Group Programs

Book a Visit at the Inventor's Lab

The Inventor’s Lab is available for booking this fall. Schedule an exclusive visit for your group! Enhance your classroom curriculum as all your students become scientists, engaged in innovative science activities and engineering design challenges.

Group Visits

Your group can use their collective brain power to solve engineering design challenges while they laugh and learn together. There is a different design challenge every month! Hands-on exhibits provide hours of fun as kids enjoy creating flying machines and testing them in a wind tube, experimenting with building bridges, and using 
wood planks to build almost anything they can imagine.

Cost
Special Offer: Two for one – $64
Bring a group of up to 40 students for the price of only 20 students. One adult chaperone is required and free for every seven children.

Hours for groups of all ages
Wednesday & Friday 2:00–7:00p.m.
School groups: Wed–Fri 10:00a.m.–1:00p.m. Please call to arrange a time.

Special hours for preschool groups
Wednesday from 10:00a.m.–1:00p.m. exhibits will be modified so young learners have the opportunity to extend their natural curiosity through play, investigation, and guided discovery.
 

Workshops for School Groups

Enhance your classroom curriculum with workshops led by staff from the Lawrence Hall of Science. Design challenges and engaging hands-on activities let every student be a scientist and experience the thrill of discovery. Select from compelling topics specially developed for groups from Kindergarten through 8th grade.

Cost:
Special Offer: Two for one – $108
Bring a group of up to 40 students for the price of only 20 students.
One adult chaperone per 7 students is required and free. The cost includes hands-on exhibit experiences and the workshop.

Hours
Thursday & Friday; 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

School Group Workshop Topics

Engineering Design Workshop (Grades 3-8; 70 min)
Offered October–June
Join us to tackle a different engineering design challenge every month. In a collaborative environment, students will design and build their own projects as they solve various engineering problems.

Dino Defenses (Grades K-2; 50 min)

Offered: January-March

Spikes, shields, horns, claws, sharp teeth, and whipping tails...Dinosaurs had many fascinating ways of protecting themselves. Students add imaginative defenses to their own paper creature and observe and touch live animals with defenses similar to the dinosaurs’.
Topics: Animal Comparisons, Defenses, Predator-Prey

Animal Behavior (Grades 3-6; 50 min)

Offered: January-March

Students learn how to handle a variety of animals, as they design experiments with food, mirrors, tunnels, and other stimuli to discover how animals react to changes in their environment.

Slime (Grades K-3; 50 min)

Offered: April-June

Is slime a solid, a liquid, a gas...or something in between? Students consider the differences between these phases of matter and discuss their properties, creating a working definition.
Topics: Properties of Solids, Liquids, and Gases

Chemical Reactions (Grades 3-8; 50 min)

Offered: April-June

In this exciting introduction to chemistry, students examine chemicals and explore a reaction that fizzes, changes color, and produces heat. They also learn about chemical formulas and the symbols for elements on the periodic table.
Topics: Chemical Change, Chemical Symbols and Formulas

Reserving your Workshop or Group Visit

Explore Exhibits and Solve Engineering Design Challenges
Spark your students' curiosity while building skills and knowledge! Please make an advanced reservation if you plan a visit for a group of 8 or more paying visitors (one chaperone required for every seven students, admitted free).

Reserve a workshop or group visit by email

If you'd like to book by phone, please call us at 510-642-5134.

When to Register and Pay
Reservations are required at least four weeks in advance.
Make your reservations as far in advance as possible, as all reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis. 
Payment is due 30 days after you make your reservation or three weeks prior to the date of your program, whichever comes first.
We accept a single check, cash, a school district purchase order, or credit card (VISA, Discover, and MasterCard). 
If payment is not received by the date specified on the contract we send you, your program may be canceled.

Refunds and Rescheduling
Refunds or rescheduling (time and space permitting) are available if we receive your cancellation at least four weeks before the date of your visit.
If you cancel less than four weeks before the date of your visit there will be no refund.

Free parking on site
Have lunch in the surrounding park setting.