1300 visitors in six days! It blows our mind, thinking about it; we managed to have almost an entire month of people come through the museum in just a week.
Spring Break was busy for us, in fact it was easily the busiest the museum has ever been; we ran forensics-themed workshops and our drop-in investigation and were completely overwhelmed with visitors. Without buying a single piece of advertising or sending out a solitary press release, we were so busy that we came very close to being over-capacity in our building.
How do we follow up that success? Do it again, with a little better planning this time. (Now that we know how popular these activities can be…)
On select days through the summer, we will be hosting a new series of workshops for kids seriously interested in forensic science. Each workshop will go hands-on with a different topic, including fingerprints, impression evidence (foot and tire prints), forensic entomology (bugs) and ballistics. A workshop for older students on blood spatter will also be offered. After the workshop, students are welcome to explore the museum and put their new skills to the test with our Forensics Drop-in activities at no additional charge. ($10/student, $5/member; spaces are limited and reservations are required.)
Our topics include:
- Fingerprints – Every time we touch something we leave unique marks. Come learn about the types of fingerprints, how we find and collect them and how we analyse them. Suitable for ages 7-12.
- Impression Evidence – Footprints, tire treads, bite marks and tool marks. Come find out how we use all different kinds of impressions to catch bad guys. Suitable for ages 7-12.
- Forensic Entomology – Sometimes, creepy crawlies provide the best evidence to solve a crime. You’ll learn all about bugs and how they make great witnesses. Suitable for ages 7-12.
- Ballistics – This workshop will explore how we analyze guns and bullets as evidence. . Suitable for ages 7-12.
- Blood Spatter – What story do these shapes and patterns tell us? Not for the feint of heart, this workshop will explore the basics of blood spatter analysis. Suitable for ages 10-15.
Workshops run for one hour. There are only 25 spaces in each workshop, so book soon! (The schedule of workshops is available here.)
Hopefully we can recreate a little bit of our Spring Break Miracle.
Tags: ballistics · blood spatter · entomology · fingerprints · Forensics · impressions · spring break · summer · workshops3 Comments
3 responses so far ↓
Maybe I should run a “How to Dress Your Kid Like an Old Italian Man” workshop… might get some 1300 visitor weeks. Although Italian Week Market Day Sunday before last had us at 230 for the day!
Caelan Griffiths’s last blog post..BC Museum of Mining Website
Congrats on the visitors!
I need to poke my head into the VP museum one day I think. I keep seeing so many local bloggers’ blog posts about it. Looks pretty cool!
Tyler’s last blog post..Whale Watching with Prince of Whales
first, NetChick sent me and says HI!
And, what an interesting place you have here. time to do a bit of reading.
Kim E Williams’s last blog post..Skin Crawling