Adults Only Night at TELUS Spark
One day last week, an email arrived from one of the many promotional companies I subscribe to advertising tickets to the TELUS Spark Adults Only night. The featured theme was CSI, a night of insight into the world of forensic tools and techniques used to solve crimes. I love anything that deals with forensic science, most notably, forensic psychology (or, really, any forensic information I can find on neuroscience, psychiatry, illnesses of the mind, or general behavioral traits in criminals), and decided this might be an interesting evening out with Bryan.
Apparently, TELUS Spark offers Adults Only nights once per month on the 2nd Thursday of each, offering up different themes, opening up the exhibits to the more 'grown-up children' out there, and even offering up a bar. Previously, the mere thought of visiting Spark, an attraction identified as one where children can play with science and learn about how things in our world work, gave me shivers as I imagined screaming children running haphazardly everywhere. (Children and I do not mix well, in general. Case in point, walking through the mall on Sunday, a little boy screamed right beside me and my instinct was to smack him!) Anyway, the thought of a night a TELUS Spark without screaming, overly excited kids running everywhere seemed like an ideal way to see this new facility. After all, I heard it was quite cool.
The doors are open for general admission between 6 and 10 pm during these events. I'm quite glad we bought our tickets (discounted) ahead of time because the line up to purchase tickets was probably 150 people deep when we arrived. We showed our tickets at the gate, received a second set with a bar code to scan, and, once scanned, were good to go. Five minutes, tops! I highly recommend advance tickets, if possible. Eservus is where I found mine.
In the main hall, there were booths set up for various CSI related demonstrations, and the rest of the science center was open to all who attended. I found the psychology and human mind section to be most interesting; games and experiments are set up to let you play with the concepts that have been discovered through years of psychological research. It turns out, Bryan and I are completely compatible, based upon one of the relationship tests were completed! (He prefers to drive; I prefer to be a passenger.) The rest of the exhibits were interesting - play with sound, animate a short, discover how wind works, view the layered geological formations of the Earth, see what bitumen looks like, etc. - but it was quite busy so playing in many more became almost impossible as time wore on.
As for the "CSI" themed exhibits, I was quite disappointed. One table set up had neuroscience students discussing the brain wave activity of people who are interviewed, along with head gear that showed how your own brain waves looked while they spoke to you. This was probably the most interesting exhibit but didn't really have a true CSI feel to it. It would have been cool to see how this apparatus worked on a real criminal being interviewed, or a video showing how previous criminal interviews have researched brain activity.
While super cute, the CPS Canine Unit with their star German Shepard didn't really serve a purpose other than to tell stories of how the dog is involved in many different crime scenes. I suppose the CPS isn't allowed to talk about active cases, but a few more gruesome details along with factual evidence of how well the dog sniffs out his targets would have been nice. He was a very attentive and obedient dog though - wow!
Another 'exhibit' was simply a photo opportunity to put your head into a guillotine. One bespoke of the BDSM culture in Calgary, along with a few 'toys' to play with. Not sure how this relates to CSI at all, but it attracted many people (most of whom had a disbelieving, reserved, and somewhat disgusted look on their face).
The fingerprint and blood spatter exhibit was alright. The students again were from the U of C, and they had a technology that could microscopically view fingerprints; the students talked about the variations among peoples' fingerprints, and mentioned which types - whorls, swirls, etc. - were rarer than others. Some useful information there. The blood spatter section was...fun? I got to put on a white lab coat, soak up some 'blood' on a big hunting knife, and fling it at a white piece of paper. Okay, cool, but I would have liked to have seen/heard more on how blood spatter techniques lead investigators to an understanding of where the perpetrator was positioned, which hand they used, where on the victim they likely hit, etc. Telling me that these things are possible wasn't very useful.
A final CSI exhibit was from a guy I used to work with; he talked about some cyber attack strategies and how people can be redirected to a fake website unwittingly, providing attackers with passwords and banking information. A good talk, and perhaps if I had stuck around longer, I may have heard more forensic-related demonstrations (as I don't doubt this guy knows massive amounts of information about), but overall, it was not as in-depth as I had hoped either.
