Off the 'Cuff » spring break

Spring Break: Maggots Gone Wild!

Chris Mathieson — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:58:56 +0000

One of our most popular workshops last week was our “Forensic Entomology” workshop, where kids got a chance to get up-close-and-personal with blowfly maggots. Before we let our plucky adolescent maggots out into the world, we pulled out the camera and let them be their uninhibited selves. (It’s amazing how uninhibiting Spring Break can be.)

Click on each image below to get a sense of just how maggots celebrate spring break…

Spring Break at the Police Museum

Chris Mathieson — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:44:27 +0000

Spring Break is just around the corner and here at the Police Museum we are gearing up for another great session of intriguing forensic science workshops. This year we are offering all of last years favourites including fingerprints, blood spatter, entomology, ballistics and impression evidence. All workshops are one hour long and encourage youth to get hands-on with forensic science. Please keep in mind that registration is required for all workshops and spaces are filling quickly, so register as soon as possible.

Alongside our workshops we are pleased to announce the launch of our Jr. Forensic Investigator’s club. The club is open to youth age 7-14 who participate in our seasonal workshops. Becoming a member is easy (see details here) and youth can receive some great museum-related benefits once they complete their workshops. We are excited to offer this opportunity to further engage youth in the fascinating world of forensic science. Those who become members during the break will have the opportunity to attend a ‘members only’ event on Friday March 12th.

If you aren’t able to attend a workshop then come by between 9:30am and 4:00pm March 8-12 to try your hand at one of our Drop-In Crime Scene Investigations. For more details about Spring Break activities make sure to visit our website.

Following Up Our Spring Break Miracle

Chris Mathieson — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:09:31 +0000

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.

Spend Spring Break at a Crime Scene!

Chris Mathieson — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:45:43 +0000

Just finished putting the final touches on our plan for Spring Break (Mar 14 – Mar 21) this year. In addition to our always-popular crime scene investigations, we’re also going to be offering a number of workshops on different forensics topics. Hilary has been hard at work putting together some really neat new programs; I can’t wait to see how the beef livers turn out after a couple of weeks in a cage on our roof. (For the forensic entomology workshop, of course!)

The planned schedule is as follows, with each workshop running from 11:00-11:45AM. We may add additional times if these workshops prove to be as popular as we expect them to be.

Mar 16 – Fingerprints
Mar 17 – Impression Evidence
Mar 18 – Forensic Entomology
Mar 19 – Ballistics
Mar 20 – Blood Spatter (for older kids only!)

For more information, check out the details here. There are limited spaces in each workshop, so register your kids early.