Exhibits & Experiences

Small Fry Fish Camp is an immersive exhibit designed for children 6 and younger to explore, play, and learn. The centerpiece, Rainbow Trout Crawler, is a large-scale fish sculpture where kids can explore. The Jump In! area caters to infants and toddlers with soft sculptures and sensory activities. The Fish Shack provides imaginative play opportunities as kids run a pretend restaurant and engage with interactive weather activities. The Log Walk and Campground areas offer physical challenges and creative play with log stumps, a faux campfire, and tent-building activities. 

Curiosity Spot is an engaging, hands-on gallery designed to inspire creativity and exploration with hands-on exhibits like the 15-foot mirrored Kaleidoscope tunnel, digital self-portraits at Make a Face, and custom instruments at Make a Fiddle. Visitors can also build and engineer with Posts and Panels or compose unique melodies at Build a Song.

Science Lab features three content-focused zones: Forces & Energy, Light & Sound, and Electricity & Magnetism. Each area features interactive exhibits that combine experimentation and intuitive exploration of concepts.

Dynamic Earth demonstrates how our planet changes through three zones: Adaptation, Transformations, and Forces of Change. Guests will witness how the smallest of microbes recycle energy back into systems of life or see what sets drastic geological changes into motion.

This two-story, three-tower climber features a series of connected and covered tunnels made of netting and other protective materials.

While climbers are certainly fun for guests of all ages, they’re becoming popular museum installations for their beneficial role in child development.

Exploring a climbing structure develops large motor skills and instills confidence as well as a willingness to take small risks in a safe environment. As children climb and explore, they make decisions, set goals and solve problems, often while working together with and assisting other children.

The climber is designed for ages 5-12, but younger children and adults are welcome. Shoes must be removed before entering.

This space, made possible by PPG, allows guests to explore new materials and tools, at their own pace, while participating in a tinkering activity that encourages problem-solving and creativity. Activities, which rotate weekly, include flying machines, cardboard construction, circuits, zoetropes, fluorescent play and more.

PPG STEAM Studio also has a Tinkering Tots area with rotating sensory activities.

Sensory Cove is a peaceful space for families to rest, recharge, and explore sensory-friendly activities. With dimmable lighting, soft furniture, calming colors, and features like a marble wall, bubble wall, tactile toys, and a secluded hideaway with soothing lights, it’s designed to create a relaxing environment for visitors of all ages, especially those with sensory or spectrum needs.

This gallery features some of most popular exhibits such as “The Whoosh,” bed of nails and heartbeat drum.

Our museum is home to a wide variety of species that serve as Animal Ambassadors and work with caretakers to teach biodiversity and conservation.

Animal Ambassadors can be viewed from windows in the gallery. Additionally, there is an enrichment room where our Animal Ambassadors can be seen exploring, playing and completing activities that serve as exercise and provide mental stimulation. There are opportunities to see animal feedings, bathing and other public programming throughout the day (schedule varies daily depending on staffing and demand). Guests may have an opportunity to meet one of the ambassadors face-to-face as staff and volunteers occasionally bring them into the galleries.”

Many of these Animal Ambassadors are rescues and are unable to be returned to the wild due to injury or a medical condition. We follow Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) care standards and work with a local veterinarian who provides medical attention and wellness checks.

Interested in supporting the Animal Ambassador program? Consider making a financial donations or purchase tax-deductible items from the Animal Care Facility’s Amazon Wishlist  . To become an Animal Care Facility volunteer, learn more here.

Our Tornado Alley Theater provides a riveting seven-minute experience for museum guests as they relive the F3 tornado that hit several areas of Little Rock, including the Quapaw Quarter, in January 1999.

Hear the stories of people who survived the storm and see TV footage of the event as broadcast on THV 11 that fateful evening. Feel the rumble and roar of the tornado as it passes through Tornado Alley Theater, sponsored by All-Clean USA Restoration Services.

We are home to a Guiness World Records musical bi-polar Tesla coil that debuted in 2015 and has been witnessed by thousands of guests. The coil – named after its inventor, Nikola Tesla, the developer of the alternating current system of electricity used today – creates high-voltage electricity at a high frequency visible to the eye.

The coil emits 200,000 volts of electricity as it plays a variety of songs. We host Tesla Coil shows in our Entergy Theater. (Schedule varies daily.)