Hidden cheeseburgers lurk inside the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
I’m not talking about the Balto Burgers in the cafe, either. I mean plasticine artificial cheeseburgers.
The joke dates back at least as long as my kids have been alive.
Carl Jara — a fabrication specialist at CMNH and, coincidentally, a world-class sand sculptor — thought it would be funny to hide a leftover cheeseburger prop from a previous exhibit elsewhere in the museum.
He was right. This errant cheeseburger — birthed a tradition.
Of course, my kids didn’t know that when they found their first cheeseburger hidden inside [redacted because I’m not a snitch.]* They just thought it was fun and wanted to know if there were more.
They spent the rest of the afternoon scouring exhibits — even ones they typically glazed over — to find the mystery meat.
They learned about geology, cosmology, and snowy owls while on their burger hunt. Of course, they didn’t intend to. The learning was coincidental — like Jara’s sand sculpting — but it was still learning.
If a kid wants to explore a subject, they don’t need any additional motivation. I work at a library and have watched children become self-taught experts in stop-motion animation, fashion design, and literal rocket science.
Meanwhile, no child will learn if they’re feeling hostile about it. In this way, learning is like asparagus. It’s good for you, but it’s the rare kid that always wants it.
The trick is in persuading the child who might feel like learning. That’s where the cheeseburgers come in. They transform a visit to the museum into a scavenger hunt. When you turn the trip into a game, the indifferent become the interested.
Many museums, zoos and the like already know the value of a good game. If you’re visiting somewhere — especially for the first time — ask if they have a scavenger hunt. If not, it’s easy to create one of your own.
Scale it to their age:
• Let’s find at least one thing for each color of the rainbow.
• We’re looking for one placental mammal, one marsupial, and one monotreme.
It also helps to tie it into what they’ve been learning at preschool or school:
• Let’s see if we can locate something that starts with each letter of the alphabet.
• Let’s take a bunch of photos during our hike. Then we can make a list of what lives in this habitat.
Of course, there’s the question of prizes. You can already hear your kid asking, “What do I get if I do it?”
Some children will play a game just to see if the princess is in the castle. Others need that incentive. I leave it to you to know what motivation is appropriate for your kids.
I’ll conclude by acknowledging the obvious. If your child isn’t in the mood for a trip to the park/museum/zoo/arboretum/aquarium, turning the outing into a scavenger hunt may not salvage the afternoon. If they need a nap, snack, or a couple of hours alone in their room, then that’s what you should give them.
However, if you want your children to look a little closer at their surroundings, then a game might be exactly what they need.
*I won’t tell you where any of the cheeseburgers are. But I’ll offer this hint: Even an herbivore can’t resist the burger’s savory call.
