Announcing Our Third-Annual Earth Day Celebration!

The Lawrence Hall of Science invites our community to celebrate Earth Day during a special event at The Lawrence on Sunday, April 26 from 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. The Earth Day Celebration will bring together organizations from UC Berkeley and beyond to celebrate the environment with hands-on science experiments and educational activities.

“Our Earth Day Celebration is a wonderful opportunity to engage with our community and to celebrate the Earth,” said Chris Ziska, Program Lead for The Lawrence’s Outdoor Nature Lab exhibit. “We’re thankful for our participating organizations sharing their amazing work and passion for the environment with our members and visitors!”

Highlighting the event will be Grammy- and Emmy-winning Alphabet Rockers, featuring artist Gina Madrid, who will debut the Spanish-language version of H2Flow, sponsored by EBMUD. The original English version of H2Flow was developed in 2025 for World Water Day in collaboration with EBMUD and students from Piedmont Avenue Elementary School in Oakland. The Spanish version will debut in April in celebration of Earth Day. H2Flow highlights the journey of each drop from the Mokelumne River to the tap and reinforces the message that water is for everyone, encouraging listeners to skip bottled water and “drink the clean water flow—just like that.”

More than a dozen partners and student organizations from UC Berkeley and across the Bay Area will deliver hands-on science activities for museumgoers. Visitors can explore Ohlone tradition and knowledge with the ‘ottoy Initiative, observe dinosaur bones with the UC Museum of Paleontology, handle hissing cockroaches with the UC Berkeley Entomology Club, and more! Visit the event webpage to see the full list of participating organizations.

“I’m excited to participate in the Earth Day event at The Lawrence Hall of Science and share more about Latino Outdoors and our mission of connecting communities to the outdoors,” said Aurora Cortes, SF Bay Area Regional Coordinator for Latino Outdoors. “I hope that attendees, especially young kids, engage with our sensory based activity and learn about the importance of taking care of our Earth!”

The Lawrence invites families to count down to Earth Day with special Earth Month activities at the science center! Starting March 29, each week the Outdoor Nature Lab will highlight a different way to explore and engage with nature in our backyard:

• March 29–April 4: Stick Dice Pilot and Counting in Chochenyo Cards
  Come learn how to play the traditional Ohlone game of Stick Dice (ṭallik), which has stood the test of time as a way to preserve culture, build community, and have fun! Plus, learn to count in Chochenyo, the first language spoken in the East Bay.
  
• April 4th–April 11: Native Plant Sensory Scavenger Hunt
  Explore the Outdoor Nature Lab with our brand new sensory scavenger hunt- native plants! Using our ID sheet and Meet Ohlone plant cards, observe, touch, and smell our wonderful native East Bay foliage!
  
• April 11–April 18: Ohlone Plant Posts
  Come find our plant posts around the Outdoor Nature Lab and use your phone to learn how these native plants benefit the ecosystem and the Ohlone community that call the East Bay home.
      
• April 18–April 24: Biodiversity Nature Journaling
  Gear up at our Outdoor Nature Lab Field Station or Observation Caches and head into the lab to observe and draw local organisms! Add your nature journal image to our shareback wall to inspire and inform others!

The Earth Day Celebration grew out of an idea from Chris Ziska to bring The Lawrence and UC Berkeley communities together to mark the holiday, engage families, and showcase organizations focused on understanding and celebrating the natural world. Now in its third year, the Earth Day Celebration has expanded to include new activities and more than double the number of participating organizations since its first iteration.

We can’t wait to celebrate our amazing planet together!