Education

Education

Solutions for

Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose

“Adobe’s new focus on creativity in education is in perfect alignment with the museum’s goals. Unleashing creativity is core to our mission, and Adobe’s enabling technology helps us to educate and inspire children through interactive exhibits and programs.”

— Connie Martinez, Executive Director, Children’s Discovery Museum

Philanthropy at Adobe

Adobe has been a long-term supporter of education in our communities. Our newest philanthropic charter focuses specifically on creativity in education, helping children learn to think creatively, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively all critical skills for the world’s next generation of business and community leaders.

What does a 52,000 square-foot purple building say to a child? Come explore! Since opening in 1990, the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose, California, has welcomed over four million explorers. Explorer-in-Chief (aka Executive Director) Connie Martinez speaks glowingly about the positive experiences she witnesses daily. “Kids come here to have fun,” she says. “They don’t even realize how much they’re learning in the process. Adobe’s support helps us create this magic.”

A diverse group of local middle schoolers love using Adobe multimedia software to publish their own magazine, make videos, and create special projects as part of the museum’s after-school Discovery Youth Program, funded in part by Adobe.

The museum also uses Adobe software to design a variety of its more than 150 interactive exhibits and programs, which provide learning experiences in the arts, sciences, and humanities that build upon a child’s fundamental need to learn by doing. Adobe software helped create the museum’s nationally recognized Alice’s Wonderland exhibit, which teaches kids about science from Alice’s eye-opening perspective (through the looking glass, for example). This exhibit, which is currently traveling around the country, received the prestigious Excellence in Exhibitions award from the American Association of Museums.

Using Adobe software, museum staffers recently created an interactive web version of its popular Streets of San Jose exhibit, helping youngsters learn to navigate city streets as they “virtually” hop into an emergency vehicle, push the crosswalk button and “go” on green, or insert the right coins into a parking meter — all from the safety of their school or home computer.