Address: 700 Exposition Park Drive
Pricing: General Admission: Free
Phone: 323.SCIENCE (323-724- 3623)
Hours: Daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
How To Get There:
The California Science Center is located in Exposition Park at the corner of Figueroa Street and 39th Street, west of the 110 (Harbor) freeway. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena are south of the Science Center.Exit Exposition Boulevard
Turn left to Flower Street
Turn left on Flower to Figueroa Street
Enter Exposition Park 1/2 block on the right
(39th Street/Exposition Park Drive)
Follow guest parking signs to the parking structure.
Parking:Onsite: $8 per car
Visit Website
Ecosystems: The Show
May 18, 2010
The California Science Center opened a brand new permanent exhibition wing in March, one with a frosty and riveting bite. Ecosystems debuted March 25 with a blend of live plants and animals, and hands-on immersion into 11 earth environments. Visitors walk through living kelp forests and dally in the face of a polar ice wall, brave a desert flash flood; even join the process of decomposition and rot aided by special insects that help the process along. And just for Los Angeles there is a special gallery dedicated to the urban ecology of LA.
The journey begins with an introductory gallery flashing the sights and sounds of the environments featured in Ecosystems. Once inside, here’s a sample of what they will find:
The Kelp Forest
Visitors walk through a 24-foot long transparent acrylic tunnel to see life amid the Pacific coastal Kelp Forests in the surrounding 188,000 gallon kelp habitat.
The River Zone
This area River Zone lets visitors discover the power and impact of currents, showing how the movements of air, sea, lava, glaciers, wind and water distribute nutrients and change the face of landscapes through erosion.
The Island Zone
Hands-on exhibits in the Island Zone show the challenges species face in getting to an island, how bird beak size and shape can offer a window on the evolutionary process of adaptive radiation, and how isolation can foster such characteristics such as dwarfism and gigantism.
The Extreme Zone
Visitors explore Deserts, Rocky Shores, Poles and Deep Ocean Vents in this section and learn how plants and animals have managed to adapt and flourish.
The Rocky Shore
In the Rocky Intertidal Zone thrives an assortment of life attuned to the rhythms of high tide and low tide. There’s an artificial wave exhibit here and a touch tank with sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, snails.
The Rot Room
All that lives, dies, Here’s what happens as told through interactive exhibits and time-lapse video, and even an onsite rot farm of maggots, flesh-eating beetles, camel crickets, sow bugs, millipedes and roaches busily at work.
- by Lark Ellen Gould, Los Angeles Reporter for HelloMetro
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Lark Ellen GouldLark Ellen Gould has penned seven books on Las Vegas and Los Angeles as a veteran news and travel writer. Her work appears in the L.A. Times, Elite Traveler, Travel Agent Magazine and other national forums. She lived in Boston for many years, earning her masters degree and then traveling the globe for stories. Today she lives in LA and still travels the world on assignment while filling the pages of her travel site: www.wheredaily.com, along the way.
