A Day of Science, Fun and Eco-Discoveries wtih Bill Nye the Science Guy

With the schoolyear just about wrapped up and summer around the corner, our weekends seem to be getting crammed with festivals, recitals, lessons, and last-day-of-this-and-that-session-parties. But when you've got the chance -- thanks to the Silicon Valley Moms Blog and the Activeion Cleaning Solutions company -- to visit San Jose's Tech Museum, watch an IMAX movie and meet Bill Nye the Science Guy all in the same day, you find a way to make room in your schedule for it. And all those other events? Insignificant little blips on the calendar that can be rescheduled or forgotten.
After all, who can pass up the chance to meet Bill Nye? Not my kids. It's a scientifically proven fact that kids love Bill Nye. He's On TV. He's funny. He wears a cute bow tie and lab coat. He does cool experiments. Only Bill Nye can make a topic as mundane as housecleaning and soap seem interesting (do you know that if you rub some soap on the edge of a small sliver of wood and place it in water, it'll take off like it was a motorboat? It has something to do with surface tension.). He's the perfect person to lead our budding scientists in some fun science experiments. And only Bill Nye can explain the science behind a product without turning it into a product plug.


The second reason why the event didn't feel like a product plug is that the product in question -- Activeion, a chemical-free, eco-friendly cleaning system -- is actually so cool that I'd still be interested in it even if Bill Nye hadn't been the one to explain to us how it works. Would you believe that they've found a way to make ordinary tap water behave like a cleaning solution? To put it simply, they introduce a tiny electric charge into the water so that dirt and germs attach themselves to the water in the same way that they would attach themselves to soap or detergent.

It's the kind of thing you have to see to believe, so Activeion generously gave each of the SV Mom bloggers that attended an activeion spray bottle to take home. Yup, far-out science has entered my cleaning closet! We tried it out and it looks like a winner -- stay tuned for a review of Activeion on Bonggamom Finds, including a video of Jammy spraying some of activeion's cleaning solution, aka tap water, straight into his mouth.



The fun didn't stop, even after we posed for photos with Bill and reconnected with fellow SV Mom bloggers over lunch. The whole afternoon was devoted to the science of fun as we explored the rest of the San Jose Tech Museum. I came close to tossing the contents of my stomach into Jammy's lap after just 15 minutes of watching astronauts and starts spinning around in space at the IMAX movie. They say the large-screen, surround-sound IMAX experience might be too intense for toddlers, but it looked like all the little kids in the theater were fine; any screams of terror were drowned out by my nausea-induced moans.

Nausea aside, we all enjoyed our first visit to the Tech Museum. I had always heard that this museum was best suited for older kids, so I was pleasantly surprised at how many exhibits could hold the attention of toddlers and preschoolers. I especially loved the exhibits that we could access at home later on, using the barcode on our museum tickets, like this thermal family photograph....

.... and this photo of us voicing our views on transplanting pigs' organs into humans. It's nothing that we couldn't have done at home using the simplest photo editing software, but it's so much more fun when you're doing it at the museum.


Thanks to Activeion and the Silicon Valley Moms blog for making it all happen!