOS ENCATO! Una razón, es que es muy divertido porque puedes construir muchas cosas como por ejemplo: un robot, un avión que vuela, arañas, estrellas, una montaña rusa y muchas cosas más. Además, es un lugar para aprender mucho sobre tecnología como robots, computadoras, música, planetas, terremotos y máquinas. Otra razón, es que es un museo perfecto para niños porque puedes tocar e interactuar con todas las exhibiciones. Para terminar, puedes aprender jugando. Visita este lugar y te va a ENCANTAR porque es magnífico, excelente, fabuloso para los niños y los adultos también.

Many interactive displays, but most displays can only be used if you scan the barcode on your museum ticket – so make sure you keep your admission ticket handy (the museum calls this you tech tag). Laid out in a way that leaves a lot of floor space unused, making for a lot of extra walking for the mobility impaired.
The favorite exhibit for my grandkids was where you design your own rollercoaster and then ride your coaster in a simulator. We had lunch in the café and watched the «Robots» movie in the IMAX theater (extra charge to watch the movie.). Tech exhibits I would like to see (but not included here) include tech changes through history – ancient spearheads through modern computer hackers.
The kids had a lot of fun.
Parking choices are awful, however, if you park at the convention center two blocks away, you can get your parking ticket validated at the museum info desk.

Was told this, along with the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, are must-​see museums. Spent about three hours here going around the exhibits as well as watching the IMAX film in their theatre (they have multiple educational ones as well as Hollywood films like Star Wars). Tickets are $ 24 (+ $ 10 for IMAX) for adults but $ 19 (+ $ 4 for IMAX) for students. I’ll let y’all check out the prices for children and the rest on their website.
They have some really cool exhibits. Three floors, ground, main, and second. Two on the second floor. One on Silicon and other semiconductors. There was a timeline of how silicon chip tech has involved in computing and there was a portion dedicated to sound. The other one on the third floor focused on cost-​friendly innovations implemented in third-​world countries. Inventions as water-​powered contacts (liquid vision), water filters used to drink polluted water in Africa, and material-​friendly pouch for prematurely born babies that need heat to survive among others (part of the new ‘Innovations in Health Care’ exhibit). They had additional space devoted to constructing new exhibits.
The ground floor talked about space, smells, body weight, and a variety of other topics that are really good for kids. There’s a play lab for kids also. The main floor is ground-​level floor where admissions, café, museum store, and the IMAX is at. The National Parks movie was dope. Took lots of snaps and was worth the cost. You can’t miss out on this museum!

We really enjoyed the Tech Museum of Innovation. There were lots of fun things to do. Especially recommend the labs for school kids. They have great instructors who are really knowledgable about science and do fun classroom experiments with the kids. The rest of the museum has hands on programs where you can make robots, airplanes, fly a jet pack, experience an earthquake, and track all kind of biometric data on yourself. There is an Imax theater, a gift shop and a café on site. Overall, this is a fun and informative family museum.

I haven’t been here in over 10 years!
Great date night idea. Lots of fun and educational exhibits! My favorites were definitely the musical ones. There’s also this really cool smelling exhibit where they mix smells and you have to guess which kinds! There’s so much to do. We spent 5 hours here and got to meet a robot!
Boyfriend and I were looking forward to seeing a space film in IMAX but they were only showing Star Wars…
Gift shop was filled with cool stuff. I will admit to walking out with a box of kinetic sand :)
The café was alright. Got a burger and it was disappointing.

This museum is really good and lots of things/​activities where kids & adults can enjoy! It’s worth to see this museum especially those hi-​technologies

Ive been here several times over the past 7 years or so for field trips with my class, as well as for family day trips.
In the past, there seemed to be a lot of exhibits that were very interactive, and offered an experience that makes you feel like you are doing simulated work (the guided jellyfish (?) lab for example), or the recorded TelePromter speech, or the bobsled simulation.
Today, there seemed to be few exhibits — and most of them were very «read and learn» based exhibits, rather than experiential.
Not a bad place to visit for a field trip at all. It’s very affordable, and a fun place for the kids. But I do hope they add more exhibits!

