Pickle Autopsy resources

Hi all!

At one of our recent cohort meetings, I mentioned a non-PLIX “pickle autopsy” program I ran at my library for teens. There was lots of interest in how I put this together, so I’ve been asked to share. Here’s the Google Drive folder of the resources I adapted and what I adapted them into - now with pictures!

I’m far from the first educator to give this a try; I borrowed the idea from a librarian friend, who borrowed heavily from classroom teachers. I kept what served and left what didn’t (I think the gang concept is a little weird and potentially reifies harmful racist ideas, for instance, but toyed with the idea of having the Montagues and Capulets get into a brawl) - and I hope you will, too! If you “remix” this idea, I’d love to hear about it!

I ran my program for grades 6-12, knowing my attendees tend to skew on the younger side of that range, so I didn’t include any materials that were too terribly sharp. I also very much did have a teen ask if they could drink the leftover pickle juice.

Let me know if you have any questions! My teens had a blast, and honestly, so did I :smiley:

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Thanks Han @kane !

Just adding this picture, which one of my favs from the folder :cucumber:

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One of my favorites, too! “What’d you do at work today” “Oh, hot glued googly eyes to pickles” :eyes:

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Definitely one of my favorite things about being a librarian: the absolutely random, fun things we get to do as part of our job. This past Saturday I dressed as the Fifth Doctor for our “Who’s Doctor Who?” event, and next week I’m testing light painting for a program at the end of December (…could that be a PLIX activity?..)

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Hi Stephanie, Thanks for sharing about the light painting. I’ll have to think about how it might fit!

My initial thought is shutter speed and long exposure, perhaps also about coordinating with others on how to paint a multicolored/multilayered image. I use this website for inspiration and tutorials: https://dariustwin.com/

I’ll report back on what we did and how it turned out!

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