Eugene Science Center marks Earth Day with hands-on activities, new exhibit preview

Water quality testing, seed planting and science demos gave families a reason to stay at Eugene Science Center on Earth Day, while a preview of the museum’s future Outdoor Science Park showed what the next phase of expansion could look like. The celebration ran from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and folded hands-on STEM activities, environmental art projects and planetarium shows into one day at the center’s Alton Baker Park home.

The event was built around simple, do-it-yourself activities that connected directly to conservation. Visitors could test water quality, take part in science demonstrations, plant seeds and make art tied to environmental themes. All activities except planetarium shows were included with admission, and the center listed show options including We are Guardians, Beyond the Sun and The Little Star That Could. Nonmembers paid $10 to get in, with planetarium shows available for an additional $6, while members were admitted free and could add a show for $4.

Local sustainability partners helped anchor the day’s message. Lane County Waste Management, the City of Eugene Waste Prevention Program, the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission and the Mattress Recycling Council’s Bye Bye Mattress program all backed the event, tying the museum’s Earth Day programming to the wider network of recycling and waste-prevention work already familiar to many Lane County households. Food vendors and local performances added to the festival feel, making the event as much a community outing as a science lesson.

The biggest new draw was the first phase of the Outdoor Science Park, which the center says will add 4,500 square feet of new outdoor exhibit space. Eugene Science Center said its exhibit footprint has stayed at about 3,000 square feet since it opened in its current location in January 1980, and the new park is meant to more than double that space. The center has already installed infrastructure for the park and says it is about 28% away from its fundraising goal. Local reporting has said the expansion is aimed at easing crowding for field trips, summer camps and public visits.

The scale matters for a center that calls itself Lane County’s only hands-on science museum and planetarium. Founded in 1961 as the southwest branch of OMSI, incorporated in 1977 as WISTEC and opened at its current site in 1980, the center reported 38,164 total visits in 2025 and said those visitors came from 44 states. For a museum that serves a local audience first, the Earth Day event made a larger case: science education, sustainability and family programming can all share the same room, and soon, a much larger outdoor one.