Exploration Portal at Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose

$124,000

open space authority funds contributed to project

2023

project awarded

Children’s Discovery Museum’s “Exploration Portal” (EP) is a nature-themed educational space designed to engage children ages 2-10 and the adults who accompany them in hands-on environmental education. With the location’s adjacency to the Guadalupe River, EP encompasses three intertwined strategies for maximum environmental and educational impacts: 1) an architectural design that improves the health of the Guadalupe River; 2) 8 interactive exhibits that inspire curiosity and help children make discoveries about the natural world along with interpretive signage in English, Spanish and Vietnamese; and 3) a landscaping plan that role models the use of native and/or drought tolerant plants, cultivates biodiversity in the site's riparian environment, and immerses children and adults into the cognitive and physical benefits of a verdant environment.
Award Date:
July 20, 2023
Program:
Urban Grant Program
Location:
San Jose Children's Discovery Museum

Have a similar Project?

Learn more about our Grant Program

Enter your email address to get updates on our grant programs

Other Success
Stories

Path leading around garden and wooden sign with UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County name and logo

Community Education Center

Community Education Center

The Measure Q grant funded the Friends of Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County's Master Gardener Community Education Center at Martial Cottle Park: Supporting the Environment at Your Own Home. This project created a multi‐generational Community Educational Center that helps individuals and families become stewards of nature and teaches them how to grow healthy food year‐round using environmentally sound gardening practices.

Bench at top of hill overlooking brown summer hillsides and city of San Jose far below

Feasibility Study

Feasibility Study

While there are many trails in the Santa Clara Valley, none connect the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Diablo Range and tie the Santa Clara Valley into the Bay Area Ridge Trail, a 375-mile network of trails that unites the ridges circling the Bay Area. The Authority is helping to fund the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council’s feasibility study to consider and identify a preferred Ridge Trail alignment between Santa Teresa County Park and the Coyote Creek Trail as part of ongoing efforts to fix this South Bay “trail-gap.”

Long line of hikers walking through tall brown grass next to oak trees

Environmental Education Park Crawl

Environmental Education Park Crawl

The Authority helped fund Bay Area Older Adults’ Environmental Education Park Crawl program. The project consisted of eight, 4-hour walks in different parks and one wildlife lecture. Each two- to four-mile walk had an environmental theme that educated the participating adults age 60+ about our valley’s parks, natural resources, and urban green spaces. It also included lunch, coordination of transportation, parking fees, and three trained guides. Participants benefitted in multiple ways: safely walking outdoors in a group is critical in reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and depression, and learning about nature promotes cognitive health and reduces the risk of dementia.