(Please note, this exhibit may temporarily close due to weather concerns to ensure the safety of our visitors.) 

Our Backyard is an interactive outdoor exhibition that invites visitors to create and answer questions about the natural environment using all their senses. Visitors to Our Backyard will be able to observe, make and understand the connections between plants, animals, weather, water, soil and themselves to gain a more personal appreciation for their world. The outdoor space includes a gravel pit, sand pit, picnic table, herb garden, flower ‘bed’, sunflower house featuring flowers native to Long Island, evaporating art easels, a mud kitchen, and a permaculture vegetable garden. 

Kindly help us maintain a safe and clean environment by eating and drinking only at the designated tables in our seasonal exhibit space.

Our Backyard is the setting for several summer workshops for visitors, such as our Citizen Science Monarch Monitoring Project. Each week, visitors are invited to study monarch butterflies in LICM’s Milkweed Garden by measuring plants, rainfall, and monarch eggs. This important data will be sent scientists to help them understand butterfly migration and help conserve this species.

Visitors are also invited to take part in LICM’s STEM Explorers program, powered by the Green Teens, and dig deeper into the unknown through learning experiences on alternative energy, water, habitats, and more. Themes change weekly. This program is supported by National Grid.