A tree-loving puppet pig and a guitar-playing hedgehog are about to take over a corner of Golden Gate Park. The California Academy of Sciences is opening Wowsabout, its first-ever collaboration with The Jim Henson Company, to the public on November 21, with a member preview set for November 18.
The exhibit is built around a PBS Kids special that follows Ronald, described as detail-oriented and tech-savvy, and Roxy, a free-spirited hedgehog who loves exploration and creativity, according to creators Halle Stanford and Dorien Davies, as detailed by the California Academy of Sciences. Set in Sequoia National Park, the special pairs the two characters as they wander the forest discovering the natural world, per the Academy's description of the show. Visitors are greeted by a suspended hot air balloon holding both characters, according to the San Francisco Examiner.
Five Pods, One Spaceship and a Very Big Screen
The centerpiece of Wowsabout is a set of five Wowsapods where visitors can experiment with sound, color and movement, the Academy says. The exhibit also lets guests pilot a spaceship across a panoramic projection of the universe, using a joystick to simulate spaceship navigation, according to the Examiner. That simulation includes virtual tours of Jupiter, the sun and parts of the sun's atmosphere, per the same account, displayed on a screen spanning more than 40 feet, according to exhibit design manager Julia Louie as reported by the Examiner.
The spaceship sequence draws on OpenSpace, NASA-designed open-source data-visualization software that Academy senior director of experience Aaron Smith says visualizes known parts of the universe and ongoing cosmic investigations, the Examiner reports. The Academy's Morrison Planetarium has used OpenSpace before, running a weekly 30- to 40-minute virtual tour guided by a science communicator, according to a paper presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. That same paper notes that in 2020, 183 livestreamed programs using OpenSpace drew at least 41,877 live viewers and totaled 312,316 views.
A Sound Library Built Around a Beloved Alligator
Wowsabout also includes a sound library created by Academy researcher Diego Ellis Soto, which the Examiner reports contains musical interpretations of the movements of Claude, an albino alligator who died at age 30 in 2025, alongside caretakers' voices and footsteps and Louisiana swamp sounds, according to Smith as cited by the Examiner. Smith said the sound experience lets visitors play with the recordings as their own DJ, per the same report. Elsewhere, the exhibit includes a solar-powered camper van from the PBS Kids special and mechanically operated flipbooks illustrating shared movement patterns in nature and science, the Examiner notes.
Other stations teach how physics affects bubble formation, along with light refraction, sound transmission and the way human bodies move through daily life and exercise, according to the Examiner's account. A digital app rounds out the experience, offering activities, badge collection and virtually augmented tours of the Academy, with a map feature that lets users upload Bay Area destinations tied to the special's exploration mission, the Examiner reports. Beyond the five built-in areas, the Academy says visitors can also discover all-new “WOWs” among its roughly 60,000 living creatures.
From a Year of Planning to a Shared Mission
The Academy worked on Wowsabout with The Jim Henson Company for roughly the past year, according to the Examiner, and Stanford and Davies made several site visits to the venue during that process. Those visits, Louie said per the Examiner, let organizers figure out how to make efficient use of the space. Louie also said people with different perspectives can still care about nature and science, the outlet reports.
Davies, who co-created Wowsabout, serves as executive producer and voices Roxy, and said in a statement cited by the Examiner that the puppets will introduce young scientists to ecosystems, the galaxy and joyful exploration. Separately, in announcing the special in February, Davies told The Jim Henson Company, “Awe can be such a uniting force and it's something we need a lot more of today.” The company's February announcement described Wowsabout as a 22-minute live-action preschool special created and written by Stanford and Davies, aimed at helping children recognize and name the feeling of awe.
Smith said the exhibit's broader goal is to inspire children and families to explore and learn about the natural world, according to the Examiner, and separately said the experience aims to help people notice their surroundings and value those observations for science. A Flower Power installation nearby, built from crocheted, felted and knitted flowers, leaves and pollinators submitted by local artists, children and other Bay Area residents, uses art to teach visitors about flora and fauna and draws on the idea of collective effervescence, a shared sense of unity, per the Examiner's reporting. A separate Rainbow Reflection feature creates rainbow prisms when light passes through translucent walls, the outlet adds. Wowsabout is scheduled to run at the Academy through June 2027.
