Kids are born curious. Before they can speak in full sentences, they’re crunching leaves with their feet, smiling at clouds, and pointing at sparrows. At Brooklyn Botanic Garden, this lifelong practice of curiosity is sparked and nurtured in the Discovery Garden.
Founded in 1996 and relocated and expanded in 2015 with a design by landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc., the Discovery Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden is a one-acre immersive landscape designed with kids and their caregivers in mind. Thoughtfully tended habitats, buzzing with life, are dotted with engaging signage, portable field guides, and hands-on exhibits to help build excitement about plants and encourage playful exploration.
As we celebrate 10 years in the updated Discovery Garden, here are some lessons inspired by this unique interactive space for encouraging nature-based play and learning with the young people in your lives, no matter where you are.
Learn through play
Kids are meant to play. They naturally explore their world through movement, imagination, and experimentation. Outdoor spaces can become stages for growth—or just plain fun.
While other programs at BBG might follow a lesson plan, the DG is designed to offer more open-ended learning experiences. We invite kids to build, dig, and pretend. Winding pathways, carefully selected plants, and interactive play areas support both science-driven learning and spontaneous moments.
Play can happen anywhere. The next time you’re invited to play with the kids in your life, say yes! Whether it’s inventing a game, telling a story, or drawing make-believe creatures, go all in—and let them lead you.
Foster empathy through curiosity
When a young person pauses to inspect a caterpillar or rescue a worm from a sidewalk puddle, they’re building empathy. The more kids understand the web of life around them, the more invested they become. Being curious about the world is the key to caring about the world.
Many activities in the Discovery Garden are designed with this curiosity-empathy connection in mind. For example, when teaching about lichens, we ask learners to close their eyes and imagine what it might feel like to absorb sunlight, air, and rainwater with your whole body. Then we might say something like: “Oh no! A car’s smoky exhaust is surrounding the tree trunk you live on. What does your next breath feel like?” This exercise reminds us that we’re surrounded by living beings that feel the effects of our human actions.
Next time you’re walking down the street with the kids in your life, try asking open-ended questions: “What do you think that bird is doing? Why does that flower smell so strong?” Even a sidewalk crack can offer up a tantalizing world of mysteries.
Cultivate a connection to place
One great way to encourage a love of the outdoors is through repeat visits. At the Discovery Garden, a drop-in model allows families to return often, watching as the garden—and the way they experience and play alongside it—shifts along with the seasons.
To build up this same awareness of place and time on your own, try revisiting the same park bench, tree stump, or stretch of beach. Track changes across seasons. Ask kids to remember what they saw last time or predict what they might see next. Even a weekly walk down the same block can become a ritual of observation.
Create a multisensory experience
Nature isn’t just something to look at—it’s something to touch, smell, listen to, and taste; it’s within us and all around us. That’s why in the Discovery Garden, visitors are invited to engage all their senses. Educators and horticulturists curate a plant palette that invites immersive experiences: fuzzy lamb’s ears, fragrant lavender, rustling grasses, edible herbs.
You can do the same on a smaller scale. Sniff a basil leaf or listen to bird calls in the early morning. You can even build a simple sensory scavenger hunt: Find something smooth, something that smells sweet, and something that makes a sound when you shake it. The more senses involved, the better.
Encourage multigenerational moments
Play-based learning isn’t just for kids. Nature play supports physical and cognitive well-being at all ages and invites interaction. In the Discovery Garden, teens from BBG’s Garden Apprentice Program help younger kids explore. Caregivers dig in the dirt alongside toddlers. Staff and docents guide conversations while leaving space for families to make discoveries on their own. Adult visitors engage with the interpretive signage—and, quite often, the xylophone! The result is a space where curiosity and fun are shared across generations.
See what happens when you invite friends or grandparents on nature walks. Nudge older siblings to teach younger ones what they’ve learned. And join in the exploration yourself, not as a guide with answers but as a fellow adventurer. These moments can build lasting memories and strengthen all kinds of bonds—family, community, and ecological.
Until your next visit to the Discovery Garden, we hope you take the time to get curious and play together, wherever you might be.
