Almost Like Recess

One thousand butterflies will be released in an instant and, with luck, thousands of grunion will run at the right late-night moment. Hundreds of bubbles will pop as countless baseballs pop up. Dozens of sleeping bags will be unfurled in darkness near wild animals living and long dead.

It all takes place in the name of science during the last two weeks of April, when local institutions have planned a variety of educational opportunities to help fill spring break. With vacation looming, the kids anticipate their brief taste of freedom while parents may dread a stretch of time that cries out for a battle plan that will keep the kids’ brain cells working.

“A lot of the things we do at our sleepovers are fun and educational so the kids don’t feel like they are in school. They are with their parents, learning informally, learning together,” says Mary Baerg, youth and family programs curator for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, which will stage a “Butterfly Dreams Sleepover” among the animal exhibits. (One highlight: a flashlight tour of the insect zoo.)

“The big buzzwords are ‘informal science education,’ ” Baerg says. “Nontraditional learning helps kids make a deeper connection to what they are studying in the classroom. Instead of just reading about it, they can touch the tooth of a [Tyrannosaurus rex] or see that they are only knee-high to an apatosaurus.”

For spring break, museums have dressed up the learning experience as daylong or overnight adventures, staging butterfly and bubble festivals or offering a class that examines the physics of playing baseball, complete with a trip to a Dodgers game. A zoo camp-out provides a window into a seldom seen--or heard--animal world, as does a grunion run at Cabrillo Beach.

“It’s a real ‘wow’ thing,” says Larry Fukuhara, of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, commenting on people’s reaction to seeing the grunion sail onto the beach to spawn. “It’s one of those wonders of the world, and it happens in our own backyard.”

There’s no shortage of ways to insert a little wonder, and a lot of stealth learning, into spring break. (See accompanying list for registration details and other venues with spring break programs.)

Kidspace Museum Butterfly Festival

Caterpillars that are adopted as part of the sixth annual Eco-Arts Butterfly Festival will emerge from their cocoons in style in “butterfly bungalows” in honor of the architecture that surrounds Pasadena’s Kidspace Museum.

At butterfly adoption days from April 14 to 16, the public is invited to build the bungalows that the future painted lady butterflies will live in before their mass release April 29. Children are provided with information on how to care for the insects and what to do for the butterflies as they emerge from their cocoons. With luck, they’ll pop out at the right moment.

“The kids get these caterpillars in time to see them go through their life cycle. If they emerge before the festival, we encourage their release, but we try to get them from the company at just the right time,” says Roy Mueller, director of education for Kidspace Museum. (The caterpillars are donated by a Shafter, Calif., butterfly supply business.)

The other centerpiece of the April 29 festival, which runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., is a butterfly school set up in a tent on a field. Children can “earn their wings” by engaging in science, art and music activities. During “recess,” they can play games that show how insects communicate. For instance, in the bee dance game, kids will learn to wiggle their behinds in imitation of bees signaling how far away a food source is.

At 1 p.m. on the day of the festival, 1,000 butterflies will be released.

“It’s truly a magical event because they don’t all fly off en mass quickly,” Mueller says. “They kind of flutter here and there. A cry goes out, then it’s very hushed. It’s a quiet celebration even though there may be 1,000 people here. For a moment, it sounds like one person.”

California Science Center Baseball Physics

Looking for a way to tie science to a classic parent-child interaction, the California Science Center turned to baseball.

“Most children can remember the first time they went fishing or to their first ballgame, so we decided to focus on the physics of baseball,” says David Combs, deputy director of education for the center in Exposition Park. (The science of fishing had already been dissected for a Father’s Day class.)

A high school physics teacher and coach will teach a class called “Take Me Out to the Ballgame!” that culminates at a Dodgers game against the Cincinnati Reds.

The physics of baseball--trajectories, flight or why balls curve--will be explored through hands-on activities and experiments at the all-day April 16 class that begins at 9 a.m. at the center. Students should be at least 8, and anyone under 18 must attend with an adult. At 1:15 p.m., the science of sport will come to life at the Dodgers game, to which students will travel by bus.