I believe this is the first time I went to the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, unless I went as a kid on a field trip and do not remember that day, haha. Regardless, I had a fun time going through the different sections of the museum and learning new things through simulations and computer games. But seriously, what’s more fun than learning than through games?!
Some random facts that I learned at the museum include how dogs can sniff out cancer patients, how to detect the amount of security your password has, the difficulties of building a safe roller coaster, and more. There are also employees or volunteers there who help you out if you don’t know how a certain booth works. My favorite game had to be the computer hacking and email spam ones on the computer, as I got really into those games and actually ended up being hacked on my virtual computer and fired from my virtual company! Boo! :(
The only reason I took down a star was the entire presentation of the museum. Walking into it, it looks a bit plain and each booth contains a huge sign with its respective category on top. Yeah, it’s cool how you can easily navigate through the museum with ease, but it was also a bit boring on how everything was presented.
Parking-​wise, this museum does NOT have a parking lot. You can either find street parking (a bit pricey if you stay too long!) or there is a garage in San Jose that you only have to pay $ 5.00 for if you validate your parking ticket at the museum.
Happy learning! :)

I remember when this museum opened in 1998. The place has really deteriorated over the years. One would expect much better maintenance of the exhibits… especially with $ 24 adult & $ 19 student admission price tags. I was shocked at the number of non-​functional & inoperable exhibits/​stations. Most of the people working at the exhibits are volunteer docents so their salaries don’t account for the high admission fees… and yet it’s the enthusiastic volunteers that make this place fun and earn The Tech a second and third star. Oh…& this museum is not particularly suited for children under 5 or 6 no matter how many years of Kumon they’ve been enrolled in.
Pros: Breast-​feeding mothers & volunteers
Cons: Inoperable exhibits

I like this museum. There is some stuff to explore and experience. May be good for young kids. Checked it out as entry is free for Bank of America customers.
I m a member of SF exploratorium. It’s got way lot to explore.

This is a great place for children and adults to learn and explore. There are certain days that if you’re a card holder of Bank of America, you get free admission. You’ll need to check when those dates are. It’s very fun for the whole family. You can park across the street at the convention center or find street parking.

I love the Tech Museum!
Being from San Jose, growing up I had multiple field trips to the Tech Museum! It was always my favorite field trip. This museum is different from many! My favorite part about it is how hands on the exhibits are. I love it. Especially when youre younger, youre just amazed by everything. If youre tech-​savvy and have a passion for innovation, you can even compete in some competition they have for the youth! It’s pretty cool. Other than coming for the museum, I’ve also seen it in an elegant feel. I came to chaperone/​help for a Prom once, and it was cool. They had all of the exhibits open for everyone to enjoy, and they had their dance floor in the center room where people usually line up for their theater. Oh, did I mention they have a theater? Yup, the iMAX Dome theater is located here at the Tech Museum. I’m personally not a huge fan of that theater (I wrote a separate review for that), but its pretty cool if you want to experience it.
I do recommend to take children here. They’ll have a great experience.

It’s a hands-​on technology museum in which you can build your own robots. The kids would have spent at least four hours here, but the adults were ready to go after about two hours.

I visited there one week back, all I can say not much very interesting. thats it.simply u can spend 1 hr time there. Not bad

Today’s review of The Tech is brought to you by the number 3.
3 hours. That’s how long it took me and the wife to do just about every exhibit here. This place is way smaller than the Exploratorium in SF.
3 levels. The upstairs level has galleries for Silicon Valley innovations (mainly microchips), technology solving problems in developing countries, and an extremely small gallery for digital music. On that floor are also robotic arms that draw your picture and spell out a custom phrase with building blocks; pretty cool. The downstairs level had more interesting galleries: body metrics, cyber detectives, earth and space, and a hands-​on robot building lab. The ground level is just a café, gift shop and the entrance to the IMAX theatre.
3 broken exhibits. I remember at least three exhibits being broken.
3 areas I liked best. The cyber detectives gallery was probably my favorite. I liked the interactive exhibits that taught about crytopgraphy and password cracking. The space section of the exploration gallery was my second favorite; they have a space jet pack simulator that you propel across the floor with bursts of air (for the inner astronaut in all of us). The earth section of the exploration gallery gets the bronze medal; the most notable exhibit there was the earthquake simulator (you go stand in it and get to relive what notable recorded earthquakes felt like).
3 dollar amounts of note. Admission was $ 21 for adults and $ 16 for children. Add $ 5 to your ticket price if you’re seeing an IMAX movie. The wife and I had fun, but we’re not really itching to come back.
3 stars. Enough said.

