Between an aquaponic garden, a 25 foot tall Aztec pyramid replica, and an Inventors’ Lab with enough tactile treasures to fill a whole day of play, the Exploration Discovery Center in Grover Beach is more than your typical children’s museum.
Debra Ugalde taught as a bilingual educator for 25 years in Santa Maria and is a founding board member of the center, which opened in its current form just a few months ago. She explained as we walked through the museum’s outdoor space that the aquaponic garden is self-sustaining. In one bucket, koi fish swim around. In another, connected with piping, various plants grow tall. Ugalde said the fish fertilize the plants and vice versa. The only upkeep the garden requires is adding water when it evaporates. Children can see plants growing, and watch them progress when they come back.
This is just one of more than a dozen interactive exhibits and stations that kids can roam through at the Exploration Discovery Center.
Once home to the Grover Beach Volunteer Fire Department, the center’s three garage doors (built originally to accommodate fire engines) are now painted bright purple, blue, and green. The story of the fire department becoming a children’s center starts in 1999, when former firefighter Clifford Clark leased the building. After a decade of remodels, Clark opened the building as the Exploration Station, with a sprinkling of indoor exhibits aimed at 10 and 11 year olds.
Years later, Ugalde was looking for a space to bring her dream of a local cultural center for kids to life. She merged with the existing Exploration Station, and Exploration Discovery Center was born. It just opened to the public earlier this year.
The new museum features many of the exhibits from the past, but takes things up a notch by providing outdoor spaces for visitors too, and extending the age range that can enjoy the space.
“Everything you see is hands-on,” Ugalde said. “They’re not doing anything on the computer. Most people spend two hours when they come.”
In the front, younger kids ages 2 to 4 can play with a water feature, and then head inside to the pretend veterinary station and the mock kitchen, or get creative in the craft room.
For kids aged 5 to 8, the exhibit room, archeology room, music shed, outdoor water play, craft room, and a racetrack are recommended.
In the back outdoor space, there are koi fish, ducks, and turtles for kids to gawk at. Youth aged 9 to 12 are encouraged to check out the aquaponic gardening area.
But the main attraction in the back area is a rotating exhibit. For the last few months it was an Egyptian-style pyramid, and next it will morph into an Aztec pyramid. This is where the cultural education aspect comes to life for Ugalde, who said she was inspired by her students she worked with in Santa Maria.
“My kids in Santa Maria hadn’t even been to the ocean, and when you take them on field trips, that’s amazing to them,” Ugalde said.
So asking children to learn about even farther away places like Egypt, she continued, is a challenge without the right tools.
“If you can [make] it tactile, showing them a movie, touching, feeling, then you’re opening their horizons,” Ugalde said. “I think in this world one of the things we need most is to appreciate other cultures.”
The center is ADA compliant, Ugalde added.
“It’s all accessible. Everything that I’ve put I made sure to make it low enough,” she said. “We had some speech therapists come in [with] children, who asked if they could recommend this place, because they had never seen the children they were observing talk so much in their life before. … We’re here for the kids.”
The center’s Craft Room can also be rented out for birthday parties, and field trips are welcomed too.
For admission and pricing, visit the Exploration Discovery Center’s website at gbdiscoverycenter.org.
Highlight
• Lompoc utility customers are encouraged to swap out old, inefficient light strings for new LED lights through the Lompoc Conservation Division’s Christmas light exchange program. LEDs use 75 percent less energy than conventional, incandescent light strings, allowing up to 20 strings to be connected without overloading a wall socket. They also reduce fire risks, burnt fingers, and broken lights. The exchange program is on a first-come, first-served basis until Jan. 28, 2022, or while supplies last. The program can be found at the Lompoc City Hall, 100 Civic Center Plaza, Monday through Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and at the Lompoc Home Depot, 1701 E. Ocean Ave., Thursday and Friday from noon to 5 p.m. Participants are required to bring a current utility bill, a photo ID, and their old holiday lights to participate. Questions can be directed to the Lompoc Utility Conservation Division at (805) 875-8252.
Reach Staff Writer Malea Martin, from the Sun’s sister paper, at mmartin@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Dec 23-30, 2021.