Vulcan Park and Museum was leading a solid 6,000 students a year on its guided history tour program, but that number had plateaued and we knew why: their tour script appealed to a very limited swath of the educational market.  

 

How could Vulcan be more responsive to untapped student markets and the state’s social studies curriculum? And how could they integrate solid museum-based learning principles into their tours? 

 

We asked students from nearby Birmingham-Southern College to help us reimagine Vulcan’s guided tour program. Together, we designed four tours, each more inquiry based, more interactive, and more curriculum-savvy. We led workshops to help docents become storytellers and confident museum educators. 

 

We were confident we had created a fun, meaningful tour. And the museum education market agreed. Attendance grew to 11,000 annually within a couple of years. The rest is history.