Habitat Park
The great outdoors opens up to Museum visitors in our 2-acre nature park and landscaped children’s exhibit area.
Things to Do:
- Use your senses or sight, touch, hearing, and smell to examine characteristics of various plants in our sensory garden.
- Wander through winding paths to explore a 9-piece interactive sculpture collection.
- Roll down the gentle berms.
- Go underground through a giant tunnel.
- Find your way through the prairie grass maze.
- Pretend to live in a natural dwelling in the imagination hut.
- Watch for birds and small animals that may live in the natural area.
- Search for pine cones, flowers, and colored leaves.
- Go on a bug hunt to find ants, worms, or insects that may live in the park.
- Observe natural energy being collected through a wind turbine and solar panel.
- Peer through special binoculars to see how they change your view of the park.
- Weave fabric strips through the slats on the fence.*
- Discover how animals move using special climbing and spinning structures.*
- Paint designs with water on slate walls and watch them evaporate.*
- Observe the life cycle of monarch butterflies, including eggs, caterpillars, and pupae, in our milkweed garden.*
* These activities will not be available from early December – mid-April.
Please note that Habitat Park is a weather-dependent exhibit. For safety reasons, all or part of the exhibit will close when the heat index is above 90º F, the wind chill is below 20º F, ground conditions are wet, or after dusk.
Learning Outcomes:
- Explore a compelling, innovative yet simple outdoor natural environment.
- Experience colors, textures, scents, sounds and properties of nature.
- Learn the importance of caring and respecting the environment.
- Discover that man-made and recycled materials can help preserve natural resources.
Underwritten by the Diana M. and Bruce V. Rauner Family. Sculpture Trail given by the Shaw Family in memory of Charles H. Shaw. Additional support provided by the Public Museum Capital Grants Program, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois State Museum; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the Souder Family Foundation; Anonymous; Tom and Louise Flickinger & the Edward E. and Marie L. Matthews Foundation; Anderson Pest Solutions; and the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation.
