Early learning is critical to a young child's development, and Pocket Park provides a stimulating environment for preschool age children and infants. Explore the exhibit’s pretend urban park setting and enjoy environmental education experiences that highlight the importance of fresh water and other natural resources, environmental stewardship, and real organizations and initiatives in our community that work to preserve and protect our environment.

Children of all ages will enjoy Water Works! sponsored by Badger Meter Foundation, where they can operate a pretend water treatment system to understand the importance of water to a community. Activities in the exhibit’s Ecology Center highlight related careers, vertical gardening, the change of the seasons, the importance of fresh water to our local economy, and ways that children can make environmentally responsible and healthy choices part of their daily lives.

In Pocket Park, our youngest visitors will enjoy “splashing” in the interactive pond, planting in the rooftop garden and spinning the composter, picking fruit from the pretend orchard and selling it at the produce stand, digging in the sandbox, exploring the rain garden and the water cycle, and climbing into the tree house, then sliding down!

Exhibit Partner/Sponsor: PNC, with additional support provided by the Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation.