{"id":242,"date":"2026-10-19T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/?p=242"},"modified":"2026-10-19T14:36:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:36:23","slug":"backyard-adventures-exhibit-encourages-curiosity-at-the-grand-rapids-public-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/?p=242","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Backyard Adventures\u2019 exhibit encourages curiosity at the Grand Rapids Public Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Visitors to the Grand Rapids Public Museum in 2026 will likely find a new exhibit to explore; \u201cBackyard Adventures<\/a>\u201d. Found on the second floor of the museum in the space where \u201cFashion + Nature\u201d used to reside, \u201cBackyard Adventures\u201d is a traveling exhibit that opened at the Grand Rapids Public Museum on January 24, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Created by Scitech Discovery Center<\/a>, a science museum based in Perth, Australia, \u201cBackyard Adventures\u201d is a traveling exhibit aimed towards children ages 5 to 12 that is working to teach scientific topics through the lens of how these ideas relate to ones backyard. By relating abstract scientific concepts, such as the food web and physics, to everyday facets of people\u2019s lives, such as a local pond or a backyard mini golf set, \u201cBackyard Adventures\u201d better teaches these concepts to museum visitors. According to Stephanie Ogren, Vice President of Science & Education at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, this is something that is often done at the museum. \u201cWe always try to make thing relatable, either to your own home or to your own community. So even if we have an exhibit that\u2019s about safari and African wildlife, we always try to say \u201cwhat can you see here that\u2019s like that or what types of conservation activities are happening here.\u201d The museum always tries to tie things back and make them relatable for the community in Grand Rapids and West Michigan.\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As stated before, \u201cBackyard Adventures\u201d is a traveling exhibit. This means that, unlike something like the previous \u201cNature + Fashion\u201d, which was produced by the Grand Rapid Public Museum\u2019s curation teams for use locally, \u201cBackyard Adventures\u201d was created by a separate institution, in this case Scitech, and now goes from museum to museum. As for the process of selecting a traveling exhibit for the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Dr. Ogren explains, \u201cWe have a committee that works through opportunities, there\u2019s actual companies that sell or rent traveling exhibits, and we work with many of those. A lot of times we\u2019ll book exhibits three years out.\u201d One factor that is taken into account when deciding upon a new traveling exhibit to host at the Grand Rapids Public Museum is how well the potential exhibit would complement other traveling exhibits. \u201cWe always try to have really diverse exhibits that speak to different age groups, different demographics, so we might have a really science heavy exhibit and then we\u2019ll that with a culture exhibit, or a play heavy exhibit we might pair with a more serious exhibit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One major focus in the exhibit in terms of design is on interactivity. \u201c\u2026 there\u2019s a lot of hands on activities, a lot of allowing people to create their own experience.\u201d states Dr. Ogren. One of the major motives behind this focus is that the exhibit aims to encourage visitors to embrace a new attitude of curiosity about the world around them. \u201cThe exhibition focuses on seeing the unseen and taking a closer look at the world around you. The exhibition draws the visitor into the garden, making them more aware of their local world and how things interact, operate and live in that environment.\u201d reads the educator\u2019s guide for the exhibit. Having visitors actively interact with the exhibit as opposed to more static exhibits can help encourage this sense of curiosity. Another reason for this emphasis on interactivity is to encourage people to use their imaginations. \u201c\u2026 in the exhibit you\u2019ll see your backyard or you\u2019ll see a shed or you\u2019ll see something that is a dark area, and then it\u2019ll ask you to imagine what you might see at night, and then you can think of bats and frogs or those types of animals that come out at night. There\u2019s a lot more imagination and a lot more play. We would like all age groups to have good imaginations and good play.\u201d explains Dr. Ogren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In terms of specific topics, one major field of science that is explored in the exhibit is biology. A facet of this field that is explored in the exhibit is ecology, the study of how organisms interact with each other and their environment. One of the first parts of the exhibit that visitors will come across is the \u201cNight Vision\u201d station, which presents some animals people might see that are nocturnal, meaning that they are primarily active after the sun sets. Some species that are presented include Barn Owls (Tyto alba), Brown Rats (Rattus norvegigus), and the North American Opossum (Didelphis virginiana). Another portion of the exhibit that covers ecology is the \u201cFood Web Pond\u201d. A food web describes the flow of energy through a natural habitat, such as a forest or a backyard garden, by mapping the various predator-pray relationships in an ecosystem<\/a>. In this case, the exhibit uses a simplified line of algae to mosquito larvae to tadpoles to carp to kingfishers. Here, visitors are encouraged to use joysticks and buttons to play as one of these four groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Botany, another facet of biology that covers the study of plants, is another focus of the the exhibit. One portion of the exhibit that focuses on the study of botany is the \u201cGiant Pumpkin Bonanza\u201d station. In this game, visitors are put in the role of a gardener trying to grow a record breaking pumpkin. To accomplish this, visitors are given the ability to control what type of fertilizer is given to the plant, how much is used, and how much water the plant receives, which helps visitors learn topics such as the types of elements plants need to grow<\/a>. Another station is \u201cSeed Dispersal\u201d which, as the name implies, focuses on the various ways plants spread their seeds. These include palm trees, which float their coconuts on the ocean currents, dandelions, which spread their seeds with white fluffs which get caught on the wind, and fruit trees, which rely on animals to spread their seeds after they eat said fruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The exhibit also explores other fields of science outside of biology. Engineering is explored at \u201cThe Garden Shed\u201d, visitors learn about how multiple famous inventions people know and love today started in sheds, with the station coming complete with build areas for people to try building things with provided materials and diagrams for how to build a go cart and a bird box at home with wood and basic tools. The exhibit also explores mathematics by framing geometry through the lens of paving stones, with visitors being encouraged to figure out how to fit together tiles of various shapes. One notable concept of geometry taught through this exhibit is that of tesselation<\/a>, which describes an arrangement of 2D shapes that form a pattern upon a flat plane without any overlaps or gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Museum visitors can enjoy a trip to \u201cBackyard Adventures\u201d until September 6, 2026. The GRPM also recommends people take a look at their summer camp programs<\/a> and at Grand Rapids Whitewater\u2019s Science and Leadership Program<\/a> held in partnership with the GRPM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visitors to the Grand Rapids Public Museum in 2026 will likely find a new exhibit to explore; \u201cBackyard Adventures\u201d. Found on the second floor of the museum in the space where \u201cFashion + Nature\u201d used to reside, \u201cBackyard Adventures\u201d is a traveling exhibit that opened at the Grand Rapids Public Museum on January 24, 2026. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,12,5],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-museum","tag-science","tag-the-rapidian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248,"href":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions\/248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forestphotographer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}