Eight hands-on exhibits immerse visitors in new worlds and unleash opportunities for unforgettable learning.
Designed for children aged 0-10, open-ended exhibits appeal to children of different interests and abilities. Each exhibit provides play-based learning experiences encouraging children's cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development.
- Branching Out
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A treehouse village in a forest full of dancing light and wildlife hideaways encourages visitors to climb, crawl, balance, and explore. Through multi-level and accessible treehouses, children discover big-body movement, natural exploration, and artifact surprises. Moments of quiet exploration and opportunities for storytelling invite families to reflect on the interconnectedness of living things, including perspectives rooted in Indigenous knowledge and relationships to the land.
Ways to Play:
- Climb through treehouses, rope bridges, and tunnels
- Build hideouts in the Fort Forest
- Snuggle up for a nature story
- Discover animal habitats and wildlife surprises
- Community Roots
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This child-sized town allows visitors to take on roles of vital community members. Familiar community spaces such as a Neighbourhood Market, Restaurant, Rescue Headquarters, Wellness Centre, School and Home present opportunities for imaginative and collaborative play. Local culture and history come to life in the buildings inspired by London’s architecture, street art, and spaces designed for communal gathering and storytelling.
Ways to Play:
- Become a pretend chef, baker, shopper, or cashier in the Neighbourhood Market or Restaurant
- Dress up as a firefighter or EMS worker in Rescue Headquarters
- Care for others as a dentist or doctor in the Wellness Centre
- Act out every day community experiences
- Discovery Lab
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An interdisciplinary space designed for visitors to take part in STEAM-based creativity through making, crafting, experimenting, and hacking. Visitors engage in self-directed making, collaborative projects, and staff-facilitated workshops. This gallery includes tools and materials that allow visitors to build on their skills, take risks, and follow their creative instincts. Visitors learn from local creators and innovators through special guest programs that include local crafters, cultural groups, artists, and more.
Ways to Play:
- Build or invent something new
- Experiment with simple machines and structures
- Join a facilitated workshop
- Contribute to collaborative creations
- Farm Works
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A farm and factory tell the story of the region’s manufacturing, industrial, and agricultural history, helping visitors make connections about how food is produced, processed and sold. On the ground floor, visitors explore a farm environment, interact with farm animals, investigate large farm equipment, discover a corn field, and plant and harvest produce. On the upper level, chutes, pulleys and gears work together to keep the factory running.
Ways to Play:
- Plant and harvest pretend crops
- Milk a recirculating pretend cow
- Sort and transport goods in the factory
- Experiment with pulleys and chutes
- STREAM
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Taking inspiration from the Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River or Thames River), STREAM is an exploration of water physics and life on the water. The river emerges from a rock bed high overhead, making its way down a waterfall and over an aqueduct to fill a 21-meter-long water table. Visitors investigate wildlife, flood plains, and bridges. With opportunities to layer in Indigenous teachings about our precious waterways, STREAM allows children to become stewards of the environment.
Ways to Play:
- Splash, pour, and play at the water table
- Build dams, channels, and waterways
- Experiment with water flow and speed
- Discover aquatic wildlife and habitats
- Above & Beyond
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From Earth to outer space and back again, children let their curiosity soar to the outer reaches of the universe in this exhibit. Visitors investigate the principles of astronomy, become astronauts, and blast off to the International Space Station. A digital planetarium invites children to explore the galaxy, fostering curiosity about stars, planets, and constellations.
Ways to Play:
- Plan a pretend mission at the Mission Control Desk
- Use your imagination to launch into space at the Rocket Launch
- Gets hands-on with a real meteorite from our collection
- Watch a star show in the Star Lab
- Unearthed
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Visitors explore the world of dinosaurs by uncovering bones, rocks, and minerals before taking objects into the field lab for further research and investigation. An accessible Dig Pit encourages visitors to indulge their senses, while a fully outfitted Dig Lab generates new answers and ideas. Deeper into the exhibit, children discover an immense cave system where they practice spelunking, find mineral deposits, discover cave ecosystems, and explore an ice cave.
Ways to Play:
- Excavate fossils in the Dig Pit
- Examine finds under a microscope in the Dig Lab
- Crawl and climb through caves
- Learn about gems and minerals in our collection
- The Annex
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A space that’s always changing, The Annex is where creativity, culture, and community come together. This flexible gallery hosts travelling exhibits, art installations, performances, and special programs created by the Museum and visiting partners. Whether attending an event or exploring a new exhibit, visitors will always find something fresh and inspiring.
Ways to Play:
- Explore rotating exhibits and installations
- Participate in workshops, performances, or special events
- Engage with hands-on activities tied to current programming
