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closeWednesday, Nov. 18, 2009
'CSI: The Experience' at the new Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
'CSI: The Experience' at the new Science and History museum lets visitors play detective.
By ALYSON WARD
dfw.com
A good science museum exhibit gives you a lot to look at and read. A great one pulls you into the middle of the action and encourages you to learn by doing.
When the new Fort Worth Museum of Science and History opens Friday, its first traveling exhibition will take residence in a huge space on the second floor. "CSI: The Experience," which was developed by the Fort Worth museum, offers total immersion in the science behind crime-solving. And this exhibit is one of the great ones: You can learn how crimes are solved by gathering clues, examining evidence and piecing together the facts to crack a case.
The museum developed "CSI" in 2007. But it closed that year for its total renovation, so CSI debuted at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry just as the Fort Worth museum’s old building was coming down. Since then it has been to museums in Houston, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and a bunch of other cities — but this fall, Fort Worth museumgoers can see it for the first time.
The exhibit is based, of course, on the CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and it’s designed to teach the science behind crime-solving and the process of analyzing evidence. It was sort of a gamble, building an exhibit based on a TV show. But hey, forensic science is hot: CSI, which premiered in 2000, is still going strong, with two spinoffs, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York — and the TV schedule is dotted with similar dramas such as Bones on Fox and CBS’ NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service and a successful spinoff, NCIS: Los Angeles.
At so many museums, "interactive" means you can click on a computer screen and read something. At "CSI," you’re really interacting with the exhibit, trying to solve a crime by using science and technology to analyze the clues that you’ve found.
Gathering clues
Here’s how it works: When you walk in, you choose one of three crime scenes. This is dramatic stuff, and it’s quite realistic: When the case involves a car that has crashed through a living room wall, you see the living room with its shattered window and overturned furniture; the car, still sputtering and hissing; and the driver’s body, unmoving, hunched over the steering wheel.
You’ll be issued a clipboard and a card to record your observations of the scene: Here’s a fingerprint. Is that blood? What’s this powdery substance?
From there, you’ll head for the lab. At a number of well-spaced stations, you’ll learn what to do with the clues you’ve collected. You’ll learn about DNA testing, toxicology, ballistics, the analysis of skeletal remains, latent prints, forensic entomology (observing the insects on dead bodies to determine the time of death) and more.
Better yet, you’ll get to actually do many of these things, analyzing evidence to answer questions for yourself. Is this a human hair or a dog hair? What kind of shoe left the print in the living room? Was the victim drinking beer before his death? Along the way, characters from the show appear on screens to offer tips and guide you through your investigation.
Go back, Jack, do it again
Finally, you’ll take your findings to the office of supervisor Gil Grissom (though, yes, he has departed from the show). There, you’ll log into a computer system, answer questions to present your findings and — if you’ve done your job right — crack the case. (And if you don’t get it right the first time, Grissom sends you right back to the lab to try again.)
"CSI: The Experience" won an excellence award last year from the Themed Entertainment Association, a nonprofit that works with zoos, aquariums, theme parks and museums. And Randi Korn & Associates, an outside firm that analyzes museum exhibits, has determined that "CSI" is, above all, engaging: While the "stay time" at an average exhibit this size is about 13 minutes, the average visitor spends 44 minutes — more than three times as long — exploring "CSI."
The exhibit is designed for visitors age 12 and older — and, of course, for people who aren’t grossed out by bloody handprints, hair samples and autopsies.
The three scenarios
When you enter "CSI: The Experience," you can choose to solve one of three crimes. Here are the scenes you can choose from:
1. A House Collided: A car has crashed through the front window of a home and landed in the living room, and the driver is slumped over in the front seat. But how, exactly, did he die? There are muddy shoe prints, drops of blood, a beer bottle near the car door and a bloody handprint on the car’s hood.
You’ll analyze the driver’s blood-alcohol level and use clothing fibers, shoe prints and the victim’s DNA to determine the cause of death.
2. Who Got Served?: A woman’s body is found in an alley behind a motel. There are tire marks on her body, but it likely wasn’t just a hit and run. A purse and cellphone are in the Dumpster next to her body, and a ripped photo of the woman lies on the ground nearby.
You will examine the cellphone, the photo and the contents of the purse for evidence. You’ll learn about the process of decomposition in order to determine the time she died. And you’ll analyze DNA samples to determine the cause of death.
3. No Bones About It: A hiker has discovered a skull partially buried in the ground — and it contains a visible hole. Other bones are scattered nearby, along with a coat and what might be a backpack.
You’ll use dental records to try to identify the victim. And you’ll analyze a bullet, a hair sample and other evidence found at the scene to determine whether the death was suicide, homicide, natural or accidental.
CSI: The Experience
Through May 2
Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
1600 Gendy St.
Fort Worth
$10-$14
817-255-9300; www.fortworthmuseum.org
Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
■ Twenty-six months after the wrecking ball took down the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, its $80 million replacement goes live Friday morning.
■ Museum officials and city dignitaries will cut the ribbon at 10 a.m. on the new museum, designed by Ricardo and Victor Legorreta with a colorful blend of Mexican and Texas architectural styles.
■ The new building, with 166,000 square feet for exhibits, ushers in a high-tech era for the old children's museum with exhibits on dinosaurs, crime fighting and astronomy, and a new emphasis on Fort Worth and ranching history.
■ The museum will stay open from 10 to 5 every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Admission is going up to $14 for adults and $10 for children and seniors. But the first 3,500 people through the doors Friday get in free.
— Chris Vaughn
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