Beth,
Hope this email finds you well. I am reaching out to you because as a past Museum Educator, I have created and used many forms of scavenger hunts/discovery sheets, and family guides over the years. I have used all of them in a variety of ways. One, I have created hunts for specific exhibitions, two, the entire museum, and three, on a particular topic, such as Japanese lanterns for a garden. I have also created hunts for objects and colors. Overall, I have found the hunts a tool that engages all ages, gets participants looking at objects in more detail, sparks curiosity, and encourages participants to explore parts of the museum they may never have looked at. I also found it encourages participants to spend more time with an objects vs. the 3-4 minutes most people tend to spend on an object.
You asked if the hunt is a tool that is supportive or a supplement, I believe it depends on how detailed you want to make the hunt. Based on experience, family guides tend to be supportive and a scavenger hunt something extra. If the hunt/discovery sheet is the only tool you are using to engage visitors, then the hunt is going to play a larger engagement role. Think about complexity, if you offer a color hunt then it will be extra. If the hunt, asks participants to count, pose as something, share about materials, sketch, or question then the hunt is going to play a larger role.
I recently reviewed a grant for a museum and they were asking for monies to create a scavenger hunt. They theorized that the hunt was going to engage their visitors to their collections. I wasn’t quite convinced this was their only engagement option and encouraged them to think about pop up experiences, themed-carts and the like and use the scavenger hunt as a supplement since they lacked any other educational options.
Lastly, I love making hunts and offering them to visitors or program participants. As I said, before I have found them a great engagement tool, and kids get excited using them.
I would be happy to talk more with you about my experience with scavenger hunts. In my current job I use hunt for my family hikes. They are a big hit and I find the participants asking to take them home so they can use them on future hikes.
Best,
Michael
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Our historic house museum utilizes paper scavenger hunts. We have two hunts, one for pre-k through mid-elementary and one for late elementary/middle school students. The hunt for younger children is exclusively outside-this is something parents can do with children while they are waiting for our guided tour to start or if they decide that they don't want to take the tour with their restless children, at least they can do the hunt together and hopefully learn a little about our site. The older children's hunt does incorporate our self-guided exhibition. In addition to handing out the hunts for walk-in visitors -and offering a modest prize for completion (pencil or stickers) we also use the hunts on special event days and sometimes with school visits. I do try to change up the hunt about every year or so in case we do get repeat visitors especially around the time we have a special event.
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Laura Willoughby
Historic Site Coordinator
City of Newport News
Newport News VA
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