If you are a geeky parent visiting the Bay Area with your kids, you have a real dilemma. The Computer History Museum — which is phenomenal! — isn’t really geared to kids. Apple HQ, while terrific for a photo op and a little swag-​buying, doesn’t actually have anything to look at. And if you’ve told your kid that the epicentre of the tech universe is the best place to buy Doctor Who merchandise, her heart will be broken when she discovers there is little such merchandise to be had.
So what’s a geeky parent to do? Take the kids to the Tech Museum of Innovation. This is a tech shrine set up for kids to enjoy: lots of hands-​on, fully-​body exhibits to delight your kid and inspire their love of technology. Like the robot that can spell their name, the dance floor that mirrors the dynamics of social media, or (during our well-​timed exhibit) the fantastically effective exhibit on cybersecurity — which actually DOES teach your kid useful stuff, but is effectively disguised as fun!
But the highlight for us wasn’t the digital tech (surprisingly) but the bio-​tech: a lab that walks your kid through the process of splicing bioluminescent DNA. It really gives you a feel for what it’s like to do lab work — and it’s fun, too!
All this makes for a great family experience — but I can’t imagine I’d want to come here without kids. If you’re visiting with kids, don’t miss it; otherwise, I wouldn’t bother.

I really like this museum since it encapsulates everything Silicon Valley is about. I enjoyed the Tech Awards Gallery, it had a lot of innovative and interesting ideas that have helped people in areas of the world who lack resources to live better lives. My group probably spent the most time there as well as the genetics area.
There are a lot of really cool exhibits and interactive activities to enhance the whole learning experience. But, sometimes it’s hard to check stuff out cause kids just wanna play on everything. There are a ton of kids who come here. One kid told my brother to get off of something so she could play on it, LOL.
The museum is definitely worth checking out sometime, and I would probably only visit once every few years.

I wanted to thank the staff at the museum for replying to my review. My boyfriend and I will look into the Creative Collisions event. It sounds like fun. Regarding the mother who was breastfeeding. Sure, I can understand that the museum wants to welcome young mothers and allow them to breastfeed when needed. However, when they do, it is awkward for other guests. As there was limited sitting space where the mother was breast feeding her child, that would have meant that we would have had to sit nearby her. This made my boyfriend uncomfortable.
And sure, if we sat there, the young mother would have been uncomfortable too. We wanted to see the film but found it would have been too awkward. She was the only one sitting in the small theater area and I doubt anyone else would have sat over there at the time either. Could we have just sat down, watched the show and ignored what she was doing? I do not think so, but we had all the right to have sat there too. But as I said, no one else was watching the show and most likely because of the fact that she was breastfeeding. u
* Note: Please read my previous review for a more thorough description of the place and my experience there as well as a summary of the pros/​cons of it.

They should call this place the «The Children’s Tech Museum of Innovation». If you have kids this place is 4 stars. Most of the exhibits are geared towards children and are hands on. I learned nothing new from visiting the exhibits, maybe just that I was not ready to have children.

In the heart of Silicon Valley, where else would you expect to find a tech museum? Yep, it’s right where it belongs. There are some very neat exhibits, the one on internet security was pretty well done.
I especially liked the ones done on genetics and biometrics, which was pretty awesome, even if the children were mostly unruly and the parents didn’t know that they should be watching and supervising them.
Their little shop had quite a bit of fun things to look through as well.

Got toddlers?
If so, THIS is the place.
On the bottom floor, our son and daughter loved building with the giant foam blocks (and loved knocking them down even more!). I thought the ‘build your own robot’ would be way over their heads, but they actually understood the concept and were entertained by the input/​output blocks and hooking them up to the portable platform. I figured the third floor might bore them (genetics… Can a three year old really appreciate this?) but was pleasantly surprised to see them listening to the interactive videos/​playing with the exhibits.
Favorites included the robot machines that can draw your photo or spell out names in blocks. Awesome!
I highly recommend this place to families with young children. Perfect spot to spend a rainy day!

