Saturday, June 8, 2013

Learning science at Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley

Today, we visited the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley. Inna purchased a Groupon deal on tickets there.


The museum has many activities and exhibits for young kids and adults, teaching them about nano-technology, bridge building, and other scientific endeavors.


After seeing a few exhibits, we saw a 3-D Imax movie on Prehistoric Animals, focusing on Woolly Mammoth. Seeing these large, elephant-like creatures that roamed the earth 20,000 years ago was fascinating.

We saw a few animals, including snakes, iguanas, rabbits, and skeletons of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.






We had tickets to see the Planetarium show about how the ancient Polynesian mariners used the stars for navigation. We saw the 45-minute show in a small planetarium and learned to identify a few stars. Polaris is at the end of the handle of Little Dipper (used for pointing north) and a couple of constellations, i.e., Southern Cross for pointing South. These stars were used by Polynesians to help navigate between Tahiti, Hawaii, and Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Polynesians also looked for specific land-based birds to determine if the land was nearby.


Alex had fun rolling balls and building bridges.




We went outside for a look, but it was windy and cold.



At one of the last exhibits, Alex had to build cars that overcome obstacles. He tried a few combinations until he designed a vehicle with large wheels.


Alex ran a trial of the car over obstacles:






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