TWO TODDLERS GIGGLE as they dip their hands in the water-cycle table at Quest, the new environmental education center at Latta Nature Preserve in Huntersville. They zoom across the room to check out the gar that swooshes through a tank that takes up an entire wall. Then their dad coaxes them with something else to see: feathers under a microscope.

The 13,000-square-foot center opened in July as a kind of doorway into the natural world. Later today, kids ages 8 to 14 will take a class here on how to build a re outdoors. Tomorrow, the sta will lead a nature scavenger hunt.

Quest educates children inside the walls, but the real fun happens just outside. Some 16 miles of walking trails weave through the nature preserve, and those who want to see aquatic wildlife in its natural habitat can take in 6 miles of Mountain Island Lake shoreline.

Starting as soon as next year, they’ll be able to hear even more birdsong. The Carolina Raptor Center, a beloved feature at Latta since 1984, moves ahead with plans to build a replacement behind Quest as part of a partnership between the nonpro t and county Park and Recreation, which owns and oversees the property. The new raptor center is at least a year away, but signs already show where the peregrine falcons, barred owls, and even bald eagles will one day call home. —Cristina Bolling