The last time I was here was many years ago when the «Body Worlds» Exhibit. Boy, that was a long time ago!
Fast forward to now, my company had a formal dinner planned for us employees. Located in the lower part of the museum was where the party was being held. It seemed to be about 100+ employees plus guest in attendance.
The museum looked unrecognizable! There were a few exhibits for the attendees to enjoy, but they blended in nicely. I took screen shots of my video I took during the event. (sorry for the blurry pics due to Unilocal app not able to upload pre-​recored videos) Our company hosted a open bar had the The Tech Museum cater our event. I got to sample the following dishes below:
— Pork pot stickers
— Slow braised pulled pork
— Macaroni and cheese
— Korean bbq short ribs
The short ribs and the slow braised pulled pork were my favorites. Both meats were succulent and tender! The pork was pull apart easy. It paired with the macaroni and cheese nicely, but the mac and cheese was on the dry side. Mashed potatoes and gravy were served with the pork too, but I’m more of a mac and cheese guy.
Our company did hire outside entertainment (DJ, Illusionist/​Magician, and photo booth), on top of the exhibits accessible to us.
If your company is looking for a venue to hold a special event, I would recommend the Tech Museum. We all had a good time, food was great, and the decorations were outstanding!

This is a great museum for kids and teens with lots of interesting themes.
Here is a quick review of the current exhibits:
— Body Metrics — Go here first! We made the mistake of not finding this until we were almost done for the day. They give you a futuristic headset, heart rate monitor and lanyard to wear around the museum that takes photos and monitors you during each of the the exhibits; then you can review all the data later. It was interesting. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.
–Social Robots — This exhibit was a disappointment to me. It was complicated and the machines weren’t capable of much even after lots of work and thought are put into them. One extra point for all the cool decorations and I give this on 2 out of 5 stars.
–The Tech Silicon Valley Innovation Gallery — One of my favorite areas and it is right at the top of the escalator on the top floor so you can’t miss it. Say «Cheese» for the Reface screen which takes your photo and splits it into 3, then combines it with the faces of the other patrons! Fun to look at and think about. Then have a seat at You Are Everywhere and travel the world from your chair. The imagery is breathtaking. I wish I had this in my bedroom. Three or four other smaller things to do in this area. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
–The Tech Exploration Gallery — 3 out of 5 stars for this exhibit. The Jet Pack chair was fun. You lean back, look up and try to maneuver the chair so that your red laser beam lines up with the lasers on the ceiling as they light up. I got three points, which I am told is quite good :) The shake platform was educational and interesting at the same time. Not much else I enjoyed in this area though.
I also enjoyed the infrared camera (SEE PIC) and other miscellaneous things throughout. I was disappointed that about one out of every 8 things we approached had an issue or was not working (computer sketch of your face out of paper, teleprompter for the government speech area not working, etc) I am sure I missed a few things but for our entrance fee of $ 55 (2 adults and 1 child) we easily got 3 – 4 hours of interactive, fun, family entertainment and in a learning environment to boot! We didn’t try the café and the gift shop was small and overpriced (as they always are) but there are plenty of restaurants just outside for you to try. Most importantly, just remember, this place will be as fun as you make it. Enjoy!

So I came back here for 3 reasons:
1. Groupon deal for 2 tickets
2. Star Wars Exhibit
3. Boyfriend’s first experience
…mainly for the Star Wars exhibit though D: D:
Seeing the actual props used to for filming the movie in real life sounded AMAZINGGG and I literally grew up watching the entire series (and memorized the lines… yeah call me a looooooooooooser), so how could I say «no»?
It’s been years (since elementary) since I’ve last been to this museum so I honestly didn’t know what to expect.. .
Star Wars Exhibit:
They secluded it to the side of the museum because, I guess, the exhibit was that huge… There was definitely a lined formed, though the wait time wasn’t bad at all.5 mins?
The exhibit itself: OMGGG! So much to look at! It was honestly overwhelming. They preferred people to not take any flash photos as expected, so it’s a good thing i had my phone with me to capture some photos.
Every prop was there, from chewbacca’s outfit, to Yoda, to lightsabers, etc.
At the end of the exhibit, there was a Star Wars store where you can buy a bunch of geeky memorabilia. Kinda overpriced, I’d rather search for the stuff on Amazon…
After the Star Wars exhibit we went back to the main part of the museum to experience more…
The Main Museum:
Several floors… pretty sad because we didn’t get to experience it all.
We went to the microchip area and took photos near this cool circuit board background.
We came here on the weekend so there was a bunch of families and kids… so we weren’t really able to try the activities they had to offer because all the kids would take over.
Tips:
–Grown ups without kids: I recommend to try coming here during a weekday so it won’t be overwhelmingly busy
–Arrive early as parking can be difficult to find (we paid like $ 5 for 3 hours)
–Bring food because lines can get long during the weekennds
–Don’t leave the museum without dropping by the Museum store first! Tons of things to buy!

