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Article for: The Davis Enterprise
Date: November 28, 2003
Author: Tom Wickersham
Contact: Tom Wickersham

HISTORICAL SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTED AT EXPLORIT

What was on your plate for Thanksgiving? Did it include acorn pancakes?

If you meal, which is in part a celebration of the fall harvest, didn't include acorn pancakes you'll want to grab the kids and head over to Explorit Science Center tomorrow to make some of your own.

Tara Barbier, Family Explorations coordinator for Explorit, says that visitors to tomorrow's program "Native Skills Workshop" will be introduced to a variety of science and tools that were used by Native Americans. The program runs from 1:00 to 4:30 and is free with paid admission to the exhibit, "Earth Elements: Discovering Natural Resources."

The acorn pancakes will be just a part of a series of hands-on activities that highlight historical technology, specifically technology used by Native Americans in California.

There will be hands-on activities on food, cordage and fire. In addition, Barbier says there will be a "mini" museum of artifacts including samples of basketry.

Two guests, Tim Lehnert and Brian Barbier, will provide most of the samples and will lead the demonstrations. These two have been studying indigenous living skills, tracking and survival skills for over ten years. They practice these skills as a hobby and lead group workshops and outdoor excursions.

Preparing food from the resources around you is just one of the historical technologies featured tomorrow. With acorns, visitors will use tools in opening them and in grinding them. Visitors will remove the tannins and prepare the acorn "mush" for cooking.

"This is the time of the year when acorns are falling, and fall is a time of harvest," said Tara Barbier. "You can even see the local squirrels gathering for the winter months," she added.

Acorns are the fruit of oak trees and made a great food source for California Indians as the acorns store very well during the winter.

In addition to food preparing, visitors young and old will have a chance to make their own cordage or twine. "Cordage is important for the making of many tools such as bows, traps, fishnets and even clothing," Barbier said.

Museum goers will see cordage from several different plant materials, figure out what jobs they're best suited for and make their own length of cordage to take home.

Making fire without matches is also another technology highlighted tomorrow. Watch as demonstrators show how a hand-drill can be used to create fire for cooking, tool-making or warmth.

Saturday's program is sponsored by Davis Waste Removal.


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Explorit Science Center is at 3141 5th Street in East Davis. The current exhibition is "Earth Elements: Discovering Natural Resources," which continues through Dec. 7. Public hours are Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.explorit.org or call Explorit at (530) 756-0191.