The Lawrence Hall of Science
The public science center of the University of California, Berkeley.
Wednesday–Sunday 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Animal Discovery Zone 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
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We partner with school districts to support science learning. We offer district-wide elementary, middle, and high school programs, either virtually or in-person.
We collaborate with a range of partners to innovate in science education. Together, we go further.
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Better Environmental Education Teaching, Learning, Expertise & Sharing (BEETLES) is a program affiliated with the Lawrence Hall of Science that offers professional learning techniques and develops curricula that support nature-based, student-centered science learning experiences in various outdoor science programs. The Research Group has served as a research and evaluation partner to BEETLES for several years. From 2013 to 2015, we conducted an evaluation study, funded by the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, to examine the implementation of the BEETLES professional learning model and to better understand how various outdoor science programs have used the model to support professional learning among their instructional staff.
BEETLES: Final Evaluation Report (PDF, 3.4MB )
We currently are working on a two-phase research study, funded by the National Science Foundation (Award #1612512), to examine, first, the ways in which BEETLES supports the design and facilitation of outdoor science learning experiences and, second, the impact of such ventures on students’ dispositions related to science as well as overall environmental literacy.