Today was the PERFECT time to come here. I trusted my intuition and skipped the weekend to make the short trip here and it turned out to be a great experience this time around.
There were hardly any crowds here and my daughter had her pick of activities.
I had a couple of complimentary passes so that came in handy because I’ve been wanting to come back and give this place another try.
My daughter wasn’t as interested in a lot of the activities as I had hoped she would be and some of the instructions seemed a little unclear on a few of the exhibits that we were looking at. However, staff was super-​helpful and stepped in to help us with some of them.
And the fact that there weren’t a ton of kids running around, pushing, screaming and yelling was great. It really makes visiting here so much more pleasant!!!
So if you haven’t been here:
THE TECH: There are pretty much two floors of activities. The main floor has special exhibits and is for IMAX (tickets are extra), gift shop, admission tickets and the help/​info desk. There are many, many exhibits. Some of them are super-​geeky and some are just plain fun and open-​ended creatively. I tend to go towards the latter, because I have a hard time with rules when it comes to exploring possibilities. The earthquake simulator gave me goosebumps, having had been through many of them myself.
PARKING: If you want validation, CALL AHEAD and find out which garages accept their validation. I noticed there was a sign at the parking garage where I parked that stated the garage no longer accepted validations from restaurants. I’m not sure when that started, but it’s annoying. Parking isn’t cheap here and it discourages me from coming back unless I know I’m going to get validation. As I was saying, the Tech will validate, but only for choice garages. So check ahead and make sure that you know that well ahead of time. Also, find out the names of the garages so if one or more is full you can go to the next. For 2 ½ hours, it cost us $ 12.50 and we didn’t park in a garage where validation would have helped us. If you’re looking for metered parking, most of the meters are good for 2 hours max.
SURROUNDING AREA: The park in the middle of the street is a good place to relax and for kids to play in the outdoor fountain. There are homeless, but not as many as in other areas/​parks. It’s relatively safe in this area, as the Fairmont, the SJ Museum of Art and the Tech are here along with many other businesses that tend to keep police patrolling the area.
GIFT SHOP: Awesome. I mean tempting… I wanted to buy a few things but I was really good this time around. I got a really cute purple «Smart Cookie» shirt for my daughter and a heart-​shaped gemstone. The gift shop is chock-​full of gadgets and goodies, everything from cooking gadgets to books to shirts and Legos. Lots and lots of geeky gifts, as to be expected!
FOOD AND DRINKS: I didn’t see a restaurant in the museum so I have no idea if there is one. The IMAX area has a concession stand with water, soda, juice, popcorn and the like. The prices are actually quite reasonable. There are a lot of water fountains in the museum but in regards to snacks, I’m pretty sure you’re on your own with that one.
TICKETS: Gen admission is $ 20. Kids 3−17/Students w/​ID/​Seniors are $ 15. This can be rather pricey for the experience. If you want something like Exploratorium you will not find it here. Look at the map and the activities on their website and decide for yourself if you want to invest because with the parking and possibly IMAX, optional gift shop and maybe lunch, this can be quite pricey.
Anyhow, my advice: take the cost of a visit here into account before you go if that’s important to you, make sure that you check w/​the museum to find out their «light crowd» days/​season, and you should have a wonderful time!
COST for my 8 year old daughter and I:
MUSEUM (would have been $ 35 for both): Complimentary passes –free
PARKING for 2 ½ hours in a non-​validated garage: $ 12.50
OPTIONAL IMAX: $ 18.
OPTIONAL CONCESSION STAND: $ 6
OPTIONAL GIFT SHOP: $ 28
TOTAL: $ 64.50