The majority of the 'audience' appeared to be university and college students, and quite frankly, the bar attracted more people than any one exhibit. It was a cool way to see the Spark, without paying a lot, but in the end, I was quite disappointed that I didn't come away from the evening with more forensic information than I have already gathered through my own readings and documentaries. Just to have seen the techniques in action would have made my night.
Apparently, TELUS Spark offers Adults Only nights once per month on the 2nd Thursday of each, offering up different themes, opening up the exhibits to the more 'grown-up children' out there, and even offering up a bar. Previously, the mere thought of visiting Spark, an attraction identified as one where children can play with science and learn about how things in our world work, gave me shivers as I imagined screaming children running haphazardly everywhere. (Children and I do not mix well, in general. Case in point, walking through the mall on Sunday, a little boy screamed right beside me and my instinct was to smack him!) Anyway, the thought of a night a TELUS Spark without screaming, overly excited kids running everywhere seemed like an ideal way to see this new facility. After all, I heard it was quite cool.
The doors are open for general admission between 6 and 10 pm during these events. I'm quite glad we bought our tickets (discounted) ahead of time because the line up to purchase tickets was probably 150 people deep when we arrived. We showed our tickets at the gate, received a second set with a bar code to scan, and, once scanned, were good to go. Five minutes, tops! I highly recommend advance tickets, if possible. Eservus is where I found mine.
In the main hall, there were booths set up for various CSI related demonstrations, and the rest of the science center was open to all who attended. I found the psychology and human mind section to be most interesting; games and experiments are set up to let you play with the concepts that have been discovered through years of psychological research. It turns out, Bryan and I are completely compatible, based upon one of the relationship tests were completed! (He prefers to drive; I prefer to be a passenger.) The rest of the exhibits were interesting - play with sound, animate a short, discover how wind works, view the layered geological formations of the Earth, see what bitumen looks like, etc. - but it was quite busy so playing in many more became almost impossible as time wore on.
As for the "CSI" themed exhibits, I was quite disappointed. One table set up had neuroscience students discussing the brain wave activity of people who are interviewed, along with head gear that showed how your own brain waves looked while they spoke to you. This was probably the most interesting exhibit but didn't really have a true CSI feel to it. It would have been cool to see how this apparatus worked on a real criminal being interviewed, or a video showing how previous criminal interviews have researched brain activity.
While super cute, the CPS Canine Unit with their star German Shepard didn't really serve a purpose other than to tell stories of how the dog is involved in many different crime scenes. I suppose the CPS isn't allowed to talk about active cases, but a few more gruesome details along with factual evidence of how well the dog sniffs out his targets would have been nice. He was a very attentive and obedient dog though - wow!
Another 'exhibit' was simply a photo opportunity to put your head into a guillotine. One bespoke of the BDSM culture in Calgary, along with a few 'toys' to play with. Not sure how this relates to CSI at all, but it attracted many people (most of whom had a disbelieving, reserved, and somewhat disgusted look on their face).
The fingerprint and blood spatter exhibit was alright. The students again were from the U of C, and they had a technology that could microscopically view fingerprints; the students talked about the variations among peoples' fingerprints, and mentioned which types - whorls, swirls, etc. - were rarer than others. Some useful information there. The blood spatter section was...fun? I got to put on a white lab coat, soak up some 'blood' on a big hunting knife, and fling it at a white piece of paper. Okay, cool, but I would have liked to have seen/heard more on how blood spatter techniques lead investigators to an understanding of where the perpetrator was positioned, which hand they used, where on the victim they likely hit, etc. Telling me that these things are possible wasn't very useful.
A final CSI exhibit was from a guy I used to work with; he talked about some cyber attack strategies and how people can be redirected to a fake website unwittingly, providing attackers with passwords and banking information. A good talk, and perhaps if I had stuck around longer, I may have heard more forensic-related demonstrations (as I don't doubt this guy knows massive amounts of information about), but overall, it was not as in-depth as I had hoped either.
The majority of the 'audience' appeared to be university and college students, and quite frankly, the bar attracted more people than any one exhibit. It was a cool way to see the Spark, without paying a lot, but in the end, I was quite disappointed that I didn't come away from the evening with more forensic information than I have already gathered through my own readings and documentaries. Just to have seen the techniques in action would have made my night.
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