From Berkeleyside
Lawrence Hall of Science has lost 9 grants worth $6M to Trump’s funding cuts
By Joanne Furio
In 2023, a groundbreaking research project at the Lawrence Hall of Science — what would be the first Ohlone interactive science exhibition ever — received the first installment of a $1.4 million grant promised by the National Science Foundation. The project was scheduled for completion in 2026.
Called tappenekšekma, the project brings together Ohlone youth as youth as age 6, along with elders in their 90s and Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, co-founders of Cafe Ohlone and Ohlone activists who are on a six-member team of “science diplomats” that includes researchers from the Lawrence and UC Berkeley [including Prof. Kimiko Ryokai]. Tappenekšekma is a Chochenyo word that means both “teacher” and “learner.”
The exhibitions created by the collaboration will illustrate Ohlone expertise on topics ranging from the engineering of a tule boat to the leaching of dangerous tannins in acorn processing, with mixed-reality exhibitions that merge aspects of the physical world with “computer vision and digital projections,” said Ari Krakowski, a Lawrence learning designer who is the project’s lead principal investigator.
Kimiko Ryokai is an assistant professor in the Berkeley I School; her research focuses primarily on human-computer interactions, user experience research, and design. In 2023, she began working with the Lawrence Hall of Science on a project to create mixed reality exhibits for Ohlone youth that would create a sense of ‘rightful presence’ for them.