Though this is the first time the class has been offered, the instructor has undertaken equally grueling assignments. He previously revealed the physics of amusement parks, which included a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Discovery Science Center Bubble Festival

In his 30-minute “Bubble-Mania” show, Casey Carle uses humor, big band music and such ephemeral creations as the “Bubble Popcorn Machine” or a spinning “Bubble Spaceship” to explain scientific notions. Molecular bonding and theories of surface tension may never have looked so accessible.

Carle, a former Ringling Bros. circus clown, has been a self-described “comic bubble-ologist” since 1990. (His malleable bubble solution is a mixture of Joy dishwashing liquid, distilled water, glycerin and a secret ingredient.)

The show is part of the Festival of Bubbles 2000, which runs from April 15 to 23 at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. Other activities will illustrate the science behind bubbles, such as being able to determine when they will pop or what shape they’ll take.

“No matter what shape you blow them in, they will struggle to become round,” says DeAnn Garrison, project manager at the center.

One hands-on activity could prove irresistible: At one vat of bubble solution, visitors will be able to encase themselves in giant bubbles.

Cabrillo Aquarium Grunion Run

“Dress for snow. It gets cold,” says Fukuhara, only half-jokingly, of the warm clothing needed to watch the grunion run expected outside the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in the late-night hours of April 20.

The program begins at 9 p.m. with a video that explains the life cycle and biology involved in a grunion run, in which small sardine-shaped fish ride the waves up onto the sand to procreate. The female grunion buries herself in the sand to lay her eggs and the male wraps himself around her to fertilize them, then they wait for a wave to take them back out to sea.

About 10:30 p.m., or half an hour before the grunion are expected to arrive on the beach in droves, visitors will be taken to the beach. Once the grunion run, spotlights are turned on and people will be allowed to watch but not touch, because only observation is allowed during the closed season, a heavy spawning period.

Children of any age are welcome, but it helps if they can walk and possibly take a nap before the grunion run, which ends at midnight, Fukuhara says.

“Grunions run when they want to run,” he cautions. “These are predicted times. We’ve been out there before where the grunion did not show. One time we had 2,500 people and six grunion showed. Ta-da. That was not good.”

Natural History Museum Butterfly Sleepover

The Natural History Museum is an otherworldly experience seen only by flashlight after-hours, when almost nobody’s there except the 120 people who are spending the night, says Baerg, a museum curator.

The “Butterfly Dreams Sleepover” begins at 7 p.m. April 28 and ends at 9 a.m. the next morning. It takes its name from the butterfly pavilion, scheduled to open May 6, that the indoor campers can preview the morning of April 29. Children must be accompanied by adults at the sleepover.

An evening snack and breakfast are provided. Other activities include learning about insect parts, crafts, a scavenger hunt and the spooky flashlight tour of the insect zoo.

“We make it fun. We ask them what they think the insects are doing when the lights are out. We have them guess. Are they sleeping? What do they do at night? We’ll find out,” Baerg says.

By 10:30 p.m. they all crawl into their sleeping bag “cocoons” till the 7:30 a.m. wake-up call. Baerg, a sleepover veteran, recommends bringing earplugs if you’re sensitive to the bearlike sounds made by some sleeping humans.

Los Angeles Zoo Sundown Safari

Overnight camp-outs have been offered at the Los Angeles Zoo for four years. They were started because zoo educators saw a need to offer an event geared toward the entire family.

The next “Sundown Safari” begins at 5 p.m. April 15 and ends at 9 a.m. the next day. About 100 campers can be accommodated, and there are no age restrictions. Dinner, breakfast and an after-hours tour are included.

In the evening, a 1 1/2-hour walking tour brings guests in contact with the animal keepers, which is usually the campers’ favorite part, says Andrea Chisholm, the zoo’s overnight camping coordinator.

“Adults and kids, too, really like to get an opportunity to talk with an animal keeper,” Chisholm says. “Also, just being at the zoo at night is so different from the day, you feel like you have the zoo to yourself, and you can see the nocturnal and morning routine.”

Visitors can also hear it. The morning wake-up call is often the song of the siamangs, a group of small apes.