On a cloudless summer day, children shriek with glee as they take turns sliding down a tree trunk, or collaboratively sculpt mini monuments out of sand, mud, and logs.
It’s not a scene out of a children’s book—it’s the Leslie Science & Nature Center’s Nature Playscape. With plants, logs, water, sand, mud, boulders, hills, and trees—and a slide that tunnels through the hill—the Playscape presents nature in a way that’s comfortable, educational, and fun.
The multiyear project was designed in 2016, broke ground in 2019, opened its first phase in 2022, and will continue to be built until an estimated completion date of 2025–2026.
“We took input from surveys and community meetings, a playscape expert came and took ideas from kids and volunteers, and now it is being built in phases,” explains Susan Westoff, president and executive director of the LSNC. “It will always be free to anyone inside or outside of our community.”
The Waterplay area, under construction through fall of 2023, will include pumps that children can use to understand how water flows by redirecting, damming, and allowing it to flow into a rain garden space.
“Kids are born scientists; they are born curious and love learning, questioning and pushing back on why something happens,” Westoff says. “Through everything that we are doing, we are trying to help kids realize they are already scientists. We are encouraging that so they can better understand the world around them and how they can impact that world.”
Founded in 1978, the LSNC, in partnership with the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, is a nonprofit that aims to inspire curiosity and exploration regarding STEM and the natural world. In addition to the center and the Playscape, LSNC also offers a summer camp on its fifty acres. Campers may observe animals in their natural environment or participate in “animal olympics” or skits, depending on the age group.
“Children can interact both with nature and each other, which is especially important post-pandemic,” Westhoff adds.
For older children, LSNC offers field trips with partner schools across eleven counties in southeast Michigan. Wildlife coeducators lead students on an exploration of ecosystems and habitats in their local parks or natural spaces—and even bring along animals, from soaring red-tailed hawks to humble, hopping frogs.
There are activities for adults as well, including the Annual Monarch Migration Festival in September, and the Ann Arbor Earth Day Festival in April, where twenty local environmental organizations collaborate to offer animal demonstrations, live entertainment, and more.
Westhoff says her favorite thing about the LSNC is “how intergenerational the space is.
“Any time you come into the museum, you’ll see grandparents playing with grandkids, you’ll see kids who don’t know each other playing with each other because together they can make something bigger or better happen,” she observes. “I love this collaborative community space it creates.”