Lawrence Hall of Science

The Lawrence Hall of Science is a science museum that is affiliated with UC Berkeley. It's in the hills above the main part of the campus, near the Tilden Park. Before school started up again, my daughter and I made it here one week-day for a morning outing.

Lawrence Hall is having a special exhibit right now, which we really enjoyed, called
Dinosaurs in Motion. They've built models of dinosaur skeletons from recyclable materials and suspended them so that they can move as if they were alive. Some of the dinosaurs can be manipulated from pulleys or levers by museum attendees, and others are mechanized on their own.

It was startling and cool to see the skeletons moving, and it was a great lesson in paleontology, design, and physics.  In addition to this special exhibit, there were lots of standing exhibits in various fields: astronomy, earth science, and animal science.

My daughter liked their hands-on physics exhibit, where she got to roll a ball down various slopes, where the ball would pick up momentum and then use that energy to perform different tasks, such as ringing a bell. This particular exhibit was perfect for a young child her age (about two).

The museum is well designed so that kids of different ages will all find things that interest them, which is no easy task.

The museum building feels like a dinosaur itself. It has that weird design from the late 1960s that was supposed to look super modern for its time, but now looks vaguely like a prison. It also does not have air-conditioning. This usually is not a problem in Berkeley; however, we went during a heat wave, and I chose a science museum precisely because it was an inside activity that I assumed would be air-conditioned. We stayed for as long as it was pleasant inside, and then we headed back.

I would probably do this museum again, but next time I would love to pair it with the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, which is right near it. That would be nice way to get some super easy hiking in, even with a youngster or two.

This was the last big activity that my daughter and I did during our summer breaks. After our trip to Lawrence Hall last Thursday (August 15) , I had my first faculty meeting of the year and then on Monday next she started at her new school. I will be able to start my solo hikes again, which I am looking forward to, but I have definitely enjoyed all of the wonderful adventures that she and I have had this summer. It's been great being a little less "lonely" as the Lonely Hiker.