Hi Natalie,
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has several Gallery Hunts available online. Our target audience is typically parents with children or children ages 7 to 11. We try to design our gallery hunts to be interpretive and inquisitive, asking the children open ended questions that promote critical thinking and analysis. Our gallery hunts are organized by theme and typically feature cross-cultural object selections. We have a somewhat standard formula (that can be deviated from) which is factual information about five to six objects, a thematic connection, followed by an open ended question for each object. Most of these are designed to be printed on standard 8 1/2 x 11" paper. We do also periodically produce tri-fold gallery hunts and multi-page family guides.
You can access VMFA gallery hunts, family guides, as well as other VMFA online resources by visiting: http://vmfa.museum/learn/gallery-hunts/
Just a note on the QR codes, this brings up a lot of questions concerning the Bring Your Own Device approach. Your audience definitely needs to be considered when incorporating technology. For example, will school groups be engaging with the display and if so, will they be able to access the QR codes, and if not, will they miss out on information as a result of that?
I love the idea of image only hunts for very small children. My three year old was very engaged by a similar hunt at a small local historic house. At VMFA we incentivize gallery hunt participation during our large scale Family Events but I love the idea of incentivizing them on an ongoing basis. This is another personal anecdote but thought I'd share. The grocery store Trader Joe's typically hides a stuffed animal around their store. When a child finds the toy they can go to the customer service desk and get a treat. As a consumer, one of the reasons I chose to shop at Trader Joe's is because I can convince my child to go shopping to earn a treat and my child can be engaged looking for the toy while I shop. Smart business can come in handy even in non-profits.
Good luck!
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Jessica Bauserman
Youth and Family Programs Educator
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Richmond VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-14-2015 12:39 PM
From: Natalie Eichelberger
Subject: Child Scavenger Hunt within Museum Display- Any ideas?
Cara,
Thanks for your response! If you don't mind sending me some examples, I would love that. Especially ones for those who are too young to read. The picture scavenger hunt sounds perfect as we are located by the Science Centers discovery room which is geared towards ages 3-8. They wait outside the doors to go in so we have a lot of traffic outside of our offices. So, it will be nice to include them in a mini activity that promotes the Academy of Science - St. Louis
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Natalie Eichelberger
Archives Intern
Academy of Science- St. Louis
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-14-2015 09:33 AM
From: Cara Scharf
Subject: Child Scavenger Hunt within Museum Display- Any ideas?
Here at the Wagner we use a scavenger hunt as the primary way to engage children with our collection (which is a historic natural history collection of rock, mineral, fossil, and animal specimens). We have both a picture-based scavenger hunt for little ones who aren't yet at reading age and we have word-based ones for the older kids who can. Basically the pictures just show different animals with a clue to what case they're in, and kids go around and try to find them. The word-based ones come in many different "subjects", such as animal adaptations, food chains, and evolution. They ask specific questions about a specimen with the answer being that specimen, which the kids then have to find.
This is probably a bit different than what you're planning, but, if it helps - these scavenger hunts are very popular with families that visit and the kids are always really excited to do them. We don't offer any reward for completing them, though that is a neat idea we may want to try! Still, even without the reward it is a popular thing for kids to do. We present it to any families who visit as an option when they come through the door. I think it's just a good way to give kids a focus for their visit, because our collection is historic and we don't have any kind of technology for them to interact with or activities for them to do.
If you want some examples I can ask our Children's Ed department if they wouldn't mind sharing.
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Cara Scharf
Program and Communications Manager
Wagner Free Institute of Science
Philadelphia PA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-13-2015 12:34 PM
From: Natalie Eichelberger
Subject: Child Scavenger Hunt within Museum Display- Any ideas?
Museum Studies Intern Student here wanting some advice.
Where I am working, we only have the archives and 4 large display cases located inside of a Science Museum. Because the archives only includes paper documents and a lot of text. We want to include and engage younger children in this display to have them learn more about the history of St. Louis, MO through the display.
We will be including QR codes throughout to link them to an online exhibit. But, we also want to include a Child Scavenger Hunt within the Display.
Just a paper document that can engage them and only take 5 mins to find and complete?
Does anybody have any advice or experience with this? I will take all ideas!
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Natalie Eichelberger
Archives Intern
Academy of Science- St. Louis, MO
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