Eugene Science Center opens Outdoor Science Park for hands-on learning

The Eugene Science Center opened its Outdoor Science Park on June 29, adding a new hands-on stop for families, school groups and summer camps at its Alton Baker Park site just east of Autzen Stadium. The first phase includes play structures built to teach timing and momentum, along with a rocket ship and a geometric climber that introduces shapes and spatial thinking.

The new space is part of a two-phase expansion that the center says will more than double its exhibit footprint to about 4,500 square feet, up from roughly 3,000 square feet that had stayed largely unchanged since the center moved to the site in 1980. Phase 2 is scheduled for installation this fall and will add three large exhibits, bringing the full park to six large hands-on exhibits, smaller in-house-built displays and a dedicated early-education area.

For Lane County families looking for a low-cost summer outing, the expansion gives the county’s only hands-on science museum and planetarium more room to serve the 40,000 visitors the center says it sees each year. The added outdoor exhibits are meant to ease crowding for field trips, summer camps and other programs, which makes the park useful not just for weekend visits but for school groups and organized youth activities.

The center also ties the project to access. Its annual report says it participates in Museums for All, which gives EBT cardholders $1 exhibit-hall admission and 50% off planetarium admission. That discount matters at a museum that is trying to keep science learning within reach for more local families, not just those planning a pricier day out.

The Outdoor Science Park is the first exhibit-space expansion at the current location since 1980, a milestone that reflects how long the center’s footprint had stayed fixed even as Eugene’s family audience grew. The project was fully funded by foundations and businesses, and the center says the completed park should be finished by October.