Building with the earth and printing with the sun are some of the options families have over spring break at The Lawrence Hall of Science, the learning lab and public science center for the University of California, Berkeley.

From March 30 through April 8, the science center has a schedule packed with special events, extended hours and activities for every age.

Osage artist brooke smiley will lead an earth architecture project for those who don’t mind getting a little muddy. At EARTH.SPEAKS, smiley will collaborate with contemporary arts agency SOZO to create a “land-based art project aimed at healing and uplifting Native voices through community creation of earth markers, a sustainable practice of sculpture building,” according to the Hall of Science.

An 8-foot, anatomically correct, flaming human heart sculpture created by the Flaming Lotus Girls is among the displays visitors can find at The Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley during the upcoming spring break celebration. (The Lawrence Hall of Science/UC Berkeley via Bay City News)

An 8-foot anatomically correct human heart sculpture created by the Flaming Lotus Girls will pulse with flames to simulate blood flow through vessels. The sculpture will have pyrotechnics displays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both weekends and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday that week.

There will also be an enlightening event about lighting and wildfires, and daily opportunities to make sun prints from the science museum’s outdoor plaza with a panoramic view of San Francisco Bay.

And on April 8 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. there will be an eclipse viewing party.

To learn more about the spring break schedule, visit The Lawrence Hall of Science online.

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.