Water play, nest-building, plant identification games, and a host of other hands-on activities engage entire families in this beautiful Brooklyn oasis. 

A one-acre immersive landscape designed with kids and their caregivers in mind, the Discovery Garden offers thoughtfully tended habitats to help build excitement about plants and encourage playful exploration.

Metcalfe worked alongside the Brooklyn Botanic Garden team and landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates to design engaging interpretive signage and interactives which invite hands-on exploration of plants and animals in different habitat spaces.  

Complementary to the garden’s natural beauty, the exhibits encourage curiosity, empathy, and open-ended learning by inviting kids to build, dig, and pretend. Children engage in moments of scientific discovery, such as taking pond samples and using an abacus to measure the critters they find. They can weigh seeds, search for leaf litter critters, collect materials in jars, enjoy water play, count pollinators, and play animal sounds from an interactive machine. 

“Play-based learning isn’t just for kids. Nature play supports physical and cognitive well-being at all ages and invites interaction. . . The result is a space where curiosity and fun are shared across generations.” 

—Brooklyn Botanic Garden, “Lessons from the Discovery Garden for Play-Based Learning”