Live animals aren't part of the deal at Brookfield Zoo's Nature Swap, but just about anything else goes. Kids ages five and up can bring in objects they find in nature and exchange them for others like fossils, shells, and rocks. Larger items such as deer antlers and llama fur are fair play, too---as long as kids come by them naturally.
Visit the Nature Swap area in the Zoo at Home section at Hamill Family Play Zoo. There you'll find shelves of natural wonders. The trading of items is based on a point system, introduced to newcomers at an official swap session.
For instance, river rocks and sea shells are worth 10 points apiece, while a shark jaw racks up 30,000. Kids can choose to save their points or they can make an immediate exchange for an item in the Nature Swap display area.
Journal entries, photos, and drawings related to nature also add to a kid's point pool. Likewise, youngsters are encouraged to tell one of the Play Zoo's Play Partners a story about their creation or finding. One little boy recently broke the bank, so to speak, by making an elaborate illustrated storybook on cicadas.
Since its inception in 2001, the Nature Swap program has conducted over 30,000 swaps and consists of over 3,000 participants. The Chicago Zoological Society, which manages Brookfield Zoo, found inspiration for the program from Dallas Zoo's Nature Exchange. A notable difference, however, is that we added the "emotion" aspect to award points to children for talking about their outdoor experiences. This dimension helped to inspire another institution, Houston Zoo, to model its future swap exhibit after ours.
Extra attention for the Nature Swap recently came from Emily Ann Price, a graduate student at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She wanted to find out if the program helps develop "environmentally responsible behavior." Price studied a sample group of children, adult caretakers, and CZS staff members. Her conclusion: kids and adults involved in the program experience increased interest in the outdoors and express a positive attitude toward nature.