Jennings Environmental Education Center

Winner: NAI Best Interpretive Media, Interior Exhibit, 3rd Place

Named for botanist Otto Jennings, this visitor center celebrates and interprets the relict prairie–a patch of sunflowers and blazing star that give us a glimpse into Pennsylvania’s climate history. The exhibition starts in the lobby and winds around the exterior of visitor center’s education space.

The displays focus on the park’s use as a “living laboratory,” a place where students, volunteers, and scientists study the soil and habitat. Immersive and hands-on exhibits give visitors the chance to hone their observation and analysis skills. Colorful graphic panels make full use of beautiful watercolor illustrations from Otto Jennings’ 1953 book Wild Flowers of Western Pennsylvania.

Designer and fabricator: Split Rock Studios

Owner: Pennsylvania State Parks

A sculpture of Otto Jennings welcomes visitors to the visitor center that bears his name.

Younger visitors can crawl through an immersive diorama about the blazing star prairie.

At right, visitors can explore two hands-on interactives about the massasauga rattlesnake, an endangered species found in the park.

An interactive glacier display shows how the unique landscape at the park allowed the relict prairie to survive here.

Three "living lab" stations sit near the visitor center's viewing windows. Here, visitors can take part in hands-on citizen science activities that connect them to the landscape outside.

Two semi-circular displays pull out from the wall when the education room is not in use. When the park holds programs or classrooms in the space the displays can be moved back to the wall.