We’ve taken our hands-on interactive exhibit expertise into our outdoor space, nestling large, full-body experiences near the banks of the Mississippi River. Our Backyard is truly a special place, built for visitors to explore scientific principles, connecting with nature and each other.
The Microscope sat down with the people who made it possible to learn more about how this space came to life.
What’s your name and position at the museum?
Sara: Sara Ilse, Project Leader for exhibit projects. I help lead the teams that create new exhibits.
Elias: Elias Ramos-Solis, Senior Experience Designer. My job entails creating the visuals and 3D design for any stories we’re wanting to tell.
What was your role in creating Our Backyard?
Sara: I’ve been working on Our Backyard for the past three years as the project leader. Three years ago, this space wasn’t open to our visitors. We had this very large outdoor space to use, and we wanted to create something fun to explore that would be a great addition to our indoor exhibit spaces. We’ve been taking an iterative approach, so each year we add more out there.
Elias: I am the lead designer for Our Backyard, so I had a hand in all of the design, materials, elements that you’ll see and experience in the space.
What are your favorite features of the exhibit?
Sara: I love the stream, and I know the visitors do, too. But right now, I’m excited about the Exploring Energy exhibit — we put a lot of energy (ha, ha) there this year. I love the Human Circuits interactive, where you use your bodies to turn on electrical circuits. It requires you to work with other people, so I enjoy seeing people out there getting someone to come over to work with them to turn it on.
Elias: I think the water area is the most popular exhibit I’ve seen at the museum, maybe ever. For context, if people spend 30 seconds, a minute, a few minutes at an exhibit, you have an extremely successful exhibit. We have visitors spend hours of their time at the museum in the water area. You see groups that don’t know each other engaging with it. The exhibit almost forces you to do that. Something that you do in one area has impacts on the rest of the stream. They’re all connected to each other.
More broadly, Our Backyard is a place for connection. You get opportunities to build connections with people you don’t know, with science, with math, just by being out there. It’s all about community and connections.
How did the nature (pun intended) of this open-air exhibit influence the design process?
Sara: We can do things outdoors that we can’t do indoors, like have a stream! We allow a certain level of ‘mess’ outdoors with water and sticks and pinecones and such. And being outdoors, we can lean into the full-body activities. The maze and obstacle course, and all of the Exploring Energy exhibits, encourage active engagement.
When we started, we also discovered that unless stuff was big, it looked really small. The space is just so big. So many of the things felt really really big when we built them in the fabrication shop — like the parachute drop or the Exploring Energy pieces — then we put them outside and thought ‘well, could have been even bigger.’ We’re outdoors. Let’s make something big so that you can run around or be a bit more physical.
Elias: Something that we can leverage outside — that we can’t do indoors — is the natural elements to play with. We’re able to use sun and wind in our Exploring Energy exhibits, but it’s more than that. For example, the water feature is a naturally occurring spring — an artesian well — so that water comes directly out of the ground.
It’s my understanding that Our Backyard is a ‘yes’ space, meaning there is not a lot of instruction or regulation. Can you share why that is?
Sara: We wanted to create an opportunity for visitors to make things with natural materials, and for the experience to be very open-ended. People have made everything you can think of — from a necklace, to a raft, to a mobile. We also thought a lot about the outdoor nature of the space. People show up outdoors and maybe have a different energy level. People don’t want to read when they’re outdoors, necessarily, because they’re running around having a good time. It is a space where people are exploring more naturally and less looking for didactic information.
Elias: Ultimately, we decided on that because we wanted it to be a space where you can’t mess up. People learn in very different ways and have different cognitive or social abilities, so we wanted this to be an incredibly inclusive space. By allowing visitors to test things out, we’re allowing them to learn without messing things up, or failing. This area is a lot more open-ended. Kids don’t need instructions to play with something — they can just outright play with whatever.
Our Backyard highlights a variety of STEM principles, from electrical energy to wind resistance to water movement. What are some STEM principles that you can explore in this outdoor exhibit?
Sara: The intention of it is really for it to be a makerspace, for early engineering behaviors and exploration. Things like creativity, trial-and-error, the cycle of making and testing something, all happen out there. Also teamwork and collaboration — the space really encourages and invites that kind of behavior and learning. Because it’s so big and open, lots of people can work on something together at the same time.
To hit intergenerational groups and different peoples’ needs at the moment, we added some things that are really high energy, but also some things that are a little quieter — like the water easel painting or the sand table. We really tried to get a mix of things that allow people to have the experience they want to have back there, whether that’s a quieter experience or a big, physical experience and work for people of different ages.
Elias: Something that a lot of people may not understand is that energy can take a lot of different forms, it’s not just electrical. One of the principles that we show visitors through an experience is the kinetic energy fly wheel. You turn a handle, the wheel builds momentum, and then letters move up and down. My hope is that visitors will walk away with understanding that there are different ways to interact with energy.
It’s your first time in Our Backyard. What are you gravitating toward?
Sara: When I watch back there, something interesting I’ve noticed is that what people do depends a lot on the weather. The obstacle course and maze are used a lot more when it’s cloudy. The stream is a big draw for a lot of people on hot days — where else do you have access to a little trickle of water?
Elias: There’s just so much! Our Backyard is 70,000 sq ft, it’s a huge, huge space. If you go to your left, you have the open-ended water area. If you go to the right, you enter the Explore Energy science-y area. You can kind of do whatever you want — all of it is really intriguing for a variety of reasons.
Let’s say you’re a seasoned backyard visitor. What are you exploring more in-depth? What is a must-see every time?
Sara: If I was coming multiple times per year, I think it’d be fun to watch the natural gardens change over time. Some of the areas are really beautiful throughout the summer when they’re in bloom. When I was out there last week, I was blown away by all of the flowers blooming — it was so pretty.
There are also some exhibits that are a little more hidden and people may not notice them the first time, like the hammocks under the bridge. If you miss that your first time, look for it! Those are a pretty fun place to just hang out a little bit.
Elias: If you’ve been to Our Backyard before, you’ll see that the space is always changing, year-to-year, season-to-season, and even week-to-week. It’s such a dynamic space, that there is always something to look at.
We have a rain garden and yoga mat out there to teach you nature-inspired poses. The stream has water in it — that attracts little critters, little birds. When we shut down the space for winter, there are little birds that come back looking for that water source. One of my favorite ‘Easter eggs’ is that if you’re able to complete the last circuit in the human circuits interactive in Exploring Energy, you’ll see a train go around a model scale of the museum. If you visit Our Backyard and happen to see a train go by, it’s a rare and special sight, an unexpected urban moment in the middle of such a natural setting.
Exploring Energy is powered by Xcel Energy.
