Tally ho! Explore the natural world in this interactive exhibit based on the popular PBS animated kids’ series.
Nature Cat: Backyard and Beyond inspires families and children to understand that nature discovery can happen anywhere – even in their own backyards. Different areas of this bilingual, Spanish and English, exhibit provide opportunities to learn about nature, use math skills to explore the natural world, use tools to investigate environments, and work and play together to create, explore and accomplish tasks.
The exhibit offers several distinct interactive learning experience areas featuring Nature Cat and his friends: Hal, the happy-go-lucky dog; Squeeks, the intrepid mouse; Daisy, the brainy bunny; and Nature Cat’s nemesis Ronald, the cat next door.
The Backyard
A host of activity sitting just on the edge of the forest, the backyard includes Hal’s funky doghouse where visitors can take shelter from the rainy weather and learn how to “play it safe” while using counting skills to measure the time between thunder claps and lightning flashes. Outside, Daisy invites visitors to try their hand at planting a garden of vegetables and flowers in creative, recycled containers such as tires, soda bottles and even boots!
The Marsh
Visitors can hop aboard Squeeks’ cousin Marvin’s raft, overlooking a “panoramic view” of a lush and thriving marsh. Kids can practice environmental stewardship by helping Marvin and his friends sort and clean up the trash polluting their homes, using the nearby recycling bins. Seen through telescopes around the Marsh, Ronald invites visitors to try out his slide, just a short climb up the hill, or solve jigsaw and slider puzzles.
The Cave
Guests can join Hal in the search for Harold, his lost flying disc, and explore the world beneath the earth’s surface. After putting on safety helmets, cave-explorers can trace the flow of water in and out of the cave and observe a variety of critters in the dim light – an eyeless salamander, bats overhead, and glow worms pulsing in a rhythmic light display.
The Forest
Visitors are invited into an intimate space inside of a vibrant forest, where they can explore a hollowed-out den in the base of a large tree, crawl into a rotting log to discover the many creatures it plays home to, and see a vernal pond at their feet.
Created by Kohl Children’s Museum and the Hamill Family Foundation and developed in partnership with WTTW Chicago and Spiffy Pictures.
Local media sponsor: New England Public Media
