Earth Day at The Lawrence: Science, Story, and the Land Itself

Tule reeds, dinosaur fossils, and a Grammy-winning hip-hop group — The Lawrence Hall of Science’s annual Earth Day Celebration packed a lot into one April afternoon.

Community organizations, UC Berkeley student groups, and Lawrence staff spread across the Outdoor Nature Lab and surrounding exhibits on April 26, hosting hands-on activities focused on science, sustainability and environmental stewardship.

Children crowded around tables practicing beach sand cleanup with Latino Outdoors, while visitors explored water pollution and runoff with the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD). Other booths featured dinosaur fossils from the Paleontological Society of Berkeley, water justice education from EthiCAL Apparel and herbal scratch-and-sniff sticker activities hosted by the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden.

The event also highlighted environmental stewardship through composting education. At a vermicomposting booth hosted by UC Berkeley’s Student Environmental Resource Center, visitors learned how worms can transform food waste into nutrient-rich compost.

“I think that small-scale composting efforts in a city like Berkeley, where we have pretty comprehensive municipal composting, is still incredibly important,” said Maya Kuo, representing the program. “Not only as a tool for self reliance, for connectivity on campus, but for education — like here we are today, talking to so many people, getting them more involved.”

Kuo explained composting helps people better understand the systems they rely on every day.

“Being more connected to where things come from — our systems of food and waste — is incredibly important,” she said. “Understanding where your food scraps go and what it can be is an incredibly powerful tool.”

One of the most popular stations of the afternoon centered on Ohlone culture and traditional ecological knowledge.

Led by Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, leaders of UC Berkeley’s ‘ottoy Initiative, families gathered around tables outside to make tule dolls using native reeds.

“Tule, in our Chochenyo language, is called rookoš,” Medina said. “This is a native plant and reed that we utilize in a whole bunch of different ways in Ohlone culture. The dolls really talk about our relationship here to the land and how inherently Ohlone culture is connected to the East Bay landscape.”

As children tied together bundles of tule, Medina explained the deeper meaning behind the activity and its connection to Earth Day.

“We are celebrating Earth Day today,” he said. “We want to always celebrate the abundance here in the East Bay for thousands and thousands of years by the Ohlone people right here. These dolls are just a sweet way to be able to show some love for this native reed that grows in abundance in the East Bay.”

Later in the afternoon, visitors gathered inside the 3D Theater for a performance by the Alphabet Rockers, a Grammy Award-winning children’s hip-hop group focused on diversity, equity, inclusion and advocacy.

Before the performance began, Medina addressed the audience, asking the crowd to say “Ohlone” aloud together and reminding visitors that Berkeley’s original name is xučyun. His remarks grounded the celebration in the history of the land itself and emphasized the continued presence of Ohlone people in the East Bay today.

The Alphabet Rockers then transformed the theater into a high-energy dance party as children jumped from their seats and families filled the aisles. The performance blended music, movement and messages of community and belonging, closing the celebration on an energetic note.

The performance, sponsored by EBMUD, brought Alphabet Rockers together with Oakland rapper Gina Madrid to debut “H2Flow en Español.” 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. “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.”

By the end of the afternoon, the Earth Day Celebration had become more than a science event. Through music, cultural demonstrations and environmental education, the gathering encouraged visitors to think more deeply about their relationship to the natural world — and to the people who have cared for it for generations.