Outside-In: The Academy's Children's Museum
Welcome to Outside-In, the children's nature museum at The Academy of Natural Sciences. The outdoors have been brought inside in this hands-on discovery center geared toward children ages 3-8 (but enjoyed by all). Its artifacts and specimens challenge inquisitive minds. Its activities provide fun and educational experiences for the whole family.
Coming through our door takes you on a magical trip to the great outdoors. Visit a forest, a mountain pond, or an ocean shore. Touch a real meteorite, view a stream from underneath, crawl through a fallen log, look for fossil footprints, pan for shark teeth, watch a working beehive, build a sandcastle or read a book on Lucy's Back Porch (Lucy was a very special Outside-In volunteer).
Outside-In is also a great place to meet our live animals. You may encounter a legless lizard, hissing cockroaches, a tortoise, a cowbird, or a rabbit. Every day brings a different set of animal visitors to Outside-In from their permanent homes in the Live Animal Center on the museum's Ground Floor.
Outside-In is located on the Third Floor of the museum. It is open from 10am to 4pm on weekdays and 10am to 4:30pm on weekends.
Interested in reserving Outside-In for your class or group? See Group Visits for more information.
Outside-In is one of our more popular venues for volunteering. If you enjoy working with small children and are interested in volunteering, please see Volunteering at the Academy for more information.
