Lawrence Science Hall--Berkeley

Last week before we left for vacation we visited the Science Museum at UC Berkeley with our friend Lucia! It was, literally, a picture perfect day...we could see all the way to SF from the Berkeley Hills.  I loved this little museum, lots of hands on learning activities...

We go to pet an iguana (super cool), see what it was like to try and walk like a gecko and check out the fault line map that we were standing on outside.

Outside we made our own sidewalk chalk bubble paint.  Basically they had cornstarch, water, baking soda and food coloring.  The kids got to mix their colors in, paint and then spray with vinegar to watch it bubble up.  It was kinda of a neat experiment.  I'm not sure what they liked more, painting or spraying the vinegar.

We caught the 3D Titans of the Ice Age all about the Mammoth.  It was the first 3D movie for the kids so it took some getting used to...lots of hands in the air trying to touch the screen.

Then we stumbled on the dinosaurs!  Cameron was one happy little girl when she saw the T-Rex bones.

We spent at least an hour in the Design Room, going around to each station learning how to build and design different items.  It was really cool because they had student volunteers there helping the children and explaining each thing so they could better understand the objective.  So Timo build a rocket and Cameron build a church in the "wood" section.

The bridge area was fun because they actually got to run cars over their finished product to see if it would hold.  Three different kids, three different bridges.

Timo made a fast friend in the Lego car building section.  They were robot cars you added wheels and accessories to and then tested them out on the various ramps.  In addition to these stations, we spent time at the whirlwind tunnel building items that would spin in the wind and they puppet area trying to make a mechanical puppet...but that was a little over our heads.

Learning about the earths rotation...kinda cool to see it 3D.

And check out the HUGE whale they had outside!  Cameron was pretending she was riding on it's back, holding on the the fin and Timo was getting blown out of it's blowhole.

We really like this place...I think we'll be back!  It's  a good place to escape the SF foggy summers!