Summer 2012

Bear in Mind: The Story of the California Grizzly

Discover the history and life of one of California's most beloved and feared animals – the grizzly bear with Bear in Mind: The Story of the California Grizzly. Now extinct in the state, the grizzly has been very important to California's history and the North State region.

Investigate the world of the California grizzly by:

Exploring a bear den
Creating your own grizzly world with colorful books and puppets
Uncovering the story behind the grizzly bear on the California state flag
Examining hands-on grizzly artifacts
Identifying the differences between black bears and brown bears, and where they can be found
Sorting bears by pictures, scat, paws and what they eat
Learning about bear hunting and the loss of the grizzlies in California
Imagining what is was like to be one of the biggest animals in California history!

The Bear In Mind: The Story of the California Grizzly exhibition is produced and toured by Exhibit Envoy. The exhibition was developed in concert with The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley and Heyday Books and was supported by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation with additional funds from the Bank of the West.

Image Credit:Grizzly Bear Rag, sheet music

Explore & Explain

This June, our South Gallery will be transformed into a multimedia, hands-on learning playground the whole family will enjoy. Step into Explore & Explain where you’ll see people of all ages from throughout the North State on video screens explaining how they believe an object from our Discovery Room works. While you watch their explanation on the video screen you’ll have the same hands-on experiment right in front of you. You can try your hand at solving the scientific challenge and decide:

Do the explanations provided by your on-screen partner make sense?
Would you explain the scientific challenge in a different way?
Is there more than one appropriate explanation for what’s happening in the hands-on activity?

If you’re game, not only can you test the hands-on activity, but you can also step into our video recording booth and create your own Explore & Explain video. Your video can be added to the video segments used throughout the exhibit.

Explore & Explain will cover a wide range of scientific topics including:

How string telephones work
Experimenting with Happy-Sad Balls: why does one ball bounce so much higher than the other one?
And much more!

Keeping Company with Flowers: A Glimpse into the World of Pollinators

squash bee Examine the relationship between flowers and pollinators through more than 50 photographs of pollinators in wild and garden settings. Pollinators come in many shapes and sizes. And, as you’ll discover through this exhibit, they include a lot more than just bees!

Keeping Company of Flowers vividly portrays a glimpse into the relationship between flowers and their many kinds of pollinators. Through the exploration of the photography and related hands-on activity, visitors discover:

Who pollinates: from bees to bats to beetles and more
How flowers and pollinators have co-evolved to work together
Where do pollinators live? Hint: it’s not in hives!
Pollinators who do their job in the dark of night
Specialist pollinators and their plants
How to welcome pollinators into your garden

The exhibit Keeping Company with Flowers: A Glimpse into the World of Pollinators was created by John Whittlesey and Jennifer Jewell.

John Whittlesey, a Northern California plantsman and naturalist, took the majority of the photographs. His work has been featured in Pacific Horticulture and he’s lectured on subjects as varied as Salvias, Less-Lawn-More-Life, California Native Plants for the Garden, Wildlife Welcoming Habitat Gardens, and In the Company of Flowers.

Jennifer Jewell is the creator, producer and host of In a North State Garden, a weekly public-radio and wed-based regional gardening information and advocacy program in California’s North State region. Jewell is a regular speaker for national and regional horticultural and gardening organizations and events on topics as diverse as the Cultural Significance of Gardening, and Adaptability and Importance of Natives in the Home Garden.