Would you let your kids take part in this?

[oliviapl]

NC as this is a bit outing.

I have been asked to do an assembly in a local school to my university. Its a way to get kids interested in STEM and several people are going on separate days to give a talk/assembly session on their area of study/work. Mine is forensic and crime science. As you can imagine trying to pick something that isn't too gory but not too boring but not too difficult was really hard.

I've eventually decided to go with a talk on forensic archaeology (digging up bones). I am going to give a little talk about what it is, the different bones, how we can use these bones to tell sex, age and height of a person. Then I will have several activity stations (all the same but lots so small groups can each have a go) where the kids can dig up some bones, lay them out, label them and use the skills I talked about in the session to determine sex and age.

The age group is 8-11 years old. Do you think this will be okay for them?
I have to submit the idea myself and I don't want to look like an idiot by suggesting something too old or something parents might not find appropriate. I don't have much experience with kids so not really sure myself. Any feedback would be great, thanks!

[Sugarpiehoneyeye]

Sound fabulous OP, very interesting.

[VinoEsmeralda]

My DC would love that! You will never get it right for all parents- there is always one or two who will find the need to complain..

[allowlsthinkalot]

Absolutely perfect imo and I would love my 9 and 7 year olds to take part in something like this. I can't imagine children of that age not knowing that dead people are buried.

I'd check with the class teacher that there's nobody in the class it could be traumatic for, nobody's parent died last week or anything, nobody's had direct experience of a less than straightforward death in the family etc. But otherwise it sounds fab.

[ARumWithAView]

I think it sounds great. My only concern would be that some of the kids in that age-range will really want to speculate, in goriest detail possible, how these specimens died, whereas others will be upset by that kind of information. You'd want to work out how you're going to answer questions about cause-of-death, and keep a closeish eye on what they're saying to each other ('ooh, look: this scratch must be from when the bear slowly ate him alive. You can see chew-marks on his fingers there, and...').

[GiaContettiBonafetti]

No doubt someone will think you are traumatising their children or something with the human bones (even if they are casts) but I would love this and so would my DC!

Hope it goes well.

[oliviapl]

allowlsthinkalot This has to be considered for uni lectures anyway, especially with more specialised things like SA and anything involving children in crime so I already had this on my risk assessment, thank you :)

[thethoughtfox]

Sounds amazing!

[ARumWithAView]

Oh, and maybe a firm word about the difference between investigation and desecration? You don't want some enthusiastic kid going home and digging up Mr Sniffles the guinea-pig, 2010-2013, just to see what's going on there.

[notuniqueenough]

Can I come? Seriously 😬

[AllTheBabies]

My dd would absaloutly love this!

[oliviapl]

ARumWithAView I've specifically chosen casts without any damage on, we have ones with bullets in and huge cracks/damage caused peri mortem. I'm going with ones we got from an old graveyard that we had to identify just to return them to the family (they were buried over 100 years ago and the headstones went missing/was destroyed etc) so nothing really gory! (Although I do know they'd love it :) )

[dowhatnow]

It does sound fab. How will you handle questions about murders and in what circumstances you find this sort of stuff? I imagine there will be lots of questions asked. Maybe just check with the headteacher.

Finger printing may be safer but not as interesting

[gleam]

Ah, fake bones would be fine. Mine would have got a real kick out of 'treasure hunting' and then trying to work out the bones. A physical activity is always a bit more fun, too.

[Haggisfish]

My dc would love this. Do have a think about how you might answer questions about death and heaven!

[dowhatnow]

X post

[DontTouchTheMoustache]

Can you also.hold a mumsnet assembly so that we can all come?

[Fink]

I would love this for my dd (7), and I wouldn't have had a problem even if it had been real bones, although I can see why it isn't. What a brilliant way to teach kids about STEM subjects!

[bagpusss]

Are the tour dates fixed yet? What's your website?

[oliviapl]

Thanks guys! I wish you could all come but to be honest I'm already nervous about talking to 30 kids haha!

We can hardly use real bones in the university to be honest. They're extremely delicate and you have to have a good reason that you're not using the casts (families don't like the thought of you just messing about with them willy-nilly as you can imagine). Everything has to be really respectful, no matter how old the remains are, especially with the juvenile bones and there's no way to police that outside of the lab (especially with kids).

[alwaysthepessimist]

my 4 yo dd would LOVE this - as would most of the reception class tbh - they will be gripped - wish I could come

[spiderlight]

My 9-year-old would LOVE this!

[NeverEverAnythingEver]

OMG Can I come? I would love it!

And my 10yo would love it.

[yoohooitsme]

All for it ... now you have pointed out they are not actual real bones

[Oblomov17]

OMG sounds fab!!
Sign me up too!!

8-11 year olds need a bit of gore and grim. Weird bones or ghosts or insinuation of blood or something gross!!

[ineedwine99]

Sounds great! I'm fascinated by forensics, wish my school had done something like this!!