Going back(yard) to nature

Horace Mann Elementary schoolchildren throw seeds to inaugurate $3 million outdoor learning and play setup, including tree-climbing area

Inside the Children’s Discovery Museum in downtown San Jose, kids can get hands-on experience with traffic lights, ambulances, fire trucks and other everyday features of urban life. By next summer, they’ll be able to go to the museum to experience the natural world, too.

Museum officials, elected leaders and corporate sponsors broke ground Wednesday on Bill’s Backyard, the new $3 million, 27,500-square-foot space that’ll be transformed into an outdoor learning and play area, complete with a sculptural fence, a tree climbing area, a dig pit, a dry creek bed and a garden.

While the adults did the ceremonial stuff with shovels, about 75 second- and thirdgraders from nearby Horace Mann Elementary School had a more fun role: They lobbed handfuls of wildflower seeds as far as they could. We’ll see what sprouts by next summer for the opening of Bill’s Backyard — named for longtime

supporter and retired Agilent CEO Bill Sullivan.

Children’s Discovery Museum CEO Marilee Jennings describes the “Bridge to Nature” as not quite playground and not quite open space but having elements of both. “There’ll be something to learn for visitors of all ages,” she said.

Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager, who spoke at the groundbreaking, said that the new addition would be part of the museum’s recent emphasis on keeping kids healthy from a young age by helping them be active.

“We just don’t have enough opportunities particularly for children to get out in nature,” said Yeager, a fitness enthusiast who was also there representing First 5 Santa Clara County, an advocacy group that supports the healthy development of kids through age 5.

“One of the things that we’re trying to do here is to have families feel more comfortable with their kids, exploring trails, trying to figure out to maneuver in nature so you can go from one spot to the next. When they’re here at the Children’s Discovery Museum, this will give them an opportunity to do that exploring and to get more comfortable with being in nature.”

DIRIDON HONORED: Former Santa Clara County Supervisor Rod Diridon became the latest recipient of the Rotary Club of San Jose’s Don Goldeen Award, which has been presented annually since 1990 to an individual or individuals who have made a significant contribution to downtown San Jose.

Diridon, the director emeritus of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State, has certainly had an impact as the driving force behind the VTA’s light-rail system. More recently, he’s been a strong advocate for bringing high-speed rail through the train station in downtown San Jose that bears his name. The award is named for Don Goldeen ,a furniture store owner who maintained his business long after other retailers abandoned downtown in the 1970s and early ’80s. Previous recipients include former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer, Jim Salata, David Packard, Steve Wozniak and Irene Dalis.

“The honor of being associated with those other names on that list is profound,” Diridon said. “Being associated with Don Goldeen’s name is quite remarkable. He was a man of great impact in our valley both by his leadership and by his image and he’s greatly missed.”

FLUID MELODIES: Music and art will merge Thursday night at the San Jose Museum of Art when experimental composer and musician Pauchi Sasaki and Oakland artist Evan Holm collaborate for a onenight-only performance. In “Submerged Turntables,” Holm spins vinyl records underwater. Sasaki, an electronic violinist, will be outfitted in her selfdesigned “speaker dress,” which is about as loud a garment as you’ll find on any runway.

If you miss the ArtRage event, part of the museum’s Third Thursdays series, you can also check out Holm’s related piece, “Watertable.” It’s an audiotape player submerged in a 22-foot-long table of water, which is on display as part of the museum’s “Indestructible Wonder” exhibition. Tickets to the evening of music, art and cocktails — which runs from 7 to 10 p.m. — are $5, with a discount for members.

KARL MONDON/STAFF PHOTOS Horace Mann Elementary School second- and third-graders throw flower seeds into the future playground area of “Bill’s Backyard” at the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose. The yard was named for longtime supporter Bill Sullivan.

Above: Succulents were given to attendees Wednesday for the “Bill’s Backyard” groundbreaking at the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose. Below: Marilee Jennings, executive director of the museum, waits for a jet to pass during a groundbreaking for...

AROUND TOWN SAL PIZARRO

COURTESY OF THE CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY MUSEUM Aerial view shows the 27,500-square-foot expansion outside the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose. The outdoor area is designed to encourage children to explore the natural world with an emphasis on stewardship and curiosity.