MicroExplorer Sessions is mobile library service supporting families to reconnect with the outdoors. As children’s access to the outdoors decrease and parental anxiety around germs rise – they miss out on healthy microbial exposure essential for immune development.

The MicroExplorer Kit includes the Listening Stone and a shared workbook, inviting children to lead the exploration by taking on a ‘Microbial Guardian’ role. The kit supports interacting with surfaces, discovering traces of unseen microbial life and storytelling their acts of exploration and discovery. Through these playful encounters adults relearn through their child’s curiosity and contribute to a citizen-led microbial map of Glasgow’s hidden ecosystems.

The project questions growing cultures of avoidance surrounding ‘dirt’ and microbial life, exploring how curiosity and playful interaction might help families rebuild trust in healthy everyday exposure and reconnect with the overlooked ecosystems around them.