On Saturday, May 9 Dalhousie hosted an alumni event at the Discovery Centre in Halifax which welcomed local alumni along with their families and friends. Approximately 100 guests were in attendance.

One of the Centre’s featured exhibits entitled Sherlock Holmes and the Clocktower Mystery was a big hit with our guests. Families made their way through the exhibit attempting to solve a difficult mystery. This exhibit also inspired a presentation that was delivered by two of Dalhousie’s faculty members.

Dr. Julia Wright, Associate Dean, Research for Dalhousie’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and professor of English, began the presentation part of the evening with a lecture on education and detective fiction. Dr. Richard Brown, professor of experimental psychology and neurology in Dal’s Faculty of Science followed Dr. Wright’s lecture with a presentation on the ragged children and ragged schools and their connections between 19th century Britain and Nova Scotia. A special thanks to our young guests that got involved with Dr. Brown’s presentation and made excellent “ragged children!”

Families also enjoyed the Strange Matter exhibit, where they had a chance to explore different materials that make up every day objects, and manipulate and combine to make something new and useful.

The event guests enjoyed refreshments supplied by the Atlantica Hotel and were hosted by a very friendly and energetic group of Discovery Centre staff. Guests were welcomed by Dal alumni officers Genevieve MacIntyre (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) and Dawna MacIvor (Faculty of Science).

Our guests had access to all three floors of the Discovery Centre. Lots of fun was had and lots of noise was made. One of the most competitive events of the night was the jellybean jar guess contest. The first place winner of this contest guessed 232 – a close guess as the actual number was 235 jellybeans in the jar!

We would like to thank everyone that came out to this local Halifax event for making the event a huge success. It was wonderful to welcome so many of our alumni and meet their families.