Explore More at Pritchard Park

  • Outdoor nature play areas
  • Nature backpacks for kids & families
  • Environmental, science-based programs
  • Tools and resources for citizen science projects (including this weather station)

Nature Play

Sited in the woods near the library’s main entrance, the nature-play space is unstructured and all natural. It will evolve over time as kids dig and build, and materials decay or are added. Today, the nature-play space includes stumps and logs from a large, old willow oak that was recently replaced on Franklin Street, and boulders from sites around town.

Citizen Science

Citizen Science is the collaboration between the scientific community and the general public, who collect and share data about the natural world. The Explore More initiative will bring together volunteers on experiments and observations that will help the scientific community.

Learning Programs

Things to Borrow

Bird watching, animal observation, nature interpretation (download a Tree-ID guide here), and more.

See what’s scheduled

Kid-size backpacks with binoculars, magnifiers, and more, plus themed book kits.

Check them out

Learning Programs

Bird watching, animal observation, nature interpretation, and more.

See what’s coming

Things to Borrow

Starting in 2018, there will be kid-size backpacks with binoculars, magnifiers, and a scavenger map of the park.

Named partners on this project are the UNC Institute for the Environment and the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. This project is made possible by funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (IMLS grant number LS-00-17-0034-17).