5 Global Museum Scavenger Hunts for Kids and Families

1. Smithsonian:

• The Last American Dinosaurs. Location: The Hall of Fossils. 
• The polar bear. Location: The Arctic Ocean exhibit.
• The kangaroos. Location: The Mammal Hall: Australia

2. National Women’s History Museum:

• What’s the name of the first woman elected to congress? Hint: Find the answer in the Legislating History exhibit. Answer: Jeannette Rankin, 1917.
• Who was NASA’s first African American female engineer? Hint: Find the answer in the Women of NASA exhibit. Answer: Mary Jackson.
• Matilda Scott Howell was the first American woman to win a gold medal in the Olympic Games (she actually won three!). What was her sport? Hint: Find the answer in the Women in the Olympics exhibit. Answer: Archery.

3. The British Museum:

• Find: The Camel African Rock Art is on the timeline around AD 100. Learn: Where in the world was the art found? Answer: According to the “find out more” pop-out, the camel painting was found in Chad.
• Find: The Black-Glaze Mug from Ancient Greece is on the timeline around 500 BC. Learn: What mythological event does the mug depict? Answer: The mug depicts Perseus beheading Medusa.
• Find: The Vajrapani, Ink and Colors on Silk from Imperial China is on the timeline around AD 900. What is the figure in the painting grasping in his left hand? Answer: The figure is grasping a thunderbolt.

4. The Vatican:

• When did Michelangelo finish painting the ceiling? Answer: 1512
• What is the scheme of the ceiling? Answer: The ceiling includes central stories (straight up), spandrels, pendentives, and sibyls and prophets. A map of the scheme can be found on the ceiling page.
• What is your favorite central story? Why? Where to learn more: Details about the central stories are located on the central stories page. Click on a story to see it up close and learn more.

5. The Burke:

• What is the difference between baleen and toothed whales? Hint: Find your answer in the Whale themed Curriculum Packet. Answer: Baleen whales eat with comb-like structures that filter their food out of the water; toothed whales have teeth to bite and rip their food.
• Name a neighborhood plant that can be traced back to the Mesozoic Era. Hint: Find your answer in the I Dig Dinos curriculum packet. Answers: Fern, horsetail, monkey puzzle tree, conifer tree, ginkgo tree.
• How long could a Plesiosaurus get? Hint: Find your answer in the Mesozoic Monsters curriculum packet. Answer: Up to 40 feet long — that's longer than a school bus!