The Great Reading Cheese Mystery Part 2 – Report from the weekend


Notes from Rob Davies, a member of Museum of English Rural Life staff who helped out Friday-Sunday

Initial responses

Families were very keen from the beginning, the use of an ipad is considered an exciting and surprising activity in a museum. A parent said “the last thing they expected to see or use here was an ipad based activity.” Children liked having their own board and Detective ID, from the moment they could scan their ID they were very much involved. The novelty of using an ipad was maintained right throughout the game.


The game

Children enjoyed the “hunt” around the museum, finding the clues and discovering new objects such as the milk float was a great positive. Some families answered the questions and did the whole game properly; about two thirds were happy to find the objects. Two visitors used their own iphones for the clues, however at the last clue they were stumped on how to find a lab technician. The hunt around the museum also saw families split up, at times children were on their own without an adult who couldn’t keep up with them. This is something that the staff can’t do anything about, apart from stress at the beginning about keeping as a unit.


During the busier moments, children were crowding round and bustling to have a go on the ipad creating congestion. On future projects, the use of two ipads would be good, this could still be manned by one person if the ipads are working correctly.


The clues

Families found the clues a bit vague, they needed to be explained by the member of staff.

A suggestion for the future is to have a workshop with families to create the clues.