Museums, Galleries & Gardens
Berkeley Art Museum
11 am–5 pm |
Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way
- Guided Tour of "Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet"
- Graduate students lead you through contemporary works created in response to the artists' travels to threatened UNESCO World Heritage sites. The show investigates the relationships between fragile natural environments and the human communities that depend on them. Tours are at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. (Admission to the museum is free for Cal Day.)
Berkeley Natural History Museums
9 am–noon |
1101 Valley Life Sciences Building
1–4 pm |
1101 Valley Life Sciences Building
- Fossils Roadshow
- Found a fossil that needs identifying? This is your lucky day! Show it to experts from the Museum of Paleontology, Essig Museum of Entomology, and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.
9 am–4 pm |
Valley Life Sciences Building, courtyard
- A Walk Through Time: Evolutionary Research at Cal
- Wander through a timeline of Earth's history, featuring research on the evolution of life, and chat with the scientists behind the studies.
9 am–4 pm |
Valley Life Sciences Building, south entrance
- Children's Animal Soiree
- At the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, see live animals, puppet shows, bio-blitz events for kids, and more. Pick up your Passport to Science@Cal, and visit science events all across campus!
9 am–4 pm |
Valley Life Sciences Building
- Darwin and Evolutionary Biology at Berkeley
- Berkeley commemorates Darwin's 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of The Origin of Species. Join us to celebrate evolutionary research at Cal!
9 am–4 pm |
At all participating events
- Passport to Science@Cal
- Pick up a passport and start your Science@Cal journey (ages 6 to 12)! Explore the mysteries of dark matter, extract DNA from your cheek cells, experience lizard noosing, and more. Stamp your passport at many participating departments, labs, and museums!
9 am–4 pm |
Valley Life Sciences Building, courtyard
- Travels With Charles: Exploring Darwin's Beagle Voyage
- Embark on Darwin's paleontological, biological, and cultural adventures. Investigate specimens from the Berkeley Natural History Museums that relate to his journey.
9 am–4 pm |
Valley Life Sciences Building, 3rd floor
- Young Explorer Science Corner
- Thrill aspiring young scientists (ages 6-12) with interactive mini-labs taught by researchers.
Blake Garden
9 am–4 pm |
Blake Garden, 70 Rincon Rd., Kensington
- Tour Blake Garden
- Enjoy a stroll through this 10.5-acre formal garden and landscape-architecture teaching facility overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Join the free tour at noon. And don't miss the Create-With-Nature Zone for kids. Partial wheelchair accessibility; plenty of parking. Driving directions are at the information table in the Wurster Hall lobby.
Essig Museum of Entomology
9 am–4 pm |
Valley Life Sciences Building, 3rd floor
- Got Bugs? We Do!
- Amazing insects and arachnids are in the Essig Museum's research collection — also see the live arthropods!
Hearst Museum of Anthropology
10 am–4 pm |
Hearst Museum of Anthropology, 102 Kroeber Hall
- Open House at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology
- See the exhibits on Native California cultures, Guatemalan textiles, ancient Egypt, and more! The collections represent almost every region of the world and span nearly 2 million years. A docent-led tour is at 1 pm.
Lawrence Hall of Science
9 am–5 pm |
Lawrence Hall of Science (take Hill Shuttle from Evans Hall east entrance)
- Lawrence Hall of Science
- Free hands-on science all day! Catch the WaterWorks show, get behind the slime in Animal Grossology, and enjoy our outdoor science park, Forces That Shape the Bay. A 20-minute planetarium show runs every half hour from 10:30 am to 4 pm, and Science on a Sphere demos run from 11 am to 3 pm. Check the schedule upon arrival for exact times.
Museum of Paleontology
9–10 am |
2040 Valley Life Sciences Building
- Sex and the Single Dinosaur: What Bone Tissues Tell Us
- Fossil bone tissues help us see how dinosaurs grew and reproduced. Hear how this information explains why the living dinosaurs (birds) grow differently from other animals.
Graduate Student Sarah Werning
9 am–4 pm |
Valley Life Sciences Building, courtyard
- Human Evolution and Everyday Life
- Evolutionary history affects our day-to-day lives — learn how with scientists from the Human Evolution Research Center. See this exhibit and hear about field work in Ethiopia.
9 am–4 pm |
Valley Life Sciences Building, 1st floor, Wallace Atrium
- Meet T. rex
- Visit T. rex and Pteranodon, buy a museum t-shirt, and get free tickets for tours of the Museum of Paleontology.
10–11:30 am |
Valley Life Sciences Building, 1st floor, Wallace Atrium
1:30–3:30 pm |
Valley Life Sciences Building, 1st floor, Wallace Atrium
- Tour the Museum of Paleontology Collections
- This is your chance to see the museum's extensive collections, normally closed to the public. Tours leave on the half hour. Pick up free tickets at the museum's t-shirt table.
11 am–noon |
2040 Valley Life Sciences Building
- Darwin's Voyage Around the World: What Would He Think Now?
- Follow Darwin's voyage on the Beagle and find out what's become of the places that helped him develop his theory of evolution.
Professor Jere Lipps
Noon–1 pm |
2060 Valley Life Sciences Building
- Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming
- Hear how global warming is pushing nature itself toward extinction, and how you can help save it.
Professor Tony Barnosky
1–2 pm |
2040 Valley Life Sciences Building
- The Evolution of Dinosaur Horns, Spikes, and Domes
- How did Triceratops grow horns? What was the bony dome on a pachycephalosaur's skull used for? Discover more about these dinosaurs, their bizarre skulls, and new dinosaur fossils.
Assistant Director Mark Goodwin
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
9 am–4 pm |
3101 Valley Life Sciences Building
- Who Wants to Be a Zoologist?
- Glimpse the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology on the only day it's open to the public. Meet students, researchers, and curators.
UC Botanical Garden
11:30 am–3:30 pm |
UC Botanical Garden (take Hill Shuttle from Evans Hall east entrance)
- Botanical Garden Docent-Led Tours
- See more than 12,000 kinds of plants from around the world! The garden is open all day, with one-hour tours at 11:30 am and 1:30 pm, and Waterwise Tours at 12:30 and 2:30 pm. On campus, visit the garden's booth at the Jepson Herbarium in the Valley Life Sciences Building.
University & Jepson Herbaria
9 am–4 pm |
1001 Valley Life Sciences Building
- University and Jepson Herbaria Open House
- Berkeley is home to these famed collections of preserved plants, algae, and fungi from around the world. Talk to our researchers about the wildflower display and observe plants under the microscope. Guided tours begin on the hour from 10 am to 2 pm. Children can choose a plant specimen to identify and take home as a souvenir.
Worth Ryder Gallery
11 am–4 pm |
116 Kroeber Hall
- The Dirt Show and Paintings by Brittany Law
- Get a double dose of art! See work by undergraduates in ceramics and paintings by the winner of the Wendy Sussman Memorial Fellowship.
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