Discovery Rooms

Our Discovery Rooms are currently open:

Schoolyear 2024/25 (starting 8/27): Tuesdays – Thursdays from 10 am to noon and from 4 pm to 6 pm.

Summer 2025 (Dates TBA from early June – mid-August): Saturdays – Sundays from 10 am to 2 pm

FREE for individuals and families.

Visit our Program pages to see the costs of Mom’s Group, Scout Group, and Summer Group visits, and see our Birthday Parties page for the cost of party visits.

Themed specimens and displays are changed out in our large and small Discovery Rooms monthly. One month the focus may be on mammals and the next it may be birds or reptiles. You’ll find skins, skeletons, and more that are all touchable and accessible to kids and their caregivers. We also have a variety of resident live animals that you can observe and sometimes encounter up close when you visit. Staff Naturalists and Educators are on hand in the rooms to answer questions, take out live animals, and to orient you to activities you might enjoy while you visit the rooms.

We ask that children are supervised by an accompanying adult at all times while they are visiting the Discovery Rooms. Please model appropriate behavior during your visit and assist your children in picking up after themselves and putting things back where they found them. Please note that the Discovery Rooms are not a good place for a snack. Food and drinks may be enjoyed outside in the park.

During your visit you are welcome to check out a Junior Conservationist loaner backpack at the front desk or to pick up a scavenger hunt from the large Discovery Room that you can complete in the park.

More About the Junior Conservationist Loaner Backpack Program

Our Junior Conservationist Backpacks are available for check out at our reception desk during our Discovery Room Hours. Backpacks may be checked out for one week from the day of check-out, so backpacks checked out on Tuesday MUST be returned the following Tuesday during the Discovery Room Hours. We have just 5 backpacks to check out, so there is a limit of one backpack check out per family group. We will provide additional activity packets so that each kiddo in a family can complete their own packet, and of course each kiddo will get their own Junior Conservationist badge when the activities are completed and the backpack is returned.

Loaner backpacks contain an activity packet, binoculars, a compass, and magnifying glass to use while completing the activities inside the pack. The activities include a nature treasure hunt to find living and non-living things, guessing how long things take to decompose, learning how to use a compass, and exploring the life of a tree through the tree rings. Kids who complete the activities will earn a wooden Junior Conservationist badge when they return the backpack.

This free program was made possible by GSSJC Girl Scout Gold Award recipient Chloe Schueppert. We are so excited to launch her backpack program at the Center! Thank you, Chloe, for creating such a fabulous experience and learning opportunity for our young nature lovers!